GHALIB, Mirza

Ghazal

I wish to go and dwell,

In such a place,

Where there's no one else.

No one to understand my speech,

No one around to talk with,

There, I want to reach.

I wish to build,

One such house,

Without a door to enter,

Without the boundary walls,

Thus there will be no neighbours,

And there will be no guard.

There will be no one thus,

To take care of me,

When I will fell ill.

And there will be no one,

To mourn or cry,

When I will die.

No Hope

I am left with no hope at all,

No possibility to reach my goal,

The Day of my death is fixed,

I am so very anxious that I can not sleep all night.

Though I know the reward of obedience and worship,

But I have no tendency for it.

I am silent for a certain reason,

Otherwise I can convince you with my words,

Why I shouldn't cry,

For when I don't, she asks about me,

My heart is burning, though you cannot see the spot,

But O my doctor, can't you smell my heart burn?

I have reached to a certain state,

From where even I cannot find myself.

I am dying for my death,

I don't know where the hell my death has gone.

With what face you will go to Ka'ba, O! Ghalib,

You should be ashamed of yourself while thinking to go there.


Ghazal

Not the blossomings of songs nor the adornments of music:

I am the voice of my own heart breaking.

You toy with your long, dark curls

while I remain captive to my dark, pensive thoughts.

We congratulate ourselves that we two are different:

that this weakness has not burdened us both with inchoate grief.

Now you are here, and I find myself bowing—

as if sadness is a blessing, and longing a sacrament.

I am a fragment of sound rebounding;

you are the walls impounding my echoes.

Translation Michael R. BURCH

It Is Not Love It Is Madness

(You say) It is not love, it is madness

My madness may be the cause of your fame

Sever not my relationship with you

If nothing then be my enemy

What is the meaning of notoriety in meeting me

If not in public court meet me alone

I am not my own enemy

So what if the stranger is in love with you

Whatever you are, it is due to your own being

If this not known then it is ignorance

Life though fleets like a lightening flash

Yet it is abundant Time to be in love

I do not want debate on the sustenance of love

Be it not love but another dilemma

Give something O biased One

At least the sanction to cry and plea

I will perpetuate the rituals

Even if cruelty be your habit

Teasing and cajoling the beloved cannot leave 'Asad'

Even if there is no union and only the desire remains