At The Edge

This bit of information from a book called 'Children's Literature in Indian Languages' (1982) under the Urdu section by one Dr. Muzaffar Hanfi. Chah Ko Hindi mein Kathe Hain Kuan, Dood Ko Hindi mein Kathe hain Dhuan, Hindi mein Aqeab Ka Bichhoo naam hai, Farsi mein bhaun Ka Abroo naam hai Lines are from a booklet published in around 1856 called Qadir Nama and believed by some to have been penned by Mirza Ghalib for the sons of his nephew so that they could learn languages and have some fun along the way. -0-

tukde tukde din beetaa, dha'ji dha'ji raat mili jiska jitna daman tha, utni hi saugaat milijab chaha dil ko samjhena, hansne ki aawaaz mili jaise koi kahta ho, lo phir tumko maat mili dil saa jab saathi  paayaa, bechaini bhi saath mili In fragments the day was consumed| And in broken bits was the night| Whatever the size of one’s requirements| Just that much charity was received;| When I tried to understand my heart| I also heard the mocking sound of laughter| As if somebody was saying| Look, you are defeated again;| If I found a companion of my liking| I found restlessness with it too. ~Translation by Vinod Mehta, from his year 1972 book titled Meena Kumari . ( Urdu lines: scan of a page of the book, but urdu in english script may be a bit off  ) These lines perhaps sum up her life. You can listen to Meena Kumari sing these lines in a little video collage I put together here: video link Song is from the wonderful album 'I Write, I Recite' ...

Zauq! Jo medresse ke bigre hue hain mulla Un ko maikhaane mein le aao sanwar jaayenge (Zauq! Bring the mulla misled by a medressa To the tavern, it will correct his ways.) -    Zauq Lutf-e-mai tujh se kya kahoon, zahid Hai kambakht tu ne pee hi nahin. (How do I describe, o priest, wine’s joy to you? A drop has never passed your misbegotten lips.) Zahid sharaab peene de masjid mein baith kar Ya wo  jagah bata de jahan par Khuda na ho. (Priest, let me sit and drink inside the mosque Or tell me that place where God can’t be found.) - Hazrat Daagh Dehlivi Har chabd ho mushahada-e-haq ki guftagu Banti nahin hai badah-o-saaghan kahe baghair. (Let us discourse, each moment, of truth divine How do we talk without the strength of wine?) Kahan maikhana ka darwaza Ghalib aur kahan waaez Par itna jaante hain, kal wo jaata tha ke ham nikle. (Where is the tavern door, Ghalib, and where he priest! But this I know: yesterday he entered as I...

Dil he to hai na sango-khisht, Dard se bhar na aaye kyon Royenge hum hazaar baar, koi hamein sataye kyon (It is heart after all, not brick and stone, why won’t it well up with pain Why should anybody harass us, we shall a thousand times cry ) Dair nahi, harum nahin, dar nahin, aastaan nahin Baithey hain rahguzar pe hum, koi hamain uthaye kyon (No home, no hearth for us, no temple, no mosque Why should anyone remove us from one throughfare, can we ask) Jab who jamale-dil-faroz saratey-mehare-neemroz Aap he ho nazara soaz, pardey men muhb chhipaye kyo (Her beauty illumines all, a full waxing moon in grace loveliness incarnate indeed, why should she hide her face) Quaide-hayat-obande-ghum, asal mein dono ek hain Maut se pahale aadmi ghum sey nijaat paye kyon (Life’s incarceration and bondage to suffering are the same thing indeed Until our death how can we from suffering be relieved) Haan who nahin Khuda parast, jao who bewafa sahi Jisko ho dino-dil aziz, uski g...

+ Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) born in Agra but raised at Delhi. When Delhi was savaged by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Persia, Meer left for Lucknow. There he took the patronage of Asafuddowla of Lucknow. A poem that he recited as areply to the bantering of the elites of Lucknow mocking his battered condition: 'Kiya bood u baash poocho ho poorab kai saakino hum ko gareeb jaan kai huns huns pukaar kai Dilli jo aik shahar tha aalam mai intikhaab rahtay thay hee jahaan muntakhib roozgaar kay us ko falak nai loot kay weeraan kar diya hum rahnay waalay hain usee ujray dayaar kai'. Ye the residents of the east what are you mocking at to know about my where abouts and my origin/ finding me poor addressing me mockingly/ once there was a city of Delhi a select place of the world/where only the chosen professionals lived/ the heavens have looted it to make it a desolate place/I am the resident of that devastated land. Some other lines of Mir about Dilli Dilli mein bahut sakhat ki ab k...

Mureez-e-ishq par rehmat khuda ki, Marz badta gaya jun jun dawa ki. ~Momin Khan Momin Hakim Momin Khan Momin [b.1800 (01)- d.1851] was born to a family of tabibs (traditional Islamic doctor) that originally belonged to Kashmir and that had moved to the Mughal capital Dilli. He not only learnt Persian, Urdu and Arabic at an early age but also attained mastery in Hikmat (medicine of the age), hence the title of ‘Hakim’ in the name. Momin’s father, Hakim Ghulam Nabi Khan, was a court doctor and could afford all the comforts for his son. His education had been thorough and systematic, as is proved by the embarrassing profusion of technical terms pertaining to music, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc. in his qasidas. Momin grew up in a luxurious household; later he was to refuse a professorship offer from a Delhi college because he found the salary “peanuts”. The other prominent feature of this household was: Religion. His father was a follower of Shah Abdul Aziz , son of the...

Jee mein aata hai murda sitare noch loon Idhar bhi nooch loon udhar bhi noch loon Ek do ka zikar kya mein sare nooch loon I had a feeling about these lines when I first heard the song, a feeling that made me go, “Ok! Something miraculous just happened to a good but not so great a song!” My cabbie was listening keenly to the song and started laughing every time he heard the words nooch loo . Maybe he knew what just happened. This is what happened after that: he changed the radio station. But, I couldn’t get the lines out of my mind. Why the nooch loo exhortation? Then I found the answer: The Urge to Fly has done a brilliant job at finding the genesis of the song Khoya Khoya Chand from Sudhir Mishra’s recent film of the same name. The writer at his blog informs us in his in his diligent write-up that the origin of the song lies in the poetry of Urdu poet Majaz Lucknawi (real name Asrar ul Haq). Among many other observations he provides the answer to my query also. Kyun n...

Umr-e- daraaz se maang ke laye the char din Do aarzu mein guzar gaye, do intezaar mein Hai kitna badnaseeb Zafar dafn ke liye Do gaz zameen bhi na mili koo-e-yaar mein (I had requested for a long life a life of four days Two passed by in pining, and two in waiting How unlucky is Zafar! For burial Even two yards of land were not to be had, in The land (of the) beloved.) Na kisii kii ankh ka nur hun na kisii ke dil ka qarar hun Jo kisii ke kam na a sake main vo ek mushat-e- Gubar hun Na to main kissi ka habiib hun na to main kisii ka raqiib hun Jo bigar gaya vo nasiib hun jo ujar gaya vo dayar hun (My life gives no ray of light, I bring no solace to heart or eye Out of dust to dust again, of no use to anyone am I Barred the door of fate for me, bereft of my dear ones am I The spring of a flower garden ruined Alas, my autumn wing am I) Hamane duniyaa mein aake kyaa dekhaa Gekhaa jo kuch so Khvaab-saa dekhaa Haa to insaan Khaak kaa putalaa Lekin paanii kaa...