khayaabaan khaayaaban iram dekhte hain
Line 1/2 - The world, your footsteps do we see. flowerbed over flowerbed, we see paradise. The first word (jahaan) can be interpreted as both world or where. If we consider it as where, then the poet is saying where ever we see your footsteps, we see flowerbed over flowerbed, and one sees paradise. The obvious interpretation being your footsteps are like endless rows of flowerbeds and we see of paradise in them. If we consider the word as world, then we can interpret it as This world, we see as your footprint. And in your footprints, garden upon gardens have come up, and we see paradise. This earth is the paradise becuase You touched it.
savaidaa mein sair-e-adam dekhte hain
Line 3/4 - The heart is distressed/anxious, In the mole at the corner of the mouth. The blackish core, walking around in non-existence we see. This is a very very inaccessible verse. [Pritchett] interprets this as - Those who are distressed by the heart, those who have lost their heart. Those lovers in the mole at the corner of the mouth of the beloved, they see the brackish core of their heart that they lost. And in it, they see non-existence. Skipping this verse as I am unable to translate this into anything meaningful.
tere sarv-e-qaamat se ek qadd-e-aadam
qayamaat ke fitne ko kam dekhte hain
Line 5/6 - Your cypress of stature to one man sized height. We see the turmoil of the doomsday less (compared to this). Not a accessible verse either. The poet says seeing your stature (like a tall cypress tree) compared to the height of the normal man, We find the height of turmoil on the doomsday to be less. 'qadd-e-aadam' could also be said as height of Adam (first man) and this would interpret as your cypress of stature compared to Adam's height. When I see you both on the doomsday, and seeing the difference in height between you two, I think less of the height of the turmoil of the doomsday.
tamashaa ki ai mahw-e-aaiinah-daari
tujhe kis tamannaa se hum dekhte hain
Line 7/8 - The spectacle of you so engrossed in holding/looking into a mirror. With what yearning/longing we see you. The poet to his beloved, says the sight of you are so engrossed in the mirror admiring your glow. With what (kind of) longing we look at you. You look so occupied in the mirror and in your innocence of the moment, and my longing for the beloved is like a divine yearning that has no end, no beginning and is Total. 'aaiinah-daari' could also mean bearing the mirror, so maybe the beloved is holding the mirror to me.
suraag-e-taf-e-naalah le daagh-e-dil se
ki shab-rau ka naqsh-e-qadam dekhte hain
Line 9/10 - The evidence or trace of the steam of lamentation from the wounds of the heart. That we look for the footprints of the night traveler. The poet says we see the heat of lament and sorrowful moaning coming out from the wounds of the heart and if you want to find the evidence of such sorrowful release, look for the footprints of the night traveller. The second line could be interpreted in multiple ways. The night traveller could be a thief or robber that had robbed many houses in a single night leaving behind lot of anxious victims. I (for my heart is lost) am like those victims whose houses have been robbed. The other interpretation could be that the night traveller is lost (his confused footprints are all across the town) and he is anxious and agitated and in the same state of distress and unease as the lover.
banaa ke faqeeron ka hum bhes ghalib
tamashaa-e-ahl-e-karam dekhte hain
Line 11/12 - Having put on the disguise of a faqir, O ghalib!. We see the spectacle of the generosity of the people. The poet says I have put on the disguise of the faqir to carefully observe the spectacle of the people-of-generosity. It is impossible to tell who is really generous and who are just show-off generous ('people of generosity' who make loud claims about their deeds). To actually see for myself, I have donned the garb of a faqir so that we can see the spectacle. The use of word 'tamashaa' makes the scene sound as dubious or for show and hence the connotations are to point hypocrisy of those people.
Meaning of difficult words -
naqsh-e-qadam = footprints
khayaabaan = flowerbed
iram = paradise
aashuftagan = distressed
khaal = mole
kunj = corner, lonely spot
dahan = mouth
savaidaa = blackish, the black part of the heart, the heart's core
adam = non-existence, annihilation
sarv = cypress tree (tall in quality)
qaamat = stature, body
qadd-e-aadam = one man height (height of adam)
fitne = turmoil, anarchy
mahw = absorbed, engrossed
daari = looking into (holding/bearing)
taf = vapour, steam
naalah = lamentation, moan
shab-rau = one who walks/travels at night
bhes = disguise
ahl-e-karam = people of charity
Read more posts on Ghalib.
tere sarv-e-qaamat se ek qadd-e-aadam
ReplyDeleteqayamaat ke fitne ko kam dekhte hain.
The real beauty of this goes far above than your interpretation,Sir. Ghalib says that the height of "Qayamaat" is lesser than the stature of his beloved is exactly by height of the normal person (the same person is beloved in human form and not "Adam"). That means as far as the head of "Qayamaat" goes, from the exact same point the feet of his beloved starts going upwards. ("Qayamaat" ki height(head) beloved ke pairon tale simat k rah jati hai). The amazingness of this verse grows every time in our imagination whenever we think of this couplet.
Thank you.
Exactly. This is how I interpret this. :)
Deletesuraag-e-taf-e-naalah le daagh-e-dil se
ReplyDeleteki shab-rau ka naqsh-e-qadam dekhte hain
Carrying the complaints of "disappearing evidence of her unfaithfulness" in his wounded heart. he follows the footprints of the other lover at night itself as it gets lost in the morning.
Thank you for uploading the videos, I have found a treasure of wisdom through the gazals of Nahid Akhtar which I learnt to sing. My salutes to Nahid Akhtar
ReplyDeletetranslation not meaningful.should be by some expert!
ReplyDeleteThis poem is pure physics, it's nothing to do with love. Iqbal did the same as this guy. The last couplet proves it.
ReplyDeleteThe path is sketched out by the Earth, the sad heart of the darkness he refers to Dil again, to take clues from it's energy for its own existence, he is dressed as a fakir because he is explaining a foreign art, through language he explains the truth, because there is no metric in the 1600s for this
ReplyDeleteInstead he uses sarv e qaamat as the yardstick, the final moment can be mirror imaged only, hence admired, indirectly as physicists do today.
ReplyDeleteNaalah is sound energy, as we known it's the trumpets that will end existence as we know it, the secret of this energy is in the heart of the darkness, dagh e Dil, that's why it's referred to as daagh, the epicenter of the darkness holds the secret
ReplyDeleteThe faqir Does Not have.... Have what? The power, the knowledge, not a faqir of material, it's a faqir of mind and power, when he is Aajiz, when he accepts that there is a greater force, he is shown the tamasha, the play, the creation. To see it, he has to submit and stand back, he has to become silent
ReplyDeleteLiteral meaning of khayabaan is street.
ReplyDeleteYe it comes from Persian 'Khayaboon'
Delete