baazeechaa-e-atfaal hai duniya mere aage
hota hai shab-o-roz tamaasha mere aage
Line 1/2 - The poet says that this world (world in sense of its struggles and joys) in front of me is just a sport of children and nothing more to me. Every night and day, there is a spectacle (this world and its ways being one circus engaging everyone) in front of me. Ghalib in his brooding thoughts, makes a mockery of seemingly complex interplay of lives and situations and yet says what are these things to the infinitesimally complexity this universe portends. In a way, he shows a disdain for this world around us and for those who seem to be so involved/caught up with it they they forget that this world is just a filament in the grand scheme of things. To him these concerns are childish and not worthy of too much thought.
ik khel hai aurang-e-sulemaan mere nazdeek
ik baat hai 'eijaz-e-maseeha mere aage
Line 3/4 - The poet says that for him, (in his view) the throne of King Solomon is a mere play. And the same can be said for the miracles of Messiah They are just the same dramatics!. A bit of history about the fabled throne of King Solomon. The throne is said to have a series of mechanical contraptions to help the king light on the throne. It is quite a 'play' to watch the king take his high seat using just contrivances. Ghalib using this metaphor and says in his view, the throne and its fantastic workings is just a stage show. He continues that the miracles of the Messiah are just more or less the same thing (they are just ordinary and empty talk) and these don't enamor me for we have seen and heard about them so many times. Again an air of disdain for the workings of the world and scorn for ways of the world.
juz naam naheen soorat-e-aalam mujhe manzoor
juz waham naheen hastee-e-ashiya mere aage
Line 5/6 - This is a masterpiece! The poet says that I do not accept that the vision of his world is anything other than just a mere name. Similarly, in front of me the existence of things is nothing more than an illusion. Ghalib in his best and continuing the same tone, says that to him this world is just a mere name that seems to occupy all our lives and minds. In this enormity of cosmos, and in its creation and destruction our world would be just a name in it. I refuse to just be limited to it. I refuse to believe in this existence of things, of wordily matters, of earthly desires. These for me are illusions just to keep oneself bound to this wordily life.
hota hai nihaan gard mein sehara mere hote
ghisata hai jabeen khaak pe dariya mere aage
Line 7/8 - The desert hides itself in midst of the dust in my presence. The sea rubs its forehead in the dust in front of me. The poet says that the desert hides itself in the dust when it comes face to face with me and similarly the sea (seemingly using waves) rubs its forehead in the dirt in front of me. The irony being that the desert and sea are being what they are. They are not hiding from anyone of bowing in servitude. Using these imagery Ghalib again takes jabs at those who contrive stories of victories and subjugation and says those things are as fanciful as my scaring the desert and slaving the sea.
mat pooch ke kya haal hai mera tere peeche ?
too dekh ke kya rang hai tera mere aage
Line 9/10 - The poet says don't ask about what state I am in after you left me. You see what state/color you are in in front of me. Think of it like this this that Ghalib in his taunt to his former beloved who encounters her by chance in a public place and she inquires (though phony about him to ward off this awkward situation. The poet says that don't bother to ask what has been my state since you left me. Instead he advises that you watch what state/color you are in currently.(probably she is blushing recalling the (not so innocent) times when she was with the poet)
sach kahte ho, khudbeen-o-khud_aaraa na kyon hoon ?
baitha hai but-e-aainaa_seemaa mere aage
Line 11/12 - What you say is correct, I am proud and arrogant/narcissist. Why should I not be! A mirror faced idol is sitting in front of me. This can be interpreted in multiple ways. Maybe the poet is in front of his beloved and says Why shouldn't he be haughty and egoistic He is looking into the splendorous face of his beloved (her silver faced reflecting his image and he adoring himself in it). Why shouldn't he be proud of this? She is such a treat! The other interpretation, obtuse though can be that he is referring to God and saying that Yes I am proud and arrogant! But so are you, the One who is sitting in front of me. You are same as me. (for I see myself in you silver mirrored face). My imperfections are same as your imperfections.
fir dekhiye andaaz-e-gul_afshaani-e-guftaar
rakh de koee paimaanaa-o-sahba mere aage
Line 13/14 - Look at my style of scattering flowers in speech, If someone places a glass of wine in front of me. Ghalib acknowledging his love for wine and the flourish it brings out in his speech says if someone was to place a glass of wine in front of him, then look at the my flourish of words in my speech (that look as if I am scattering flowers with my words). Pretty neat!
