The licences of Urdu scansion
Level 2: Ilm-ul-Aruz: Prosody and Scansion · about 15 minutes
Poets bend pronunciation slightly to fit the metre. These licences are recognised; anything beyond them breaks the line.
| Licence | What it allows | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Giraana (ikhfa) | a word-final long vowel may be read short | mere, ki, se, hai, meñ (final alif is shortened more rarely) |
| Noon-e-ghunna | n after a long vowel may be dropped | naadaañ tujhe; jaan, jaante |
| Vasl | a final consonant may join the next word's vowel | khayaal achchhaa = kha-yaa-lach-chhaa |
| Izafat | -e takes the consonant before it, long or short | dil-e = di-le |
| Tasbigh / izala | one extra consonant at the end of a misra is ignored | baat, daagh at line end |
| Do-chashmi he | aspiration does not count | uThtaa, achchhaa |
| Short forms | poets choose shorter spellings | mire for mere, tire for tere, ik for ek, gar for agar |
| Hamza | after a long vowel, the e/ii after hamza may be short | jaa'eñ ge, aa'e |
Taqti
bahut nikle mire armaan lekin phir bhii kam nikle
mafā'īlun
ba
-
hut
=
nik
=
le
=
mafā'īlun
mi
-
re
=
ar
=
maa
=
mafā'īlun
n
-
le
=
kin
=
phir
=
mafā'īlun
bhii
-
kam
=
nik
=
le
=
- final long vowel of “bhii” read short (giraana)
Try replacing mire with mere in the Taqti Lab: the line breaks at that word, because the metre needs a short there.
Practice
Find the break (aib-e-taqti): 5 questions, built fresh each time from the couplets and checked by the metre engine.