HAZAROON KHAWASISHAIN AYESI KEH HER KHAWAHISH PAY DUM NIKLAY

Hazaron khawahishain ayesi keh her khawahish pay dum niklay
Boath niklay meray armaan laykin phir bhi kum niklay

A thousand wishes such, each takes away one’s breath so much.
Though many desires were achieved,many remained unfulfilled as such.

(The poet says that one has so many desires in life, and that the more they are fulfilled the more one wishes.)


Daray qayoon mera qatil kya rehgaya ous ki gardan pur
Who khoon jo chasham e tar say umr bhr youn dum ba dum niklay

What does my killer fear? Is it on his neck there lies;
Blood, that oozes out life-long, from my brimming eyes.

(The poet is being sarcastic and is teasing her killer for being afraid of the blood stain on his collar, in other words the bad name she will get. He says that it is the same tears of blood that he has been weeping all his life.)

Nikalna khuld say Adam ka suntay ayae hain lekin
Bohat beabroo ho kur taray kunchay say hum niklay

We have always heard about Adam’s woeful exit from the heaven.
But with much ignominy, we were expelled from your cabin.

(Adam is said to been shamefully removed from paradise on account of his mistake. The poet says that his exit from the beloved’s door was even worse.)

Bharam khuljayae ga zalim teray qamat ki darazee ka
Agar iss turaa e parpaych o kham ka paych o kham niklay

All truth will be exposed of your stature and your gown;
If only the ups and downs of your head-gear, loses its up to down.


(The head gear of the elite in the east is usually decorated by a fan like extension on the cap. This is called the ‘turra’. The bigger the stature the higher the turra. This gives the person a position of pride. The poet says if the starch of the turra is lost it will become limp and so will the pride.)

Magar likhwayay koi ousko khut to humsay likhwayay
Hui subh aur ghar say kaan par rakh kur qalam niklay

But, if one were to send her a letter, we should be asked to write.
For, as the dawn breaks every morn, we perch a pen on the ear, and from the house alight.

(Self explanatory)

Hui iss daur main mansoob mujh say bada ashaami
Phir aya who zamana jo jehan main jaam o jum niklay

In this time and age, drunkenness became associated with me.
Then comes a time when Jamshed’s wine cup, common fashion would be.

(The poet is predicting that although he is being blamed as a drunkard by his compatriots, the time is not far when every house will have some one or the other who will take to drinking.)

Hui jin say tawaqaah khastgee ki daad panay ki
Who hum say bhi zayadha khasta taegh e situm niklay

On whom we pinned hopes for praise of endurance in our misery;
They were seen to be even more poverty stricken, than we.

(The poet had hoped that his friend will complement him on his patience and endurance of adversity, but he found out that he was himself poorer than he.)

Mohabat main naheen hai farqq jinay aor murnay ka
Ousi ko daykh kar jeetay hain jis kafir peh dum niklay

In love there is no distinction between life and death.
One lives for the same heretic, seeing whom, one loses all breath.

(Love leaves no difference in life and death. One who is the cause of ones death is also the same person who one lives to see.)

Khuda kay wastay purdah na Kabay ka uttha waiz
Khaheen ayesa na hoe yaan bhi wohee kafir sanam niklay

For God’s sake O’ pious one do not raise the Kabah’s curtain.
May be there too, is the stone for idols, one cannot really be certain.

(The poet is taunting the pious person not to lift the curtain of the Kaba, for he says that it too may turn out to be an idol, because it is also made of stone.)

Khaan maykhanay ka darwaaza Ghalib aur khaan waiz
Pur itna jantain hain kal who jaata thaa keh hum niklay

Where be the pious, O’ Ghalib, and where the tavern’s way.
However, this we know, that he entered as we were leaving, yesterday.

(The poet is pointing out the fact that perhaps it is not possible to find a pious person at the door of the tavern. But he himself saw such a one enter the tavern as he was leaving the other day.)