nafrat ka gumaan guzare hai, main rashk se guzaraa
kyon kar kahoon, lo naam na uska mere aage
Line 15/16 - The hatred of distrust and suspicion comes fore now. Same for the jealousy and envy. Both these emotions cover me up. How can I say to not take her name in front of me. In most literal sense, it means that when others talk of his beloved in his presence a sense of jealousy and hatred gets the better of him. He does not want to hear her name in the conversation because that would reveal his angst against his beloved. The other interpretation could be exact opposite, In it the poet says that the wave of envy and jealousy that gripped him has to come to pass now! There is no reason for him to stop people from mentioning her name in front of him anymore.
imaan mujhe roke hai jo khinche hai mujhe kufr
ka'aba mere peeche hai kaleesa mere aage
Line 17/18 - The poet says that the faith holds me back, while impiety pulls me. The Kaaba is behind me, while the church is in front of me. Ghalib says that all his talk of competing religious propriety is just confusing him. What is piety? What is impiety? I am being equally pulled in both direction. They are saying one way leads to righteousness and other way leads to impiousness, but all I can see is a holy Kaaba behind me and an equally holy church in front to me. In simple two lines Ghalib has blasted the hyper-competing religiosity that claims one faith is better then other. He says for him both are true to his soul and needs to be respected.
aashiq hoon, pe maashooq_farebee hai mera kaam
majnoon ko bura kehti hai laila mere aage
Line 19/20 - I am a lover, but my occupation is to fool innocent beloveds. Even Laila speaks bad about Majnoon in front of me. In a simple reading, The poet admits that he is a vile and a wicked lover whose task it to poison the minds to beloveds against their genuine lover to an extent that even Laila says ill of Majnoon in his presence. In a way he uses his vile ways to gain confidence of beloveds to such an extent that they share not so complimentary things about their lover.
khush hote hain par wasl mein yon mar naheen jaate
aayee shab-e-hijaraan ki tamanna mere aage
Line 21/22 - We are happy, but we do not die like this during the union, The desire of the night of separation came before me. This is a bit obtuse, but can be interpreted as somehow the poet has been united with his beloved (unexpectedly), and in that moment of union, he dies of the joy of being together (figuratively). The poet says no one dies like this during the union, it seems like his wishes of dying on the night of their separation came true. Those sad desire have been answered!
hai mauj_zan ik qulzum-e-khoon, kaash, yahee ho
aata hai abhee dekhiye kya-kya mere aage
Line 23/24 - The sea of blood is agitating and shaking! (with waves), may it be like that! Let us see what else comes before me now!. Another obtuse one! Not really sure when this was written but it could be Ghalib's commentary on rising storm of 1857. The poet says that a bloody storm is rising on the horizon pregnant with energy and agitation. I hope it is this storm. Lets see what result this storm brings now! Alternatively, the poet could mean this love and torment has made him shed tears of blood that have collectively become a sea of blood agitated and vigorous The poet says that let see what this torment brings to him going forward.
go haath ko jumbish naheen aanhon mein to dam hai
rehne do abhee saaghar-o-meena mere aage
Line 25/26 - Although there is no movement in the hand, my eyes still have life. Keep the wine goblet before me as it is. Ghalib says that though he can not move his hands (obviously because he is so drunk), yet his eyes can still fathom. So do not remove the wine goblet from in front of me yet! Keep it as it is. I can still drink it from my eyes.
ham_pesha-o-ham_masharb-o-ham_raaz hai mera
'ghalib' ko bura kyon kaho achchaa mere aage !
Line 27/28 - He is my confidant, as well as my partner in booze and my co-worker. Why do you criticize Ghalib in front of me! In a middle of conversation someone is criticizing Ghalib though this person has not seen the poet, Ghalib defends Ghalib saying why do you criticize him. He is my co-worker, my drink partner and my confidant. He is always good in front of me.
