Interpretation-Ghazal-37


1.
You came as per your promise,but came late,there certainly have been some reason,
Perhaps some other people stopped you from coming here.
(Superb exhibition of jealousy.He even does not want to utter the name of the other rival.)
(She came,that is enough.She came it is her pleasure.Who am I to ask.She is not bound by any time,any vow or promise.I can only console myself by wordplay.)
2.
It is inappropriate for me to complain to you about my ruination,
Destruction was in my fate.It is good that it happened by your hand.
(Way of sarcasm,destruction of fortune has been labelled as 'Excellence of fortune'.)
(He hates to blame her,because of great love.)
3.
Perhaps you have forgotten me,but still I consider myself your prey,
I am the same prey used to be in your saddle straps,which you threw away after considering unworthy.
(Once you give your address to anyone,you can expect a polite response.These two simple lines conveys the lover's plight.)
4.
Your madman has still not forgotten your curls,by which he was imprisoned,
But in jail,the chains are very light,in comparison to your curls.
(The curly hairs and the iron shackles are of common shape.)
(Thus Ghalib is referring his lifelong captivity,either by the curl or prison-chain.)
5.
If she gave one glimpse of herself and then went away,then so what I have achieved,
She should have conversation with me,as I was longing for that only.
(It is the mischievousness of Ghalib. He says to the Lord,only seeing one glimpse of you can not satisfy me.I was longing to speak with you.)
6.
I called her Yusuf (A handsome prophet who was sold as slave by his brothers),it is very fortunate for me that hearing this absurd praise from me,she fell silent,
If she had become angry,then I deserved punishment for calling her so.
(How captivatingly he described the beloved to be even greater beauty than Hazarat Yusuf.)
7.
Seeing the other in a bad state,from lamenting,why would not I be satisfied,
I used to lament and also sought for effect from my laments.My laments had no apparent effect on me.
(I realize that the rival is as yet deprived of the pleasure of passion.For a true lover,is the pleasure of lamentation a small one.)
8.
If Farhaad was a stone-cutter,then it is no harm,a profession does not remove a person's inborn gentility,
Farhaad was one of us crazed lovers,one who in his young age played a mortal game with his life.
(The path of passion is construed in the world of ghazal as a specific vocation that is also a one-way route to death.)
9.
I had come and stood before her to sacrifice my life,if she considered it contrary to come near me,
Then at least she should have shot an arrow from her afar.
(This is the Ghalib's radical nature of mischievousness.Did she even bother to bring any arrow in her quiver,or was that too much trouble.)
(If this indifference to life-sacrificers is not coquetry,then what it is.)
10.
They are Angels,what feeling they do have for human longings,what ever thing they wish,they have recorded among the sins,
At the time of writing,according to the custom of the world,some representative of ours,should have been there.
(Ghalib has composed a peerless verse.He has compared the application of of human legal procedure and divine justice.Every body knows that a mere written statement is not sufficient to convict one party.Proper form and our man,means advocate is must during the proceedings.)
11.
In Urdu poetry you are not the only Ustad "Ghalib",
It is said that among the ancients "Mir" too was Ustad.
(In Urdu poetry there have been only two Ustads.)
(With what excellence he has established his own equality with "Mir",in the art of poetry.)
(In a typical complex way,Ghalib pays tribute to "Mir",the only other Ustad he depicts as worthy of comparison to himself.)
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