To Hargopal Tafta: Letters 1–21

To Munshi Hargopal Tafta, called Mirza Tafta

Letter 1

Maharaj,

Your kind letter arrived. My heart, though it was not made glad, did not stay displeased either. In any case, go on counting me, the most unworthy and abject of all creatures, among those who pray for you. What can I do? One cannot give up one's own way. I simply do not have the manner of the Indian writers of Persian, who start babbling exactly like bards (bhats). Look at my qasidas: you will find plenty of verses of prelude and fewer verses of praise. In prose it is the same. Look at my foreword to Nawab Mustafa Khan's tazkira (an anthology of poets) and see how much praise of him there is in it. Look at the preface to the divan of Mirza Rahim-ud-din Bahadur, whose pen-name is Haya. Look at the foreword I wrote to the Divan of Hafiz at the request of John Jacob Bahadur: his name and his praise come in a single couplet, and all the rest of the prose is about quite other matters. By God, I swear it, had I written the preface to the divan of some prince or nobleman's son, I would not have praised him as much as I have praised you. If you knew me and my way, you would think this much praise a great deal. To cut it short, I have humoured you: I have changed one phrase about your name and written another phrase in its place. More flattery than this is not my way. Evidently you do not think for yourself, and you let these gentlemen lead you astray. Those gentlemen will most likely call this verse and prose meaningless, because their ears are not acquainted with this sound. People who count Qateel (an Indian-born writer of Persian, much admired in Delhi) among the good writers, what will they know of the beauty of verse and prose?

What ailment has our kind friend Munshi Nabi Bakhsh Sahib got that, as you write, it did not go even with whey-water? There is a prescription written in the "Tibb-e-Muhammad Husain Khani", and it is quite harmless and very beneficial; only its effect shows itself slowly. The prescription is this: take five or seven seers of water, and for every seer pound a tola of chob-chini (China root) and mix it in, and boil it until a quarter of the water has boiled away. Then strain the remaining water, fill it into a new unglazed earthen pot and, when it has stood overnight, drink it. Let him eat whatever food he usually eats. For water, day and night, whenever he is thirsty, let him drink only this. If he needs a cooling draught, let him take it in this same water. Have it boiled and strained every day and keep it by. In a year he will see the benefit. Give him my salaam and present this prescription to him. After that it is up to him.

[August 1849].

Letter 2

Brother,

This misra that has come your way is what, in the art of the chronogram, they call a "miracle" and a "marvel". It is a misra in the manner of Salman of Saveh and Zahir. Four words, and all four fit the event. Having made this misra, why trouble about another one? Bravo, bravo! Glory be to God!

And that you had doubts about the word "farr" and copied out a dry, timid verse of Zuhuri, that is a great surprise. This word must occur ten thousand times in my "Panj Ahang". "Farr" and "farrah" are Persian words, synonymous with "jah" (dignity). So who has said that "jah" and this word may not be written without making a compound of them? "Ali-jah" and "Sikandar-jah" and "Muzaffar-farr" and "Faridun-farr": that way is correct; and plain "jah" and "farr": that way is correct too.

And let one more thing be known to you: to call this whole title "the title of Bahadur" is quite wrong. Listen: in the ranks of titles, first comes the title of "Khan", and this is very slight and very small. For example, a man's name is "Mir Muhammad Ali" or "Shaikh Muhammad Ali" or "Muhammad Ali Beg", and he has no "Khan" by family either. So when the king of the day calls him "Muhammad Ali Khan", it is as if he has been given the title of "Khan". And a man whose real name is "Muhammad Ali Khan" is either of the Afghan people or "Khan" is hereditary in his family; the king called him "Muhammad Ali Khan Bahadur". So this is the title of "Bahadur"; this is called "the title of Bahadur". Above this is the title of "Daula"; that is, for example, "Muhammad Ali Khan Bahadur" was called "Munir-ud-Daula Muhammad Ali Khan Bahadur". Now this has become a "Daula" title; it is not called "the title of Bahadur". Then to this title "Jang" is added: "Munir-ud-Daula Muhammad Ali Khan Bahadur Shaukat Jang". Even now the title is not complete; it will be complete only when "Mulk" is there too. So to write the full title as "the title of Bahadur" is wrong. This has been written so that you may know it.

Now enter this seven-couplet qita in your divan and include it, that is, write it among the qitas. When your divan is printed, this qita will be printed too. But yes, read it before Munshi Sahib and request him to send it to Agra, so that it may be printed in the "As'ad-ul-Akhbar" and in the "Zubdat-ul-Akhbar". I am sure he will do it at your word. What need is there for me to write? I have had it printed here in the "Sadiq-ul-Akhbar".

[August 1850].