Meaning of difficult words -
baazeechaa = play/sport
atfaal = children
aurang = throne
'eijaz = miracle
juz = other than
aalam = world
hastee = existence
ashiya = things/items
nihaan = hidden
gard = dust
sehara = desert
jabeen = forehead
khudbeen = proud/arrogant
khud_aaraa = self adorer
but = idol
aainaa_seemaa = like the face of a mirror
gul_afshaanee = to scatter flowers
guftaar = speech/discourse
sahaba = wine, esp. red wine
gumaan = distrust
rashk = envy
kufr = impiety
kaleesa = church/cathedral
farebee = a fraud/cheat
hijr = separation
mauj_zan = exciting
qulzum = sea
jumbish = movement/vibration
saaghar-o-meena = goblet
ham_pesha = of the same profession
ham_masharb = of the same habits/a fellow boozer
ham_raaz = confidant
Read more posts on Ghalib.
Photo Of The Day
Somewhere in Queensland Southern Highlands
The Rubaiyat : Quatrain VIII
And look--a thousand Blossoms with the Day
Woke--and a thousand scatter'd into Clay:
And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose
Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away.
This is the eighth quatrain of the "The Rubaiyat". The underlying theme seems to be one of life and death and continuity. The first two lines say that see, a thousand roses bloom as the day begins and see at the same time thousands seem to be scattering into the clay, withering away. Life is all about renewal, the new will replace the dead and the circle of Life will continue!. This is the only thing Constant. One that is alive will die one day, and a new birth will replace it. Nothing will stop, the generation will move on and the song will go on. The next two lines say that this summer month will bring the new glory of the newly blooming rose and in its flourish it will fade the memory and glories of the ancient kingdoms of Jamshed and Kaikobad. The new will supplant the old. The march of animate continues and older times and generations will be give way to the newer generation
Thoreau - Walden Quotes - III
This is the last series of the best quotes from the Thoreau's Walden. There are endless of these small nip off from the book. I would be writing shortly my take on the book though. Read more posts on Thoreau's Walden. In the meanwhile, ponder!
I had withdrawn so far within the great ocean of solitude, into which the rivers of society empty, that for the most part, so far as my needs were concerned, only the finest sediment was deposited around me.
Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction— a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse. So will help you God, and so only. Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Photo Of The Day
I last week went up to the Springbrook/Lamington Rainforest and caught up with the beauty and strange ways of the tropical rain forest. Below are couple of random shots of the "Strangler Fig" Tree. Also embedded is the David Attenborough's small snatch on the "Strangler Fig" Tree.
"Strangler Fig Tree" and its huge canopy
Hollow insides of the "Strangler Fig Tree"
The Rubaiyat : Quatrain VII
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly - and Lo! and Bird is on the Wing
This is the seventh quatrain of my continuing series on "The Rubaiyat". As with underlying theme of the previous quatrains this one also touches on time and passing of time. The first two lines say "fill the cup" of life or wine in this ever-pleasing warmth of spring. Throw away the gloom and despair and remorse of the winter and snow where the life comes to a halt. The spring has arrived and enjoy and bask in its glory. The change of weather is just one way to look at it. The changes in seasons depict the stages in one's life wherein a phase of dullness and sorrow is soon eclipsed by something pleasurable and mirth and cycle of joy and grief continues. Enjoy this moment. Live it full! for the wheels will turn soon. Nothing is perpetual, neither this time nor this joy. Only the change is constant. The next two lines tells that his moment is temporal, this phase is fleeting. The time will be on move again for it waits for none. Appreciate the beauty of the moment. Relish it for it will be gone for ever. The Bird of Time is on its wings again!
Thoreau - Walden Quotes - II
This is the second post on the best quotes from Thoreau' s Walden as I continue reading through the book. Read more posts on Thoreau's Walden.
I read in the Gulistan, or Flower Garden, of Sheik Sadi of Shiraz, that “they asked a wise man, saying: Of the many celebrated trees which the Most High God has created lofty and umbrageous, they call none azad, or free, excepting the cypress, which bears no fruit; what mystery is there in this? He replied: Each has its appropriate produce, and appointed season, during the continuance of which it is fresh and blooming, and during their absence dry and withered; to neither of which states is the cypress exposed, being always flourishing; and of this nature are the azads, or religious independents.— Fix not thy heart on that which is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow through Bagdad after the race of caliphs is extinct: if thy hand has plenty, be liberal as the date tree; but if it affords nothing to give away, be an azad, or free man, like the cypress.”
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.
Every man has to learn the points of compass again as often as be awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction. Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.
A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.
Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that never fails. In the music of the harp which trembles round the world it is the insisting on this which thrills us. The harp is the travelling patterer for the Universe’s Insurance Company, recommending its laws, and our little goodness is all the assessment that we pay. Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive. Listen to every zephyr for some reproof, for it is surely there, and he is unfortunate who does not hear it. We cannot touch a string or move a stop but the charming moral transfixes us. Many an irksome noise, go a long way off, is heard as music, a proud, sweet satire on the meanness of our lives.
Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.
Thoreau : Walden Quotes
I am currently reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden. It's been a tough book to read and understand. Hopefully this time around I should be able to complete it. I would be giving my summary on it later, but for now reflect on some of the best quotes from the initial chapters in the book. Read more posts on Thoreau's Walden.
"As I have said, I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up."
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan—like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
"What should we think of the shepherd’s life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts?"
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
"I love a broad margin to my life."
"With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike. In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. The oldest Egyptian or Hindoo philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision. No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. That time which we really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present, nor future."
"Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality, and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d’appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time. If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things. I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary. My head is hands and feet. I feel all my best faculties concentrated in it. My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and fore paws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine."
Borges : The Circular Ruins (Summary)
I read another fantastic piece of Borges called as "The Circular Ruins". It's a small 3-4 page short story that I read on my train ride to home and multiple times over subsequent days, each time reading ever less and thinking ever more.
In the story, we are told a man arrives on a shore from the south. On this shore lay the ruins of a magical circular temple that served the abode for our man. The man had a mission that drove him here, He wanted to dream a man; he wanted to dream him in minute entirety and impose him on reality. It was the sole purpose of his life and which had come to fill his whole heart. Initially he dreams of being a teacher in a circular amphitheatre where student's faces hung in cosmological distances and yet still clearly visible. He choose one student from the class that showed potential and attempted to dream him in ever greater detail. But after some days of dreaming, he fails. He starts again after a gap and this time start to dream a complete man, piece by piece. He dreams a heart. Each passing day he dreams it with ever more clarity. After 14 nights he touches the heart and marvels at his creation. He now starts on other organs. Feature by feature, in an year he completes (dreams) most of the Man, but he can not make him open his eyes.
To realise his task, he invokes the Gods of the Circular Ruins who agree to animate the dreamed phantom in such a way that all creatures, except Gods and the dreamer would believe him to be a man of flesh and blood. The Gods further instruct to send him to the other ruined temple down shore to glorify God's name there. In the dream of the man that dreamed, the dreamed one awoke. The dreamer starts teaching the now real phantom (he calls him Son for he is his creation) with the mysteries of the universe. Slowly he began accustoming him to reality and the world around him. Then one day, he orders him to go to the other temple as the Gods said. Before he left, he destroyed in him all memory of his years of apprenticeship.
He is a happy man now for he has realised his purpose in life and spends time wasting away on the banks. Years passed. One day, two faceless oarsmen tell him about a mystic in the temple in North who could walk on fire and not get burned. The dreamer satisfied initially dreaded if his creation would reason on why he is blessed and may figure out that he is just an imagination. He is just another man's dream. The dreamer's worries ended suddenly one day, when in midst of great tumult the Circular Ruins are destroyed in fire. The dreamer thought initially of taking refuge in water, but realising that his life's goal was complete and he can joyfully embrace death as a crowning jewel and rewards of his laboured existence. He walked into the fire, but it does not burn him. In this moment, the terror, the awareness, the humiliation that he also was an illusion, that someone else was dreaming him came across him. End.
