Ghazals Of Ghalib

The Almighty Of Rekhta

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

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Interpretation-Ghazal-50



1.
That time has come when a wave of wine would spread its wing to fly,
And the wave of wine would bestow on the wine duck a heart with an ardor for swimming.
(The flagon into which newly pressed wine is poured is called wine-duck.)
(Spring has come again,and the perfume of wine has again begun to pervade the air.The flagons,like ducks,float along the pools.)
(In those days wine was not cooled in ice,but rather the wine -duck used to swim in step-wells.Ghalib establishes the reason for its swimming to be not the waves or the motion of the air,but the wine's own ardor.)
2.
When the trees are swaying drunkenly in the garden,the cause for their mood of joy is that,
The breeze has passed through the shadow of the grape-vines and taken on the effect of wine.
(How much more lyrical and intoxicated-seeming can a verse be.)
3.
Even if wine-drinking passes beyond limit it has the authority of lofty destiny,
We would pass out of our heads,the wave of wine is not less than HUMA's wing.
(It is well known that anyone over whose head the shadow of the HUMA passes is fortunate and lucky.)
(Even if wine rendering one unconscious,it is equal to kingship.In the sense that a king is free and careless,in the same way the one who passes beyond rakishness becomes free of the prison of thought and anxiety.Even if he drinks until he dies,even then it is good fortune,because to die in an extremely pleasurable situation is better than to live without enjoyment.)
4.
In the rainy season,the fallen rain on the ground,engenders greenery,
Is it strange if the spring breeze would make the wave of life into a wave of wine.
(In Iran spring and rainy season come together.This idea have spread over ghazals too.)
(The spring breeze brings such revolutionary changes,when one substance turns into another,it gives great pleasure.)
5.
In the spring,a storm of pleasure and joy has come,four waves are arising in all directions,
On the ground wave of flowers and a wave of wine,in the atmosphere a wave of spring breeze,in the sky a wave of sunset.
(In spring every thing in the earth and sky and atmosphere is in the grip of the fervor of spring and the intoxication of spring.)
(Actually the four-wave means a whirlpool.But thanks to Ghalib for that he described all the four waves.And it is a pleasure.Otherwise translation would have been defeated.)
6.
The extent to which trees have the power of growth in the rainy season,
In the same way in the heart of wine-drinkers longing and turmoil are begotten.
(The way vegetation etc.flourishes because of rain,in the same way human strength flourishes because of wine.)
(The vegetative soul is deeply thirsty and the wave of wine comforts it with a drink of the water of eternity.)
7.
The essence of wine runs through every grape-leaf,the way blood runs in human veins,
And the greenness and flourishingness of the leaves act as a royal-feather of flight.
(When a man is very strong,blood runs freely in veins.)
8.
Different coloured flowers have bloomed and created a spring time of lamps on the path of thought,
This is because the wave of wine has manifested itself in glory in the imagination.
(For the wave of colourful and glittering drops of wine,Ghalib has given the simile of flowers.)
(A single lamp helps the traveler and a decorative lamp display eye-catching and causes traveler to pause and admire.)
(Wave of wine is a rose-coloured lamp.)
9.
The way thought gradually makes progress and advances very greatly,
In the same way the intoxication of wine,having arrived in the mind,keeps advancing.
(Since the wave of wine has regard for the flourishing and growth of the mind,it mounts into the wine in the form of intoxication and contemplates the mind.)
10.
The spring season has engendered greenery and flowers without limit,
And the intoxication of wine has created boundless joy and happiness,as if a storm of both things has come into the world.
(The wave of wine and the wave of greenery have created a storm of the mood of the spring season,joy and delight.)
11.
The flourishing of the flowers and the sea is saying,look how the turmoil of existence has heated up,and creatures engage in praise and celebration,
And the wave of wine,having fertilized the world of existence,now shows the drop the way to the sea.
(The way the drop goes and finds oblivion in the sea,in the same way the intoxication of wine conveys the soul into the world of selflessness,to its destined place.)
12.
Oh "Asad",since I saw the glory of the flowers my sense have started to leave me,
It seems that that time is coming,along with the spring,when the wave of wine will begin to fly in the air.
(Here and there wine distilleries will be setup.)
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