Following is one of Mirza Ghalib’s famous ghazals. We think it will be interesting if we let our readers try to translate it. You can choose a language and style of your own. You can translate it in English or salees (easy) Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi etc. You can translate it funny, silly or melancholy. You can turn it into a ‘azad nazm’ or even make ‘nasr’ (prose) or a story out of it. Wanna take this challenge? Bring out your creativity. There is no wrong answer here.
Serious Ghalib lovers! Look at ATP’s related posts on Ghalib in the middle column of this page.
Ok here is my first try :) I don’t know the meanings of ‘ghamza’ and ‘ashwa’. Any help here will be appreciated.
O My silly heart, are you OK?
Because I don
With many apologies to the one and only Chacha Ghalib, my very azad rendition of the above ghazal in Punjabi..arz kita ae
meray pagal dil tenu ki hoya ae
Tenu ae ki pasoori pai gaee ae
Na sada naaN Mushtaq tey na oda naaN Bezaar
Pa Ji ae ki masla paida ho gaya ae
saday vi moo vich zubaan haigi janaab
tusee kadi sula hi naeeN mari
tusee aithay kallam-kallay ho sir ji
te ainni khup kon macha raya ae
ae sonay sonay log kithoN aa’y naiN
assi tay samjhaya si aithay siraf cheedaaN tay meedaaN raindiyaN naiN
ae tu hajamat kiday koloN karai ae?
teri akh tay kissay ghassunn tay naeeN maraya?
pa ji assi vi kiday naal akh-matakka ker baithay aaN
chitti un-parh nu ae vi naeeN pata key love ki honda ae
assi kissay nooN paisay udhar day kay bhullay naeeN
par tu apna yaar haiN jigar, ja maaf kita
O teray tay jaan vi qurban meri jaan day totay
hun shakal gum ker, koi gaal na sun laeeN meray koloN
O yaar O Haji Nazir vi bara heera banda ae
Per us to vada mufat khora kadi naeeN jamaya hona.
Is this a dialogue between USA and Pakistan
Allah Wasaya, you made me laugh out loud :) Just for your first ‘sher’ i am willing to give you my whole deewan in exchange.
“Tenu ae ki pasoori pai gaee ae” – Waah saheb.
I thoroughly enjoyed your translation. You are very talented
Allah Wasaya. i am still laughing :) :) Very creative work by you
Owais saheb,
I must say you are very creative, your translation of last couplet is very very funny.I enjoyed it very much.
Many thanks for the appreciation Owais Sahab, I’d be a happy camper if instead of your whole deevan you give me
There is nothing such as
Luckily for Ghalib I did not understand 5 and 6 but the rest I have torn apart:
My heart! What
Oh the crazy global economy, why are you going down the drain?
Why are trillions of dollars not enough to ease your pain?
Why are they so apathetic, to all our enticement?
Please God, an explanation, some enlightenment?
I have my own problems as you might imagine, you dunce
Couldn’t you just ask me about them, for once?
God, since You are the only Omnipresent deity
What is all this tumult, bedlam and anarchy?
What kind of people are the beautiful, you think?
Whazzup with the eyelash batting, hip swinging, the wink?
Why are there blonde curls, generator of sighs?
What are these for, the dark brooding eyes?
Where did we get the prairie, the patch of wildflowers?
What do these mean, the gentle breeze, the cool showers?
Why are we looking for integrity in people who we know?
Won’t even know the word, in reality or for show
I know there is no reality, ain’t that kind of sad
But getting something for nothing is not that bad
Translator, kia baat hai! Loved it!
Dear translator
wow and wow. Great work. You are a pro poet :) I enjoyed reading your piece.
Translator, awesome translation, very creative.
Ghalib, in my view,is not a poet but an ‘Aarif’. He us in fact Messenger of the Man (Not the Woman,Mind: They don’t need any messenger as they can give birth to one) to God.
His ‘Kalam’ is like a ‘Pakka Raag’. One can tune any song on it.
Regarding translations, I enjoyed all of them,especially, that of Allah Wasaya in Punjabi. This couplet of his tikled me much:
“saday vi moo vich zubaan haigi janaab
tusee kadi sula hi naeeN mari”
as I found Punjabi Maaya contained a lot of Ghalib’s mood. For instance the following ‘Tapah’:
‘Asi aeithe te maaeya Jasiaan
Naan toon puchhiyaan te naan asi dassiaan’
and so on I can quote without end if there is no fear of ‘unscheduled’ load-shedding. It is pity that Ghalib did not say any ‘shehr’ about it.
@Translator
Awesome!!!
Ignorant hear, what happened to you
After all, what could heal thy woe?
I am so eager and she so aloof,
God, what this whole story is about?
I too have a tongue in my mouth,
Alas, if you have known my wish,
If none else is besides you O God!
Why this world is so chaotic?
Of what these pretty faces are made?
What are their charms, graces and coquetry?
Why her fragranced tresses are in ringlets?
What is the secret of her dark black eyes?
Where the herbs and sherb have come from?
What are clouds and what is air?
We anticipate fidelity from those,
Who don
Thank you guys for appreciating my humble effort. I hope you do realize that this kind of praise can only encourage more of the same – breaking the legs of other classics, as the Urdu slang goes. Not a whole lot of good can come out of that :-)
Owais Saheb,
your copy of the poem does not includes two couplets of the poem before the last lines:
Han bhala kar tera bhala hoga,
aur dervish ki sada kia hai.
Jan tum pay nisar karta hoon
Main nehi janta ki dua kia hai.
Do good and have good,
What else an ascetic could ask for,
My everything is for you
Though i don’t know anything about prayers.
Both Allah Wasaya’s translation in Punjabi and the Translator’s rendering in English are hilarious, even profound. I read these to a small informal gathering at our place (who get together once in a while to discuss a given poet and recite one or two of his poems). Today was Josh’s and Rahman Baba’s day, but at the end I read these two translations just for amusement. Both translations received a “standing ovation” from the group!