Letter 3

I have already sent you a letter; it must have arrived. Yesterday a note came to me. There is some gentleman, Ata-ullah Khan, who uses the pen-name "Nami". God knows where he is and who he is. A friend sent that note to me; I wrote the answer and sent it to that same friend. I am sending you the note; read it and you will know the matter. To the doubt he raised about your verse I wrote this answer; you should know it too:

"What befell Mansur, you have heard, and I have too;
O heart, there is a thing to say: but guard your tongue." [TN: Persian]

The doubt is this: "anche ba Mansur raft" has never been seen; "anche bar Mansur raft" is correct. Answer: the letter be also gives the meaning of "upon". So whatever "bar" was meant to say is achieved by be; and if you take be in the sense of "with", that too is correct. Naziri says:

"Rejoice that you are cheated and say not a word:
in this city every beggar is dealt with so." [TN: Persian]

If someone says that here there is "dealing" and in that verse the word "dealing" is absent, the answer is that the shape of the two verses is entirely the same. In Naziri "dealing" is stated, and in Tafta it is understood. The verb "raft" takes its complement with be in both places. Peace.

[1851].

Asadullah.

Letter 4

Well, Maharaj?

To come to Koil (Aligarh) and recite ghazals with Munshi Nabi Bakhsh Sahib and not remember me! Ask me how I came to know that you had forgotten me. You came to Koil and did not tell me of your coming, nor write how you came, and when you came, and how long you will stay, and when you will leave, and where you will join Babu Sahib. Well, now that I have shamelessly written to you, you must forgive my fault and write me your whole story.

Babu Sahib's ghazals, written out in your hand, are here with me and have been corrected. Now I am at a loss where to send them. Although he has written, send them to Akbarabad (Agra), to Hashim Ali Khan, I will not send them there. When he reaches Ajmer or Bharatpur and writes to me, I will dispatch those pages to him, or I will do whatever you write.

Brother, for one day don't drink, or drink less, and write me two or four lines, for my thoughts are fixed on you.

Written Sunday, 4 January 1852.

Asadullah.

Letter 5

My true and tender friend Munshi Hargopal Tafta, may you ever be safe.

Your letter, the one you sent from Cawnpore (Kanpur), arrived. I learned all about Babu Sahib's travels and tours, and your going to Lucknow and meeting the poets there. The verses of his honour "Rind" were put right a week after they arrived, and the corrections, hints and notes were done, as is my custom. Until a letter came from him or from you and I knew where you were staying, where was I to send those necessary papers, and how, and why? Now that I learned from your letter that you will reach Akbarabad by 19 February, I have written this letter in your name and put it in the envelope. Today is the nineteenth; the day after tomorrow, the twenty-first, the envelope will leave for Agra. I have not written to Babu Sahib, because whatever needed writing I have written at the end of the pages of verse. You should convey my salaam to him, congratulate him on the end of his journey and the gaining of his aim, present the pages of verse, and tell him that the words written at the end should be read with care and made his rule of practice; not glanced at and forgotten. There, that completes the message meant for Babu Sahib.

Now I say to you again: what you wrote about that fellow "Koli", I have noted. Although his objection is idle and his question tasteless, it is not my office to leave an objector unanswered or not to speak to one who asks. An objection to your verse, since it is a verse I have looked over, is as good as an objection to me. It is no concern of mine whether he accepts it or not; what I say is in itself reasonable and sound. Whoever knows the language will understand it. If the slow-witted and the crooked-minded don't understand, let them not. What have I to do with refining and instructing all mankind? Teaching and instruction are for friends and companions, not for strangers. You will remember that I have told you again and again: do not stay in error yourself, and do not busy yourself with other people's errors. Today your verse is not such that anyone can lay a finger on it; but yes,

What am I to do with the envious man, who is in torment from himself? [TN: Persian]

Peace and respects.

Written 19 February and dispatched 21 February 1852.

Asadullah.

Letter 6

Kind sir,

"Besh az besh o kam az kam" (more than more and less than less): this construction is very elegant. Who forbids it? And this couplet of Jalal Asir is very, very pure and fine. Its meaning is just this: "in my time love became more than more, and in your time faithfulness became less than less." What will a teacher say? It has a three-part laff-o-nashr (a figure that lists things and then pairs them off in order): I and you, love and faithfulness, more than more and less than less. Remember that "beshtar az besh o kamtar az kam", though permissible as to sense, is less elegant. "Besh az besh o kam az kam" is the more elegant. That verse of yours is good, and I have looked it over:

Qais! we are no less than you; but patience
you have in more, and we in less. [TN: Persian]

But yes, had the first misra had "kamtar", it would have been better still. In any case, keep this in mind: in such a place the word "tar" is the more elegant. Thus there is a verse of mine:

Show yourself and spare me the favour; I am not less than a mote:
beauty, for all this radiance, is no more than a sun. [TN: Persian]

"Or else, how is your eye less than a chink in the wall?" [TN: Persian]

Here it sounds very stiff and remains a bare translation from Hindi; the Persian flavour is gone.

