Un ke dekhe se jo aa jati hai mun par ronaq,
Woh samajhtey hain keh beemar ka haal accha hai.
Dekhiye paate hain usshaq buton se kya faiz,
Ek brahman ne kaha hai keh yeh saal accha hai.
Hum ko maaloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat laikin,
Dil kay khush rakhnay ko Ghalib yeh khayal accha hai.
And here’s the wonderful Jagjit Singh version from the Mirza Ghalib soundtrack. His voice is superlative: mellifluous like no other and with an emotional depth that draws the listener in. Absolutely delightful.
The second misra is confusing to me; the literal translation is ‘what benefit is to be gained from gazing upon a loved one’, but there’s an undertone there that I don’t understand, since ‘buton’ (statues) suggests coldness or aloofness. Or maybe Ghalib is just pointing to the impotence of the situation, since that’s the general direction of the third misra too.
It’s interesting that each shair stands very well on its own, almost inviting other interpretations.
Were you always interested in Shaeri or is this some new interest of yours?
I think you mean ’shair’ rather than misra – misra is one line. Shair is a couplet. The misras do not stand on their own, shairs do. That is the idea of a ghazal. Every couplet stands complete as a thought and can be quoted in conversation and essays etc.
Ek brahman ne kaha hai ke ye saal achcha hai.
In my mind it will always be Naseeruddin Shah singing this. Can’t associate any of the ghazals with Jagjit or Chitra…We have to watch this again…
Fixed, thank you for the corrections!
I was going to post ‘zulmat kade’ first, but I figured I’d start with something marginally less lugubrious…
Ammi and I finished watching Mirza Ghalib a few days ago, and it’s awesome. We should watch it again together, all of us.
Ghalib tu Ghalib hai uska koyee sani nahi,,,
” HAIN AUR BHI DUNIYA MEIN SUKHANWAR BAHOT ACHCHE,
KAHTE HAIN KI GHALIB KA HAI ANDAAZ-E-BAYAN AUR