Borges comes up with such thought provoking story that questions the very basis of existence, perception, reality and self-awareness. One person's existence can be extension of another person's thought. In same way, one person existence can be extension of another person's existence. The dream can not exist outside the dreamer. The dreamt does not have a life outsider the act of dreaming. Where does the boundary lie between real and dream? In in the story, the whole universe is a dream dreamt up by someone who in turn is being dreamt. The dreamer is as unreal as the dream. Were the space time real in the absolute sense of word Real? Did the dreamer had control over what he dreamt for he himself he is creation of someone else. Could he had done something else? Could he have envision something else for his dreamt Son than what the one who is dreaming the dreamer provisions it? Could he have lived forever as a life in a dream? He played God and creating a complete Man, organ by organ but in fact he is just a conduit for someone else's control. The setting of the story (the circular ruins) and circular dreams and the supposed circular reality adds strangeness to this work. The dreamer comes from the south and sends his dreamt son to the north and his circular dreaming continues upstream until say maybe the ingress falls into singularity or maybe they never reach singularity for they each live in their individual universe. This infinite regress is like holding the mirror to the mirror and seeing a candle light in it. Everything in this universe (or set of universe) is illusionary, the Self is illusionary, even the realisation about self is illusionary for someone else dreamt it. This loss of Self at the same time as the realization of being Creator produces such paradox that to define an order or semblance of order to this universe, to define the Creator and Created, the dreamer and the dreamt, being dreamt and of dreaming, of cause and causality will just ultimately fail. But it in a sense that is what the Universe is. It is infinitesimally complex. The center is everywhere and everything is the center. Reality in this universe is created and viewed by each center (dreamer). Remove the center and this reality is meaningless. It's like when one looks for into the mirror. The image has no self and no existence outside when one looking into the mirror. Similarly, what is in this universe is meaningless and does not exist independent of the observer. The dreamer ("I") has to be there to dream it ("Universe") and outside it none exists. The sole purpose of dreamer is to dream and of Universe is to exist both in concurrence and both aware.
As James Jean truly said, "The Universe is a Giant Thought instead of a Giant Machine."
In the story, we are told a man arrives on a shore from the south. On this shore lay the ruins of a magical circular temple that served the abode for our man. The man had a mission that drove him here, He wanted to dream a man; he wanted to dream him in minute entirety and impose him on reality. It was the sole purpose of his life and which had come to fill his whole heart. Initially he dreams of being a teacher in a circular amphitheatre where student's faces hung in cosmological distances and yet still clearly visible. He choose one student from the class that showed potential and attempted to dream him in ever greater detail. But after some days of dreaming, he fails. He starts again after a gap and this time start to dream a complete man, piece by piece. He dreams a heart. Each passing day he dreams it with ever more clarity. After 14 nights he touches the heart and marvels at his creation. He now starts on other organs. Feature by feature, in an year he completes (dreams) most of the Man, but he can not make him open his eyes.
To realise his task, he invokes the Gods of the Circular Ruins who agree to animate the dreamed phantom in such a way that all creatures, except Gods and the dreamer would believe him to be a man of flesh and blood. The Gods further instruct to send him to the other ruined temple down shore to glorify God's name there. In the dream of the man that dreamed, the dreamed one awoke. The dreamer starts teaching the now real phantom (he calls him Son for he is his creation) with the mysteries of the universe. Slowly he began accustoming him to reality and the world around him. Then one day, he orders him to go to the other temple as the Gods said. Before he left, he destroyed in him all memory of his years of apprenticeship.
He is a happy man now for he has realised his purpose in life and spends time wasting away on the banks. Years passed. One day, two faceless oarsmen tell him about a mystic in the temple in North who could walk on fire and not get burned. The dreamer satisfied initially dreaded if his creation would reason on why he is blessed and may figure out that he is just an imagination. He is just another man's dream. The dreamer's worries ended suddenly one day, when in midst of great tumult the Circular Ruins are destroyed in fire. The dreamer thought initially of taking refuge in water, but realising that his life's goal was complete and he can joyfully embrace death as a crowning jewel and rewards of his laboured existence. He walked into the fire, but it does not burn him. In this moment, the terror, the awareness, the humiliation that he also was an illusion, that someone else was dreaming him came across him. End.