"Do not count lives cheap." [TN: Persian]

I seem to remember that I put this opening couplet right like this:

Life comes to us for nothing;
one may lay down one's life freely. [TN: Persian]

And in this form the opening couplet had become such that it came into my heart not to give it to you but to write a ghazal in this ground myself; but then I was not stingy and gave it to you. Your honour did not even look at it! This letter you have written me was written in the intoxication of wine, and you looked over those correction sheets in the same state. Now,

"How long this complaint about life?" [TN: Persian]

Drop this, and let that opening couplet stand, for it is very fine; it seems exactly like one of Maulana Zuhuri's. Brother, look carefully at my correction sheets; at least let my labour not be wasted.

In "ayyame chand" (some days) the double plural is not so glaring; indeed, in this faqir's view it is not a double plural at all. For example "ma'ani-ye chand" and "ahkam-e chand" and "asrar-e chand": a man may write these. But yes, "amal-ha" is a plain blunder.

To find fault with the great is itself a fault. [TN: Persian]

My business is with my own refinement; why should I go hunting for authority in mistakes? For example, Hazrat Hafiz has written:

Where is right conduct, and where am I, the ruined one?
See how far the road runs, from where to where. [TN: Persian]

My dear, in such a case we should neither make the words of the masters a target of objection nor follow them ourselves. This faqir will not put up with the double plural, and will not speak ill of Hazrat Saib.

The false report of a certain person's death certainly grieves me too; but what great and dreadful event is this, that the newspaper people should print it? Do not pay so much attention to that.

If the moon and the sun should die, do not go into mourning;
and if Mercury and Venus are slain, call for no singer of dirges. [TN: Persian]

I have moved out of Kale Sahib's house (Mian Kale Sahib, Ghalib's spiritual guide). I have rented a haveli in the Ballimaran quarter and live in it. My living there was not to save on rent; I lived there only out of love for Kale Sahib. I write this to let you know. Although my letters need no house address, and "To Asadullah, in Delhi" is enough, still, don't write "Lal Kuan" any more; write "Mohalla Ballimaran".

And yes, sir, write how our kind Babu Sahib is. Is he done with the purge, and how is his health? And when will he go to Ajmer, and from there to Mount Abu? Give him my salaam too. Peace.

Written Monday, 22 March 1852.

Asadullah.

Letter 7

Full moon of the heart's dwelling, Munshi Hargopal Tafta, what enchantments you work with your pen!

Now it has become necessary that I too answer in the same style. Listen, sir: you know that the late Zain-ul-Abidin Khan was my son, and now his two children, who are my grandsons, have come to live with me and plague me every moment, and I bear it. God is my witness that I regard you in the place of my son. So the offspring of your talent are my grandsons in spirit. When I do not tire of these grandsons of the visible world, who don't let me eat my food, don't let me sleep at noon, put their bare feet on my bed, spill water here and raise dust there, then why should I be vexed with those grandsons in spirit, who have none of these ways? Send them to me quickly by post so that I may see them. I promise to send them back to you quickly by post. May God Most High keep your children of the visible world alive, grant them wealth and fortune, and keep you safe over their heads; and may He grant your children in spirit, that is, the offspring of your talent, the light of fame and a good reception. A letter for Babu Sahib, in answer to his letter, comes with this. Please give it to him. And yes, sir, when Babu Sahib and you set out for Abu, let me know and write me the date of departure, so that I am not left in the dark. With prayers.

Written Friday, 18 June 1852.

Asadullah.

Letter 8

Yesterday your letter came, and the hidden secret was laid bare to me. I had thought you were acting out of madness and agitation. Now I know that right is on your side. When I counsel someone dear to me, I address my own self and say: O heart, put yourself in that dear one's place and imagine: had this misfortune befallen you, or had you been caught in this calamity, what would you have done? God forbid! Now how can I tell you to swallow this insult and not leave his company? Indeed it is too much even to say to a friend, give this up for my sake. In any case, what matters is a friend's friendship; what have we to do with his doings? Let the love and sincerity between him and you remain as before, nay, grow day by day. If living together and staying near is not to be, so be it.

A union in which there is weariness:
better than such a union is separation. [TN: Persian]

I come to the point. Your view in this matter pleases me. A strange knot has formed that cannot be undone: I can neither make you understand nor say anything to him. For my part, in this situation I can do nothing but stand and watch the shifting play of fate and destiny.

