Mir Taqi Mir

میر تقی میر

1723–1810 · Classical (Delhi, then Lucknow)

Called Khuda-e-Sukhan, the God of Poetry, Mir gave the Urdu ghazal its lasting emotional voice. His six diwans speak in plain, conversational Urdu yet carry a depth of sorrow no later poet surpassed. Ghalib himself said that those who deny Mir's mastery are themselves without mastery.

How to read Mir

Read Mir for how much he does with little: everyday words, short lines, and a rhythm that sounds like speech. His Hindi metre, counted in beats rather than Arabic feet, gives many of his ghazals a folk-song music.

Couplets in the course (5)

پتا پتا بوٹا بوٹا حال ہمارا جانے ہے

جانے نہ جانے گل ہی نہ جانے باغ تو سارا جانے ہے

patta patta buuTa buuTa haal hamaaraa jaane hai

jaane na jaane gul hii na jaane baagh to saaraa jaane hai

Every leaf, every shrub knows my state;

the rose may know or not, the rose alone does not; the whole garden knows.

Mir Taqi MirBahr-e-Mīr (Hindi metre)matlaBeginnerTikraar (repetition)Muraa'at-un-naziir (related images)

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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)

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میرؔ ان نیم باز آنکھوں میں

ساری مستی شراب کی سی ہے

miir un niim-baaz aañkhoñ meñ

saarii mastii sharaab kii sii hai

Mir, in those half-open eyes

lies all the intoxication of wine.

Mir Taqi MirKhafīf musaddas makhbūn mahzūfmaqtaBeginnerTashbeeh (simile)

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آگ تھے ابتدائے عشق میں ہم

اب جو ہیں خاک انتہا ہے یہ

aag the ibtidaa-e-ishq meñ ham

ab jo haiñ khaak intihaa hai ye

At love's beginning I was fire;

now I am dust: this is how it ends.

Mir Taqi MirKhafīf musaddas makhbūn mahzūfsherIntermediateTazaad (antithesis)

الٹی ہو گئیں سب تدبیریں کچھ نہ دوا نے کام کیا

دیکھا اس بیماریِ دل نے آخر کام تمام کیا

ulTii ho ga'iiñ sab tadbiireñ kuchh na davaa ne kaam kiyaa

dekhaa is biimaarii-e-dil ne aakhir kaam tamaam kiyaa

All my plans were overturned; no medicine did any good.

See: this sickness of the heart has finished me at last.

Mir Taqi MirBahr-e-Mīr (Hindi metre)matlaIntermediateIhaam (double meaning)

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