Borges comes up with such thought provoking story that questions the very basis of existence, perception, reality and self-awareness. One person's existence can be extension of another person's thought. In same way, one person existence can be extension of another person's existence. The dream can not exist outside the dreamer. The dreamt does not have a life outsider the act of dreaming. Where does the boundary lie between real and dream? In in the story, the whole universe is a dream dreamt up by someone who in turn is being dreamt. The dreamer is as unreal as the dream. Were the space time real in the absolute sense of word Real? Did the dreamer had control over what he dreamt for he himself he is creation of someone else. Could he had done something else? Could he have envision something else for his dreamt Son than what the one who is dreaming the dreamer provisions it? Could he have lived forever as a life in a dream? He played God and creating a complete Man, organ by organ but in fact he is just a conduit for someone else's control. The setting of the story (the circular ruins) and circular dreams and the supposed circular reality adds strangeness to this work. The dreamer comes from the south and sends his dreamt son to the north and his circular dreaming continues upstream until say maybe the ingress falls into singularity or maybe they never reach singularity for they each live in their individual universe. This infinite regress is like holding the mirror to the mirror and seeing a candle light in it. Everything in this universe (or set of universe) is illusionary, the Self is illusionary, even the realisation about self is illusionary for someone else dreamt it. This loss of Self at the same time as the realization of being Creator produces such paradox that to define an order or semblance of order to this universe, to define the Creator and Created, the dreamer and the dreamt, being dreamt and of dreaming, of cause and causality will just ultimately fail. But it in a sense that is what the Universe is. It is infinitesimally complex. The center is everywhere and everything is the center. Reality in this universe is created and viewed by each center (dreamer). Remove the center and this reality is meaningless. It's like when one looks for into the mirror. The image has no self and no existence outside when one looking into the mirror. Similarly, what is in this universe is meaningless and does not exist independent of the observer. The dreamer ("I") has to be there to dream it ("Universe") and outside it none exists. The sole purpose of dreamer is to dream and of Universe is to exist both in concurrence and both aware.
As James Jean truly said, "The Universe is a Giant Thought instead of a Giant Machine."
James Joyce : Dubliners (Summary)
I last week completed James Joyce's short stories collection called
"Dubliners". This is the second of Joyce's work and much simpler in
prose and interpretation than what I read in his earlier "A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man". The collection (of around 15 stories) revolves
around what the writer does best. Capturing the moods, the frustration and the
anxieties and the small escapes of ordinary Dublin folk. The collection follows
a particular pattern wherein the initial stories main protagonists are children
and later stories delve more into adolescent and then maturity. Each story is a
portrait about the character the story is based on. It is at the same time a
caricature of the life of those times in Ireland. The characters in the skin of
Ireland and Ireland being viewed from the experiences of the character. In a
sense, the overall Irish setting is never far from the storyline even though
the view is far from healthy. In fact it is of city in near paralysis.
The stories are fleshed in great detail and the context is simple and mundane. It is not the stories that are being told, instead it is the lives of those characters that are being lived and it’s not filled with some crazy idea or fancy plot. It is just plain living. Stories of failed businessman, of dreamy college student, of clever boarding house lady owner, of drunkards and small time thieves. One gets the glimpse of overall early nineteenth century Ireland in these stories and its despondent take on the city. The struggles of the land, the rising Irish nationalism versus Unionist status-quo, the large scale migration, the religious fervour/piety, the Christian divide, the overbearing influence of church, the cold and ever-raining weather, the stillness of the place are very much part of each story's fabric. And in this stillness, the ordinary folk seem content (not necessarily happy) with the isolated Dublin, while the rest of the continent (Europe) has raced past them. It is where all the opportunities lie now. The city as if decaying at its margins with escape (either from the city or from the drudgery or despair of their circumstances) one of the recurring themes of many stories. The stories describe people of all walks of society in near realistic details, in all their shortcomings and emotions, in all their sagging faces and grimaces with Dublin and its streets and its landmarks in the backdrop. In most of the stories the characters comes with a sudden realisation (as Joyce calls as "epiphanies") wherein the sudden revelation shows them the hopelessness of their situation or smallness of their lives. It's not that their conditions have changed, it’s just they became self-aware of their situation with these experiences. In some they face moral choices/conflict, in others a life defining moment. Whether they are changed or not by their experiences is something that the author has left to the reader to decipher. Below is the last stanza from the final story in the collection called "The Dead"
The stories are fleshed in great detail and the context is simple and mundane. It is not the stories that are being told, instead it is the lives of those characters that are being lived and it’s not filled with some crazy idea or fancy plot. It is just plain living. Stories of failed businessman, of dreamy college student, of clever boarding house lady owner, of drunkards and small time thieves. One gets the glimpse of overall early nineteenth century Ireland in these stories and its despondent take on the city. The struggles of the land, the rising Irish nationalism versus Unionist status-quo, the large scale migration, the religious fervour/piety, the Christian divide, the overbearing influence of church, the cold and ever-raining weather, the stillness of the place are very much part of each story's fabric. And in this stillness, the ordinary folk seem content (not necessarily happy) with the isolated Dublin, while the rest of the continent (Europe) has raced past them. It is where all the opportunities lie now. The city as if decaying at its margins with escape (either from the city or from the drudgery or despair of their circumstances) one of the recurring themes of many stories. The stories describe people of all walks of society in near realistic details, in all their shortcomings and emotions, in all their sagging faces and grimaces with Dublin and its streets and its landmarks in the backdrop. In most of the stories the characters comes with a sudden realisation (as Joyce calls as "epiphanies") wherein the sudden revelation shows them the hopelessness of their situation or smallness of their lives. It's not that their conditions have changed, it’s just they became self-aware of their situation with these experiences. In some they face moral choices/conflict, in others a life defining moment. Whether they are changed or not by their experiences is something that the author has left to the reader to decipher. Below is the last stanza from the final story in the collection called "The Dead"
His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling... His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
Translation - Layi Hayaat Aaye Qaaza (Zauq)
This work though not of Ghalib was included in the "Mirza Ghalib" TV serial. This is by Zauq, another notable Urdu poet of that time. He was the tutor of the Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Ghalib was part of Zafar's court and though there was no love lost between Zauq and Ghalib, there was mutual respect of each other. The below work of Zauq is probably his best work.