Let me see what the Maker of the world
keeps hidden within this open thing. [TN: Persian]

The Jaipur affair is pure chance. It came up without intention or planning. I have turned that way out of greed. I have grown old, I have grown deaf. I used to hold high rank with the English government, was counted among the sons of nobles, received a full robe of honour; now I have been disgraced and a great stain has fallen on me (his imprisonment of 1847). I cannot get into the service of any state; but yes, as a teacher, or a pir, or a panegyrist, I might form some connection, gain something myself, and get some dear one of mine taken in there. Let's see what comes of it.

Until the sapling of friendship bears fruit,
for now we have come and sown a seed. [TN: Persian]

The divan has not yet come back from the binder. It will come today or tomorrow. Then I will have a cloth cover made for it and send it off. For now rest in Koil and amuse yourself among your children. If you feel like it, go to Akbarabad and amuse yourself there. Let's see what comes from that side in the face of this self-respect of yours, and what he does. Peace.

Friday, 10 December 1852.

Asadullah.

Letter 9

Your letter came the day before yesterday. What I already knew, I learned again. I was going through the ghazals. This evening I finished going through them. I had put the ghazals aside. I meant to seal them up and leave them so, and send them tomorrow by the nine or ten o'clock post; no letter was needed. I was thinking this when the postman came and brought a letter from "Jani Ji". I read it. Now it became necessary for me to write you its gist. So I have written this note. The gist, in brief, is this: the petition was presented, the divan was presented, the letter addressed to Rawal Ji was presented. The Raja Sahib was pleased to see the divan. The trusted man of his own whom Jani Ji sent along with Saadullah Khan, the vakil, is waiting for the answer. Rawal Ji has gone to receive the new Agent. And now the Agent is not coming by way of the Jaipur territory; he will come to Ajmer by way of Agra, Gwalior and Karauli. And on that route Jaipur has no authority. So Rawal Ji ought to turn back. When he comes, the petition will be answered, and the answer will include the receipt for the divan. Brother, Jani Ji looks for you everywhere and is very restless without you. I can neither tell you anything nor make him understand. Do what kills the snake without breaking the stick. Yes, Jani Ji also wrote that after many days a letter has come from Munshi Ji.

Asad.

Letter 10

Brother,

The day before yesterday, in the evening, the postman came and brought a letter from you and a letter from "Jani Ji". In your letter, pages of verse; and in Babu Sahib's letter, news from Jaipur. For two days I have had a pain in the chest and am very restless. I cannot look at the verses just yet. I am sending you the papers Babu Sahib sent. The verses will be sent after two or four days.

Dispatched Friday, 25 February 1853.

Asadullah.

Letter 11

Brother,

Today I am very anxious, and I write you this letter in the utmost agitation. On the day my letter reaches you, if it is post time, write the answer and send it off at once; and if the time has gone, then send the answer the next day, since it can't be helped. The cause of this anxiety and alarm is that for several days there has been talk of the Raja of Bharatpur's illness, and since yesterday a worse report has been going round the city. You are near Bharatpur. I am sure you will know the true state of things. Write quickly: how do matters stand? I do not grieve for the Raja; my worry is for Jani Ji, and you too are attached to that same state. The English gentlemen have laid down a law about the states: when a ruler dies, the government takes possession and control of the state and keeps its administration in its own hands until the heir comes of age. Under the government's administration no old servant is dismissed. That being so, I am sure Jani Sahib's post will stand as before. But he is the vakil (agent at the British court); I don't know who the mukhtar (chief minister) is, how things stand between our Babu Sahib and that mukhtar, and what his position is with the Rani. Although you are tied to Babu Sahib by affection, he, out of foresight, has made you a dependant of that state. And you used to lead a careless, devil-may-care life. On no account keep up that way now. Now it is incumbent on you too to become known, along with Jani Ji, to the high and mighty officials. So you must give up your comforts in Koil and, willy-nilly, stay with Babu Sahib. This is what occurs to me; I cannot say what the situation is and what prudence demands. Has Jani Ji come to Bharatpur, or is he in Ajmer; what is on his mind, and what is he doing? For God's sake, not short, not sketchy, but full and clear, write me whatever has happened and however things stand, and quickly, for sleep and food are forbidden me. I heard it yesterday evening; this morning I did not go to the Fort, and as a precaution I have sent this letter bearing (unpaid, the postage to be paid by the receiver). You too send your answer bearing. Half an anna is no such great thing. The post people treat a bearing letter as important and deliver it quickly, while a post-paid one lies about; when they happen to go to that quarter, they take it along too. What more shall I write? I am distraught.

Written mid-morning, Monday, 28 March 1853.

Urgent. Reply requested.

