Translation - Bas Ke Dushwaar Hai (Ghalib)

bas ki dushwaar hai har kaam ka aasaan hona
aadmi ko bhi muyassar nahin insaan hona

Line 1/2 - The poet says that it is just too difficult to ask (it is nearly impossible a wish) that every work be easy. Even, men do not succeed always (not always possible) in becoming human. They may be flesh and blood and guts, but they lack the spirit and emotion and empathy that makes them human. It is those difficult tasks/situations that separate the real from the ordinary.

giriya chaahe hai kharaabee mere kaashaane ki
dar-o-deevaar se tapke hai bayaabaan hona

Line 3/4 - My tears wishes the dilapidation of my home. The dripping from the walls and doors is turning this house of mine into wilderness. This dripping water is surrendering my home to a state of desolateness. The metaphor could be that just as leaking water is delivering my home to ruins, in the same way my tears has destroyed my home for i am always pondering (and so per-occupied) over my condition that i leave the house to decay.

waa-e-deewaangee-e-shauq, ke har dam mujhko
aap jaana udhar aur aap hee hairaan hona

Line 5/6 - The poet says my madness(obsession) for her love is so much that every time I go to see her, I return surprised and disappointed (by her indifference). He is surprised because he knows beforehand that her glimpse would not be possible, yet he finds somehow again and again at her door.

jalva az_bas ki taqaaza-e-nigah karta hai
jauhar-e-aaina bhi chaahe hai mizhgaan hona

Line 7/8 - Her radiance and beauty is of such magnitude that it demands an observation (a sighting). Even the streaks on the mirror wishes to become eyelashes. The mirror is already fulfilling the demand to look at her. In watching her, even the old mirror comes to life and streaks become the eye lashes of her. Even the scratches are embellished at the sight of her radiance.

ishrat-e-qatl_gah-e-'ehl-e-tamanna mat pooch
id-e-nazzaara hai shamsheer ka uriyaan hona

Line 9/10 - Ask not of the celebration that pervades over the butcher-houses of the ones with desires of love. The raising of the sword (unsheathing it bare) is like sighting of the Eid's moon. The hopeless lovers when brought forward to be slaughtered, and when the sword is raised to decapitate them, seeing their eventual release from the pain and suffering, the sight of the blade of the sword seems to them as the sighting of the Eid's moon(an event that is long awaited and after which festivities can begin).

le gaye khaak mein ham daagh-e-tamanna-e-nishaat
tu ho aur aap ba_sad_rang-e-gulistaan hona

Line 11/12 - I will be turned to dust (died and buried long ago) and take along with me the wound of my desire and yearning for happiness. May you remain and you become a garden of hundred colors. His death would provide her the grounds on which his beloved will bloom in hundred colors. Even though his love was unrequited, he wishes that her fame and glory spreads further and he will be comforted by this.

ishrat-e-paara-e-dil, zakhm-e-tamanna_khaana
lazzat-e-reesh-e-jigar gharq-e-namakdaan hona

Line 13/14 - This one is obtuse. The poet says that the celebration and the joy of winning the piece of the heart of his beloved is in the infliction of the wound of desire onto himself. Like the enjoyment for the piece of liver is to drown itself in the container of salt. It could also mean just as the liver becomes more tasteful when dropped in the salt (even though it sounds hurtful) , the lover's heart celebrates the the infliction of the wound of desire

kee mere qatl ke baad usne jafa se tauba
haay us zood_pashemaan ka pashemaan hona

Line 15/16 - After my killing (murder), she renounced all oppression & cruelty. Oh how the shame of one that gets easily ashamed (embarrassed). The beloved was so indifferent and apathetic to him, that after his death, she realized her mistake. And this is when she used to get embarrassed easily (at least so the people say) but it took my murder to actually melt her so called soft heart.

haif us chaar girah kapde ki qismat 'ghalib'
jis ki qismat mein ho aashiq ka girebaan hona

Line 17/18 - Ghalib laments that Alas!, the fate of that quarter yard of cloth, Ghalib!. Whose fate is to become the collar of the lover. That collar which will always be soaked in tears of the lover and one day ultimately the lover will tear it off to bare his wounded hurt out.

Meaning of the difficult words :-
dushwaar = difficult
muyassar = possible
giriyaan = weeping
kaashaana = house
bayaabaan = wilderness
az = from/then/by
jauhar = skill/knowledge
taqaaza = demand
mizhgaan = eyelid
ishrat = joy/delight
shamsheer = sword
uriyaan = naked/bare
nishaat = enthusiasm/happiness
sad_rang = hundred colors
ishrat = joy/delight
paara = fragment/piece
lazzat = taste
reesh = wound
gharq = drown/sink
namakdaan = container to keep salt
jafa = oppression
zood = quickly
pashemaan = ashamed/embarrassed
haif = alas!
girah = one sixteenth of a yard
girebaan = collar

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