layi hayaat aaye qaaza le chali chale
na apni khushi aaye na apni khushi chale
Line 1/2 - The poet says that the existence brought me and I came and when death took me away, I went away with it. Neither did I came on my own will, nor will I go off on my own accord. In such two simple lines the poet has summed up the tragic essence of life i.e. The lack of control over it. We just arrive because we are born and we just leave when dead and in both, we have no control over the events. No one asked if we wanted to be part of this life, part of this existence.
behatar to hai yahi ke na duniya se dil lage
par kya karen jo kam na bedillagi chale
Line 3/4 - It is better of course not to involve your heart in the matters of this world. But what can one do in this world without getting involved. The poet says that it is best not to get attached to the joys and sorrows of this material world, but then, what can one achieve/accomplish without getting mired in the hustle-bustle of life. Being indifferent does not accomplish anything. Again a masterpiece that touches on the inability of a human to remain untouched from the joys and sorrows of earthly existence.
ho umr-e-khizr bhi to kahenge bavaqt-e-marg
hum kya rahe yahan abhi aaye abhi chale
Line 5/6 - Even if one lived the life span of the Khizar (Khizar/khidr is a revered figure in Muslim faith who is said to be contemporary of Moses and is still said to be alive). Even then at the time of dying, one says.. we lived a small life here, we had just arrived and it's already time to leave. Zauq touches on another of human trait - the unsatisfied appetite of mind where one does not want to let go of life even after living it full. This greed, this insatiable hunger to live forever.
duniya ne kis ka rah-e-fana mein diya hai sath
tum bhi chale chalo yun hi jab tak chali chale
Line 7/8 - The poet says that who in this world has accompanied someone who is on his way to annihilation. You too continue walking (alone) on the path as long as the path goes. Zauq says that each one to his own. Do not look for companion in this journey of life for there will be none. And those who claim to be, will not stay beside when the real test arises. Instead take the road alone and walk along it as long as it goes.
nazan na ho khirad pe jo hona hai wo hi ho
danish teri na kuch meri danishvari chale
Line 9/10 - Zauq says do not be proud/arrogant of your intelligence, for whatever has to happen will still happen. Neither will your wisdom, not my knowledge would work or make any difference. The poet says that no one has eyes into the future. Even with all the wisdom and learning, life will continue to come up with new situations and it could be that you are not prepared for it. Hence do not be arrogant of your wisdom.
kam honge is bisat pe hum jaise badqimar
jo chal hum chale wo nihayat buri chale
Line 11/12 - On this chessboard, there are only few gamblers like me who are so bad in playing it. Whatever move I play on this chessboard, it turns out it was an extremely badly played move. The poet in the moment of failure and disappointment, laments that whatever he does, it turns out to be more worse. For a person like me who has already lost so much, there is more to lose with everything I do.
ja ki hava-e-shauq mein hain is chaman se ‘zauq’
apni bala se bad-e-saba kaheen chale
Line 13/14 - The poet says 0 Zauq!, I leave this garden amid the inner winds of desire. Why should I care if the pleasant morning breeze blows somewhere. The poet says who cares about the gentle morning breeze and where it blows when the currents (thoughts) of passion and longing can enliven him!
