PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Been experimenting with new "Forms" lately. This is the first Ghazal I've written. It's based on what I'm currently going through in my relationships with certian "Friends."

Been experimenting with new "Forms" lately.  This is the third Ghazal I've written.  It's based on what I'm currently going through in my relationships with certian important people in my life.

AS of today, January 25, 2024, you can now watch/hear me read this poem at:  https://youtube.com/shorts/ApYYy8wQ3wc

The main themes of this "ghazal" are taken from a Urdu rendition.
Composed on September 17, 2002.

Translation of a famous ghazal by Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. He was overthrown by the British after the 1857 revolt by Indians against the Englishmen who had come to India as merchants but connived and plotted against its own people. The evil of the British at that time can be gauged by the fact that they sent Bahadur Shah Zafar into exile in the Andaman Islands (A place where only convicts and prisoners of the state were deported) and his family was massacred. Ghalib, who was a contemporary of the Mughul Emperor has written about this in his letters. Here the King, a poet himself, has lamented about how the heart and mind feel when struck by misfortune.

*SABA; The spring breeze.
This is an English rendition of Shaikh Ibrahim Zouq's famous ghazal. Translated on July 14-15, 2002.

*DELILAH: THE WOMAN WHO PROFESSED HER LOVE FOR SAMSON AND DECEIVED HIM...AS MENTIONED IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES OF THE HOLY BIBLE. HERE IT REFERS TO MY EX-WIFE.
Translation of an Urdu ghazal done on July 11, 2002.

*Poet of the Court: Ghalib's contemporary named Ibrahim Zouq who was held in esteem in the court of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
*Faqeer: Wandering minstrel of Old Delhi.
Some lines of Ghalib's last ghazals translated on July 6, 2002.
I have ventured to add a few lines of my own here as a tribute to the great poet to whom we, the Urdu speaking people and the Hindi speaking ones too, owe so much.

Composed on July 4, 2002. Inspired by the life and poetry of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.
*Balli Maraan: The locality in Old Delhi where Mirza Ghalib lived in a rented house.
*Shams is known to have deceived Ghalib in getting his share of the pension amount left for his family. It is well known that the greatest poet of Urdu literature spent a lifetime of poverty and died in penury.
Today, the whole world of literature owes a lot to this greatest of all Urdu poets.

In Ghalib's original ghazal the goblet of Jamshed is mentioned because the Persian king's cup possessed miraculous powers. Ghalib makes a subtle and yet beautifully sarcastic comment in his verse saying that the goblet he has is dearer to him than Jamshed's.