Urdu in Translation
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The masters and their rang

Level 3: Aesthetic Craft and Style · about 20 minutes

Mir and Ghalib

Mir speaks plainly and lets feeling carry the line; Ghalib builds a paradox and makes you work for it. Compare:

دیکھ تو دل کہ جاں سے اٹھتا ہے
یہ دھواں سا کہاں سے اٹھتا ہے
dekh to dil ki jaañ se uThtaa hai
ye dhuaañ saa kahaañ se uThtaa hai
Look: is it from the heart or from the soul that it rises,
this smoke-like thing, where does it rise from?
Mir Taqi MirKhafīf musaddas makhbūn mahzūfmatlaBeginnerTajahul-e-arifana (feigned ignorance)Isti'ara (metaphor)
Read the ghazal
نقش فریادی ہے کس کی شوخیٔ تحریر کا
کاغذی ہے پیرہن ہر پیکرِ تصویر کا
naqsh faryaadii hai kis kii shokhii-e-tahriir kaa
kaaghazii hai pairahan har paikar-e-tasviir kaa
Against whose playful pen does every image cry for justice?
Each figure in the picture wears a robe of paper.
Mirza Asadullah Khan GhalibRamal musamman mahzūfmatlaMasterTalmeeh (allusion)Isti'ara (metaphor)
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Dagh's idiom

خوب پردہ ہے کہ چلمن سے لگے بیٹھے ہیں
صاف چھپتے بھی نہیں سامنے آتے بھی نہیں
khuub pardaa hai ki chilman se lage baiThe haiñ
saaf chhupte bhii nahiiñ saamne aate bhii nahiiñ
A fine sort of veiling: sitting pressed against the screen,
neither properly hidden, nor coming out in front.
Dagh DehlviRamal musamman makhbūn mahzūfsherBeginnerTazaad (antithesis)

Dagh's line could be overheard in a Delhi lane. The craft is in setting living idiom into metre without a seam.

Zauq's proverbs

لائی حیات آئے قضا لے چلی چلے
اپنی خوشی نہ آئے نہ اپنی خوشی چلے
laa'ii hayaat aa'e qazaa le chalii chale
apnii khushii na aa'e na apnii khushii chale
Life brought us, so we came; death takes us, so we go;
we neither came of our own will nor leave of our own will.
Sheikh Ibrahim ZauqMuzāre' musamman akhrab makfūf mahzūfmatlaBeginnerTazaad (antithesis)Tikraar (repetition)

Iqbal's vigour

خودی کو کر بلند اتنا کہ ہر تقدیر سے پہلے
خدا بندے سے خود پوچھے بتا تیری رضا کیا ہے
khudii ko kar buland itnaa ki har taqdiir se pahle
khudaa bande se khud puuchhe bataa terii razaa kyaa hai
Raise your selfhood so high that before every decree of fate
God Himself asks His servant: tell me, what is your wish?
Allama Muhammad IqbalHazaj musamman sālimsherIntermediateTajnees (wordplay on similar words)
Read the ghazal

The moderns: Faiz, Faraz, Jaun Elia, Parveen Shakir

Their poems are still in copyright, so this course describes their craft and links to Rekhta rather than quoting. Jaun Elia's cadence is conversational: he favours metres close to speech (Ramal, Khafif) and breaks the expected tone with a sudden, bitter turn. Faiz carries the classical beloved, night and dawn into political meaning. Read a ghazal of each on Rekhta and scan one line in the Taqti Lab: you will find the same bahrs as Ghalib's.

Practice

Who wrote it?: 8 questions, built fresh each time from the couplets.

Talmeeh, tazaad, ihaam and tajahul-e-arifanaFilling the qafia and radif