Letter 12

Today, Tuesday the fifth of April, with three gharis of daylight left, the postman came. He brought a letter from Munshi Sahib, a letter from you and a letter from Babu Sahib. From Babu Sahib's letter I learned the other matters, but on one point I am at a loss what to do! That is, he has sent me a letter that came to him from someone, and written that I should send it back to him. Yet he himself writes that he will leave for Sapatu or Abu on the fourth of April, and today is the fifth. So he left yesterday. Now to whom am I to send that letter? So I am writing to you that I will keep the letter by me. When he comes back and informs me of his return, then I will send him that letter. Don't be uneasy about what letter it is. It is not a letter; it was a petition from Mendhu Lal Kayasth, the tale-bearer, addressed to the late Maharaja, full of slander against Babu Sahib: he had written that Hardev Singh had brought Jani Ji's divan and the divan of a poet of Delhi to the Maharaja of Jaipur, and was arranging employment for Jani Ji at the court of Jaipur. And the reason he sent it is that earlier I had learned from his letter that someone had said something of the sort. I had written to him: I conjure you by my head, call Hardev Singh back now. I do not want the whole to be spoiled for the sake of a part. In reply he sent that petition and wrote that the late Raja was not one to pay attention to such things; that the Raja had sent the petition on to him as soon as it was presented. That is all. Well, the coming of this letter has set my mind at rest about Jani Ji. But now I have my own worry. That is, Babu Sahib has gone off to Abu. If Hardev Singh comes back, why would he come to me without meeting him and being told by him? Well, he too writes that the Rawal has gone somewhere, and that on his return leave will be given. We'll see when he comes, and there is no saying that leave will be given the moment he comes. Your ghazal has arrived. It will certainly reach you back somewhat late. Don't fret. With prayers.

Written Tuesday, the day the letter arrived,
and dispatched Wednesday, 6 April 1853. Reply requested.

From Asadullah.

Letter 13

Brother,

What sort of servant on two or four hundred rupees, or pensioner, have you taken me for, that you expect an instalment of ten or twenty rupees a month? Your talk sometimes makes me laugh. Had you happened to be Deputy Collector of Delhi or the Company's vakil, I would have been in great difficulty. Anyway, be happy and don't worry. An instalment of five rupees a month out of my English pension has been fixed until the money is repaid. The instalment will start from the beginning of June 1853, that is, from next month. Babu Sahib's letter to you has arrived. It is a strange spectacle: he is ashamed of the delay, and I am dying of his apologies. Alas for chance: I wrote to him one day, and the next I heard the news of the Raja's death. By God, by God! Had I heard the news two days earlier, then even if my life had been at stake I would not have written to him. The hundi (bill of exchange) for the money that came from Jaipur has not arrived yet. Perhaps it will come by this evening or tomorrow. God grant he sends the hundi from up on Mount Abu; otherwise God knows where all he will go, and how long sending the money will take. God grant he deducts Hardev Singh's expenses from it; that would please me greatly; and if not, he must certainly give Hardev Singh 25 on my behalf. A letter of Munshi Sahib's had come from Hathras. Yesterday I sent the answer off to Hathras. With prayers.

Written Monday, 2 May 1853.

From Asadullah.

Letter 14

Brother,

Yes, I saw in the "Zubdat-ul-Akhbar" that the Rani Sahiba had died. Yesterday a friend's letter came from Akbarabad. He writes that the Raja died; the Rani did [not] die. The state has not yet settled into any shape. The form of the administration depends on the arrival of Jani Baijnath. So far the friend's letter. Evidently he does not know Babu Sahib's name; his brother's name stuck in his memory. The friend wrote only by way of news. He does not know of the friendship between me and "Jani" either. What follows from this letter is that, if the news is true, the post of our friend, yours and mine, will stay secure. Amen, O Lord of the worlds.

Sir, the Jaipur business is no longer worth our thinking about. I laid a foundation; it did not rise. The Raja is a boy, and a frivolous one. Had Rawal Ji and Saadullah Khan stayed where they were, some way would have opened; and what you now write, that the Raja keeps reading my divan and keeps it before his eyes, that too you say on the strength of Munshi Hardev Singh's letter. How am I to believe his account? Then there is what Babu Sahib wrote earlier, that five hundred rupees in cash and a robe of honour had been settled for Mirza Sahib: "Holi is over, and I am setting out with them." Phagun, Chait, Baisakh: I don't know in which month Holi falls. It used to fall in Phagun.

Kind sir, the first time, Babu Sahib sent me two hundis of a hundred rupees each: one for Mir Ahmad Husain "Maikash", from the Raja Sahib, as a reward for the chronogram on the birth of the Kunwar Sahib (the young prince), and one from himself to me as a pupil's offering. After that two more hundis of a hundred rupees each came, at intervals of four or five months: with Mir Ahmad Husain's reward money, four hundred, and leaving it out, three hundred; and as for how long the four hundred or the three hundred took to come, the reckoning is left to the Kunwar Sahib's age. If he is two years old, then in two years; and if he is three, then in three years. Yes, sir, this is the same Mir Qasim Ali Sahib who is my old friend. The day before yesterday, or the day before that, the postman who brought your letter also brought a letter addressed to Mir Sahib, from some Mian Hikmatullah, care of my house; I have taken it and kept it. When Mir Sahib comes, give him my salaam and tell him: sir, if not for my sake, then for the sake of this letter, come to Delhi.

