Ghalib : Ghazal 3 ~

(Vo firaaq aur vo visaal kahaan)

Where are those meetings and those partings now?
Where are those days and nights, months and years now?

Who has time to fall in love nowadays,
Where's delight in gazing at the Beauty now?

That heart is gone, that mind is no more too,
Where is imagination's revelry now?

The tears of blood are hard to weep,
Where's the strength in heart and liver now?

Love's gambling house is out of reach,
Where are pennies in my pocket now?

I'm troubled by the concerns of the world,
Where do I fit into this pell-mell now?

All the powers, Ghalib, I've lost,
Where is in my elements harmony now?
...

Ghalib : Ghazal 2 ~

(Arze niyaaz-e-ishq ke kaabil nahi rahaa)

Love entreaties I can't make any more;
The heart I was once proud of, is no more.

I walk out stained with my own desires,
A lamp extinguished I am, fit for mehfil no more.

Think of some other way to court Death, O heart,
I won't die at the hands of my Beloved any more.

No hope I have to cultivate the field of love,
Barring a wish, nothing remains now any more.

Love's tyranny I do not fear Asad,
But the heart I was proud of, is no more.
...

Ghalib : Ghazal 1 ~

(Hazaaron khwaahishen aisee ki har khwaahish pe dam nikle)


A thousand desires I had, each enough to take my breath;
Many longings were fulfilled, still these were not enough.

Adam was driven from paradise: I've long heard that tale;
A far more worse disgrace has been my exit from your lane.

I'll help if one wants a letter to be written to her,
For, since morn, I have been roaming with a pen on my ear.

When I expect that someone will show sympathy for my plight,
He turns out to be more wounded by the blade of misfortune.

O preacher, for God's sake, don't lift the curtain of Kaaba,
Or else the same non-believing idol may appear there too.

Where's the door of tavern, Ghalib? What has the priest to do with it?
This much I know that yesterday as I came out, he entered it!
...