इर्शाद...

Bible says that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Not really sure about the credibility of this statement. But as far as I am concerned, I live by the word of some of the great shayars and poets.

Poetry, as someone has said, is a sculpture made out of a teardrop. Poetry (esp. Ghazal) means a lot of things to me.

Poetry to me is a passion, a love, an obsession.
It is my escape from life and my connection to life.
It is my impression of the world and it is my expression in the world.
It is the cheerful company of my most joyous moments and it is secret-keeper of my deepest pains.
Poetry is something that makes me go ecstatic and it can make me feel cathartic.

I plan to put on this blog some of t the pieces that are close to my heart. Let the fun begin.

फ़िक्र "मोमिन" की, सदा "दाग" की, "ग़ालिब" का बयान,
"मीर" का रंग-ए-सुखन हो तो ग़ज़ल होती है
सिर्फ़ अल्फाज़ ही मानी नहीं करते पैदा,
जज्बा-ए-खिदमत-ए-फन हो तो ग़ज़ल होती है

Fikr "Momin" ki, sada "Daag" ki, "Ghalib" ka bayaan,
"Mir" ka rang-e-sukhan ho to ghazal hoti hai
Sirf alfaaz hi maani nahi karte paida,
jazba-e-khidmat-e-fun ho to ghazal hoti hai.

So let's see if I, me and you have the Jazba to go through this blogging exercise. I will put forth whatever pieces of poetry I find wonderful and try to translate to the best of my knowledge. But with my overtly limited grasp of Urdu quite possibly I will falter every now and then. Feel free to correct me wherever required.

Will complete this blog by the sher of that famous weaver of words, Asadulla Khan "Ghalib". This sher is supposed to be the first one that Ghalib presented in Bahadur Shah Zafar's court.
नक्श फरयादी है किसकी शौकी-ए-तहरीर का
कागजी है पैरहन हर पैकर-ए-तस्वीर का

Naqsh faryaadi hai kiski shauqi-e-tahrir ka
Kagazi hai pairhan har paiker-e-taswir ka.

Shape (Naqsh) is complaining about whose style of drawing(shauqi e tahrir)
Every particle in the scene is wearing clothes of paper.
(In Persia of old, complaints were brought to the King wearing clothes made out of paper. Here that is taken as a reference.)

Tradition is that once the Shayar presents the first line of sher, someone from the mehfil repeats it. When Ghalib presented this sher, no one dared to repeat it. So Ghalib prompted the court by saying "Koi misra to uthao!" Someone responded with "Miya, misra to bahut bhari hai, kaise uthaye?"