Letter 15

A strange spectacle! Babu Sahib wrote that Hardev Singh had arrived and brought a hundi for five hundred rupees, but that twenty-nine rupees and some annas for his expenses had been charged against that hundi: "So I am making it up from my own pocket and sending you a hundi for the full five hundred." I wrote to him that I would bear Hardev Singh's expenses, he should not trouble himself: "Give Hardev Singh this 25 more from me, and send quickly a hundi for the balance, a little under four hundred and fifty." Well, brother, to this day the hundi has not come. I am at a loss. The reason I am at a loss is that, relying on that hundi, I had promised my creditors early June. Today is the fifth of June. They are dunning me, and I keep saying "today", "tomorrow". Out of shame I cannot write anything to Babu Sahib. I know he will be trying to make up the round sum. But why should he go to such trouble? What is thirty rupees? If Hardev Singh's expenses were charged to me, what calamity would that be? Twenty-nine and twenty-five: let him take out fifty-four rupees and send the rest. The envelopes of letters I had sent have not come back yet either. On top of all that, what sort of thing is it that I don't even know where Babu Sahib is: is he on the hill, or has he come to Bharatpur? There is apparently no reason for him to come to Ajmer. So, worn out with all this waiting, I have written to you today. Write me the answer, and write your opinion as to the reason for the delay. Enough, enough.

Written the fifth of June 1853, a Thursday. Reply requested.

Asadullah.

Letter 16

I learned that you are safe and well. The ghazal took little labour. I learned that Brother (Munshi Nabi Bakhsh) has come back from Hathras. When he comes, give him my salaam. This well-wisher of yours, though in other matters he holds no high rank, in need his rank is very high indeed, that is, I am very needy. A hundred or two do not quench my thirst. A hundred thousand bravos to your spirit. Had two thousand come into my hands from Jaipur, my debt would have been cleared, and then, had I two or four more years of life, I would have run up as much debt again. Of these five hundred, brother, I swear by your life, after the sundries a hundred or a hundred and fifty will be left, and those will go on my own expenses. The interest-bearing debt to the moneylenders will remain at some fifteen or sixteen hundred. And the hundred that were sent for from Babu Sahib were owed only to the English merchant, the price of that thing which is forbidden in my religion and lawful in your creed; and that has been paid. I trust Babu Sahib's letter with the hundi will come any day now.

Babu Sahib's important letters and important papers that had come to me I sent back to him by parcel on Thursday, 26 May, and wrote in it that he should quickly send the hundi and the envelopes I had sent. Thursday to Thursday, today makes fifteen full days.

Written Thursday, 9 June 1853.

From Asadullah.

Letter 17

Brother,

On the third day after I sent you the letter, Hardev Singh's petition, the receipt for the 25 and the hundi for 500 arrived. You see: Babu Sahib gave Hardev Singh the 25 and did not charge it to me. Anyway, the hundi was payable in twelve days. Six days had gone, six were left. Where was my patience? I had the discount cut and took the cash. All the sundry debts are paid. I am much lightened. Today I have 47 in cash in my box, and 4 bottles of wine and 3 flasks of rose-water in the store-room. Praise be to God for His kindness. If Bhai Sahib has come, give him Mir Qasim Ali Khan's letter, and give him my salaam, and then write to me so that I may write to him. If Babu Sahib comes to Bharatpur, don't be lazy; go to him, for he keeps longing to see you.

Tuesday, 14 June 1853.

Asadullah.

Letter 18

Brother,

I bow to your poetry. I know that you are never free for a moment from thinking about verse; but since you have bound yourself to the device of tarsi (matched rhyming phrases) and to writing couplets cut into halves, you must also keep the proper setting of the sense in view, and look over whatever you write two or three times. Why, sir! To send this double letter post-paid, and that from Delhi to Sikandarabad: who but Hatim (Hatim Tai, the byword for generosity), and who but me, would have done it? How your talk makes me laugh! May God keep you alive and give you whatever you wish. I am very worried about Jani Ji. I was meaning to write and ask you how he is. From your letter I learned that you too don't know where he is. I'm sure he must be in Ajmer; but one can't send a letter, since he is not staying put there. God knows when he'll move off. In any case, you are near Bharatpur and you know his dependants. If you can, write to someone and get news, and whatever you learn, write to me too. Munshi Sahib has come to Koil with Munshi Abdul Latif. Yesterday a letter came from him. Today I sent off the answer too.