Meaning of difficult words -
hayaat - existence
qaaza - death
bedillagi - dis-interested
khizar/khidr - a revered figure who is said to be immortal.
bavaqt-e-marg - at the time of death
rah-e-fanaa - path to annihilation.
naazan - proud of
khirad - wisdom, intelligence
danish/danishvari - knowledge/learning
bisat - chessboard
bad-qimaar - bad gambler
hava-e-shauq - winds of desire
chaman - garden
bad-e-saba - pleasant morning breeze
Read more posts on Ghalib.
layi hayaat aaye qaaza le chali chale
na apni khushi aaye na apni khushi chale
Line 1/2 - The poet says that the existence brought me and I came and when death took me away, I went away with it. Neither did I came on my own will, nor will I go off on my own accord. In such two simple lines the poet has summed up the tragic essence of life i.e. The lack of control over it. We just arrive because we are born and we just leave when dead and in both, we have no control over the events. No one asked if we wanted to be part of this life, part of this existence.
behatar to hai yahi ke na duniya se dil lage
par kya karen jo kam na bedillagi chale
Line 3/4 - It is better of course not to involve your heart in the matters of this world. But what can one do in this world without getting involved. The poet says that it is best not to get attached to the joys and sorrows of this material world, but then, what can one achieve/accomplish without getting mired in the hustle-bustle of life. Being indifferent does not accomplish anything. Again a masterpiece that touches on the inability of a human to remain untouched from the joys and sorrows of earthly existence.
ho umr-e-khizr bhi to kahenge bavaqt-e-marg
hum kya rahe yahan abhi aaye abhi chale
Line 5/6 - Even if one lived the life span of the Khizar (Khizar/khidr is a revered figure in Muslim faith who is said to be contemporary of Moses and is still said to be alive). Even then at the time of dying, one says.. we lived a small life here, we had just arrived and it's already time to leave. Zauq touches on another of human trait - the unsatisfied appetite of mind where one does not want to let go of life even after living it full. This greed, this insatiable hunger to live forever.
duniya ne kis ka rah-e-fana mein diya hai sath
tum bhi chale chalo yun hi jab tak chali chale
Line 7/8 - The poet says that who in this world has accompanied someone who is on his way to annihilation. You too continue walking (alone) on the path as long as the path goes. Zauq says that each one to his own. Do not look for companion in this journey of life for there will be none. And those who claim to be, will not stay beside when the real test arises. Instead take the road alone and walk along it as long as it goes.
nazan na ho khirad pe jo hona hai wo hi ho
danish teri na kuch meri danishvari chale
Line 9/10 - Zauq says do not be proud/arrogant of your intelligence, for whatever has to happen will still happen. Neither will your wisdom, not my knowledge would work or make any difference. The poet says that no one has eyes into the future. Even with all the wisdom and learning, life will continue to come up with new situations and it could be that you are not prepared for it. Hence do not be arrogant of your wisdom.
kam honge is bisat pe hum jaise badqimar
jo chal hum chale wo nihayat buri chale
Line 11/12 - On this chessboard, there are only few gamblers like me who are so bad in playing it. Whatever move I play on this chessboard, it turns out it was an extremely badly played move. The poet in the moment of failure and disappointment, laments that whatever he does, it turns out to be more worse. For a person like me who has already lost so much, there is more to lose with everything I do.
ja ki hava-e-shauq mein hain is chaman se ‘zauq’
apni bala se bad-e-saba kaheen chale
Line 13/14 - The poet says 0 Zauq!, I leave this garden amid the inner winds of desire. Why should I care if the pleasant morning breeze blows somewhere. The poet says who cares about the gentle morning breeze and where it blows when the currents (thoughts) of passion and longing can enliven him!
Meaning of difficult words -
hayaat - existence
qaaza - death
bedillagi - dis-interested
khizar/khidr - a revered figure who is said to be immortal.
bavaqt-e-marg - at the time of death
rah-e-fanaa - path to annihilation.
naazan - proud of
khirad - wisdom, intelligence
danish/danishvari - knowledge/learning
bisat - chessboard
bad-qimaar - bad gambler
hava-e-shauq - winds of desire
chaman - garden
bad-e-saba - pleasant morning breeze
Read more posts on Ghalib.
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