Ghazals Of Ghalib

The Almighty Of Rekhta

Mirza Asadullah Khan (Ghalib)-27-12-1797(Agra) To 15-02-1869 (Delhi)

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Indian Classical Music
 

Interpretation-Ghazal-23



1.
You do not show tyranny and oppression to other, I am ready for your wrath and torment,
Then if I say that no lover of yours like me is born then how is it a lie.
(Since my suffering and unworthiness is unmatched,it is the proper thing that nobody should be put to face same ordeal,it is not a mistake,but a right choice by God.)
2.
Even in worship of God, I so bear myself that,
If I do not find the door of the Kaba open, then I consider it contrary to my dignity to knock on it and cause it to be opened, so I turn around and come back.
(The truth is that "Ghalib",in his life was a lofty example of self-respect.)
3.
No one could become your equal, the proof is contained within the claim,
You are that uniqueness for whose image (Picture and reflection) no mirror is available.
(Whoever is before him,sees only his own appearance in the beloved's face.No one can see the beloved himself.)
4.
Is this sharing of a name a small thing, that of a sick person,
The eye of the beloved is that of a sick person, so I remained sick.
(The beloved's eye is called that of a sick person because a sick person, due to weakness rarely rises, and shy eyes to do not know how to rise towards stranger. The love endures his worst state, since it has the same name as something of the beloved's, he prides himself on it.)
5.
A lament, when it is suppressed, creates a scar in the breast,
The drop that lacks the capacity to become the sea, is absorbed in the dust and creates a scar in the dust.
(For anything not to rise to the level of perfection, and not to come into its true use, is a cause for disgrace.)
(I will maintain a praiseworthy silence, thus showing my superior dignity and capacity for containment.)
6.
The application of doomsday which has never before arisen is absorbed working on me, collecting troubles and difficulties,
In my tasks such disturbances and obstacles arise that people of the world are not even acquainted with them.
(God disdainfully treats me as a kind of dumping ground, and offloads onto me all the leftover dregs of sorrow and woe that had not been used for others.)
7.
It is impossible that passion would be mentioned and blood would not begin to flow from the eye of every hair,
The story of passion is not the romance of Amir Hamza, such that neither teller or listener would writhe in torment.
(Story telling is fun, passion is not the fun. Passion is not the visible iceberg that cuts you to pieces, but the much larger underwater part, the part you can not see.)
8.
An eye that cannot see a whole river full in a drop, is not a real eye,
It is make believe eye, such as children games are.
(Children treat the doll's eyes,ears,nose as real. The gaze of the mystical knowing is no game.) (It is Ghalib. It is beyond the power of description.)
9.
The beloved had appointed a day to test the love of "Ghalib",
To the regret of the assembled spectators, in the test of passion and faithfulness, without being tested, he was passed.
(Ghalib has shown his mischievousness. The people of the world consider the disgrace and destruction of others be a spectacle. And if somebody escapes, then instead of happiness they feel regret.)
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