Sunday, 21 August 1853.

Asadullah.

Letter 19

Sir,

The second parcel, which you went to the trouble of making into a letter, has arrived. There is no room for corrections, and I cannot follow the twists and turns of the written lines. Why didn't you write on separate double sheets? And why didn't you write with wide spacing? If it took a double sheet or so more, so be it. Anyway, now I have had to pick the questions out. If some question escapes my eye and is left out, count it the sin of the twisting lines, and do not hold it my fault.

"Bala-ruba'e". What is there to hesitate over? This is the correct and full word; "ruba" is its shortened form.

"I strew thorns in his path: let us see how it will go." [TN: Persian]

Very good and sensible. God knows what I was thinking of at the time. I had taken "chun khwahad shudan" and "kunun khwahad shudan" to be the radif and the rhyme.

The word "be-pir" was coined by Turani youngsters born in India. When I do not let my pupils use it in Urdu verse, how could I allow it to you in Persian verse? Mirza Jalal Asir, God's mercy be on him, is a master, and his verse is an authority. Who am I to call a word he used wrong? But it is surprising, very surprising, that a nobleman's son of Iran should write such a word.

"Shist bastan" (to take aim): since it is in Zuhuri, use it. It is idiom, and in idiom we follow him. "Be-pir" is one word not of the true mint; otherwise, as a master of the language, Asir is no less than Zuhuri.

"O ascetic, this idle word you spoke: what have you become?
God is forgiving; I have become a sin: let us see what will be." [TN: Persian]

First, this question to the ascetic, "what have you become", is wrong. "What has happened to you" can be a question. Then "I have become a sin" is a meaningless answer. "I have committed a sin" can be an answer. Here you will say "I have become sin from head to foot", or "sin entire", or "wholly sin". That answer has no connection whatever with that question. Unless it is "sin from head to foot", there is no sense at all, none at all. In the corrected verse the theme stayed yours and was brought into line with the mint. I am surprised at you, that, getting tangled merely in the joining of "shuda-am" and "ta che shavad", you lost sight of the real sense.

Hold back your own heart from such doings:
why do you torment my heart? [TN: Persian]

Ahli has forced it. But yes, he has fixed on a justification: "azurdan" is the infinitive, "azarad" the aorist and "azar" the imperative. The imperative is used in the sense of a fixed noun, and a fixed noun can be joined with "kardan". Well, let it be.

"Tomorrow that wild deer will shy away from my side." [TN: Persian]

This verse supports what I said. "Bar-daram" and "zar-daram" and "sar-daram" and "far-daram": these words are all of one kind; there is no long alif anywhere. Yes, "bu darad" and "ru darad" and "furud arad" support your belief. But this verse is not by a master. He was an elder among the shaikhs, Maulana Ala-ud-din.

We are dwellers in the lane of the beloved. [TN: Persian]

This tarji-band is his too. He is to be valued for poverty, self-effacement and the mystic path, not for poetic style.

"The sword he wears at his hair-thin waist is an ant's wing." [TN: Persian]

Brother, by God, this misra cannot be authority for the slenderness of a sword. This is a single conceit: the waist is the ant, and the sword the ant's wing. The ground of comparison is that the ant's wing is to the ant as the sword is to the waist (miyan, which also means scabbard). Slenderness is never the ground of comparison. Be fair. Is the merit of a sword its sharpness or its slenderness? Don't be taken in by this, and don't describe a sword as slender. There is no affinity to be found between "nature" (khu) and "sword". Let it go; give up the verse.

My dear fellow, "khamidan" is correct and "chamidan" is correct. Who doubts that? But in vocabulary, idiom and usage, analogy does not run. I have heard the chattering folk of Hindustan say "kham-o-cham". To this day I have not seen this word in any Persian verse or prose. A lovely word, I like it too; but what can I do? What I have not heard from my masters, how can I take as correct? "Chamid" is the past tense of "chamidan", and "chamidan" is an infinitive, correct and accepted; "chamad" is the aorist, "cham" the imperative. What argument is there about that? The question is about "kham-o-cham".

I hunted out the questions one by one and wrote their answers. Now I am looking at the verses. God grant that no question of yours has been left over by me; and when you look at these magic pages, may no hint of correction be left over by you either. The point is: never write like this again. It throws me into a great fluster.

With "khamida st" and "rasida st", "nazani dast" is a correct rhyme. But drop the alif of "ast" everywhere. And remember that the sin and te alone are enough; the alif is not needed.

Ghalib.

Letter 20

Your letter came, and I was much grieved. Truly, bringing up those little boys will be very hard. Look, I too am caught in this same trouble. Be patient; and if you are not patient, what will you do? Nothing else can be done. I am taking a purge. Don't think I am ill; I have taken the purge to keep in health. Having looked carefully at your verses, I have sent the envelope in your name to brother Munshi Nabi Bakhsh Sahib. When you come, he will give it to you. Wherever there was room for doubt and reflection, I have pointed it out, and all the other verses I have left as they were. Now you should write to me when you reach Koil. Write me the receipt of this envelope and all your news in full. Don't be slack in this. The answer to Babu Sahib's letter will be sent off to Ajmer. Rest assured. What more shall I write than this?

Asadullah.

Letter 21

Wah, what good fortune is mine! For a long time I had been waiting for Munshi Ji's letter to come and bring news that he is safe and well. The letter came, and the news that he is safe and well did not. That is, I learned that all is not well and that you have hurt your foot. Listen, sir, it is a mercy that the bone was not damaged. Even this much swelling came about because no one was found to massage it and the injury grew old. Certainly the recovery will take some time. Once you have recovered, don't be slow to let me know. My thoughts are fixed on it.

A letter came from Babu Sahib. Again he took the trouble and sent the same as he had sent before. He is very sad at being parted from you. The style of his writing showed an abundance of love. I have written to him that Munshi Ji has not gone for good; what can one do about necessity? He will soon come again; think of him as being with you. Babu Hargobind Singh must have gone to Koil for the holidays, since his respects came written in your letter. Why did he trouble? His house is at most two hundred paces from mine, and he did not take leave of me when he went; now what need of respects and salaams?

Yes, sir, what have you and Babu Sahib taken into your heads, that you write the address "Imli ka Mohalla" on the cover of my letters? I live in "Ballimaran". "Imli ka Mohalla" is, without exaggeration, half a kos (about a mile) from here. It's only that the postmen know me; otherwise the letter would wander about aimlessly. Before, I lived in "Kale Sahib's" house. Now I live in a rented haveli in "Ballimaran". Where is "Imli ka Mohalla", and where am I?

Of Munshi Ji you write that he has gone with the official, and then you write, not on tour but on business of his own. In any case, he must be back by now. Give him my salaam, and write me the news of his return along with the news of your own health; otherwise I shall hesitate to write letters.

"Nazar shiguftan" (the sight blossoming) and "gosh shiguftan" (the ear blossoming) I do not recognise, even if Munshi Hargopal Tafta and Maulana Nur-ud-din Zuhuri have written them.

From my heart's blood the gaze carries a rose in its sleeve:
do not call it blood; say a garden dripped from my eye. [TN: Persian]

Don't think that "a garden dripping from the eye" is as strange as "the blossoming of ear and sight". This is a metaphor for "the eye's shedding of blood", and "shedding blood" can be an attribute of the eye. If it were permissible for the sight to be glad and the ear to be pleased, we could have put it as a metaphor of blossoming. When being glad is not an attribute of eye and ear, what can we do?

Remember, I do not tell these fine points to anyone but you. Think over what I say and understand it. I am not displeased by questions and argument; rather I am pleased. But yes, argument like the one you made about "besh" and "beshtar" is distasteful, for it was a plain slander on me. What I write myself, why should I forbid you to write?

"Ah, a hundred thousand hidden secrets lie in this speech:
if you are sparing of words, may your glance not be sparing of words." [TN: Persian]

"Whatever evil I do to my own self,
I can give it the name of goodness." [TN: Persian]

Both these verses are flawless. Let them stand.

"Long live my failure:
I can make a wish a wish." [TN: Persian]

I don't understand what this means. Anyone can make a "wish" a "wish"; what is the charm in that?

"From the raids of that lovely rider, even now
out of the grass a finger rises begging mercy, even now." [TN: Persian]

In this opening couplet of Hazin one "hanoz" (even now) is indeed superfluous and absurd. It cannot be an authority for a follower. It is a plain mistake. It is a flaw. It is a defect. Who will follow it? Hazin was only a man; even if this opening couplet were Gabriel's, do not take it as authority and do not follow it.

Brother, your misra is not of this sort. In it "makunid" (do not) completes the sense; "makunid" is not superfluous. But the trouble is that whether you keep it Persian or put it into Hindi, the misra is meaningless and void of sense.

"What rose, what tulip, what wild rose, what eglantine: do not!" [TN: Persian]

What rose, what tulip, what jasmine, what champa: do not, on no account do not! That is, do not what? Now, if you were to say, "Sir, do not mention them", then someone might understand; otherwise no one can ever tell that "do not mention" is meant. Oh, you did say that what you meant was "do not mention". Sir, how can "mention" be put in construct with rose and tulip and wild rose and eglantine? You will say the word is not "mention"; the word "description" is in the line above. That word "description" cannot be tied to these four words with ropes and chains. Write it as an opening couplet, make it a qita, put it in a tarji-band: this misra is never going to yield a sense; it is sheer nonsense. Peace.

Asadullah.