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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Letters in Urdu Shayri


The topic was just on my mind, so I decided to post some good shers on it. The range of emotions in the various sher's is amazing. And as always I am quite fascinated by how cleverly the Urdu shayars have expressed these things.

I have included some shers from the same ghazal where I could, to make the rhyming more meaningful if you haven't heard that ghazal before.

Namabar, qasid and payaami are all names for the letter carrier.

We'll start with my most favourite one:


नामाबर तू ही बता, तूने तो देखे होंगे,
कैसे होते हैं वो खत जिनका जवाब आता है?

******
कब से हूँ क्या बताऊँ जहाने-खराब में
शबहा-ए हिज्र को भी रखूं घर हिसाब में

[शबहा-ए हिज्र=]

क़ासिद के आते आते खत एक और लिख रखूं,
मैं जानता हूँ जो वो लिखेंगे जवाब में.

दोनो का एक हाल है ये मुद्द्आ हो काश
क्यों फिर वही खत भेज दिया उसने जवाब में

    [मिर्ज़ा ग़ालिब]


****
ना आते हमें इसमे तक़रार क्या थी
मगर वादा करते तुम्हें आर क्या थी

त_अम्मुल तो था उनको आने में क़ासिद,
मगर ये बता तर्ज़-ए-इनकार क्या थी

****

मेरे क़ासिद जब तू पहुँचे मेरे दिलदार के आगे
अदब से सर झुकाना हुस्न की सरकार के आगे
ज़बान से गर ना कह पाए आंखों से बयाँ करना
मेरे गम का हर एक क़िस्सा मेरे गम-ख्वार के आगे

****

क़ासिद पयाँ-ए-शौक़ को देना बहुत ना तूल
कहना फकत ये उन से कि आँखें तरस गईं
****

खत के पुर्ज़े आए हैं, क़ासिद का सर, तस्वीर-ए-गैर
ये है भेजा उस सितमगर ने मेरे खत का जवाब
****

क्या जाने लिख दिया क्या उसे इज़तराब में
क़ासिद की लाश आई है खत के जवाब में
****

वो और वादा वस्ल का क़ासिद नहीं नहीं
सच सच बता ये लफ्ज़ उन्हीं की ज़्बाँ के हैं

****


नामा गया कोई ना कोई नामाबर गया
तेरी खबर ना आई ज़माना गुज़र गया

****

मगर लिखवाए कोई उसको खत तो हमसे लिखवाए
हुई सुबह और घर से कान पर रख कर क़लम निकले

****

जिस पर हमारी आँख ने मोती बिछाए रात भर
भेजा वही काग़ज़ उसे हम ने लिखा कुछ भी नहीं

****

वो भी शायद रो पड़े वीरान काग़ज़ देख कर
मैने उसे आख़िरी खत में लिखा कुछ भी नहीं

****

कोई दिन गर ज़िंदगानी और है,
अपने दिल में हम ने ठानी और है,

देके खत मुँह देखता है नामाबर
कुछ तो पैग़ाम-ए-ज़ुबानी और है
*****


Namabar tu hi bata, tune to dekhe honge, 
Kaise hote hain wo khat jinka jawab aata hai?
[Qamar]

****

Kab se hoon kya bata_oon jahane-kharab mein
Shabha-ye hijr kjo bhi rakhoon ghar hisab mein

[Shabha-ye hijr=nights of separation]

Qasid ke aate aate khat ek aur likh rakhoon, 
Main jaanta hoon jo wo likhenge jawaab mein. 

Dono ka ek haal hai ye mudd_aa ho kaash
Kyon phir wahi khat bhej diya usne jawaab mein

[Mirza Ghalib]

****

Na aate hamein isme taqraar kya thii
Magar vaada karte tumhein aar kya thii

I also love this one:

Ta_ammul to tha unko aane mein qasid, 
Magar ye bata tarz-e-inkaar kya thii?

[Allama Iqbal]
****
Mere qasid jab tu pahunche mere dildaar ke aage
Adab se sar jhukaanaa husn ki sarkaar ke aage
ZabaaN se gar na keh paaye aa.Nkho.n se bayaa.N karanaa
Mere Gam kaa har ek qissaa mere Gam-Khvaar ke aage

****
qaasid payaam-e-shauq ko denaa bahut na tuul
kahanaa faqat ye un se ki aa.Nkhe.n taras ga_ii.n

[Jaleel Manakpuri]
                ****
Khat ke purze aaye hai.n, qaasid ka sar, tasviir-e-Gair
ye hai bhejaa us sitamgar ne mere Khat kaa javaab

****

kyaa jaane likh diyaa kyaa use izteraab me.n
qaasid kii laash aa_ii hai Khat ke javaab me.n
[Momin]

vo aur vaadaa vasl kaa qaasid nahii.n nahii.n
sach sach bataa ye lafz unhii.n kii zabaa.N ke hai.n
[Amir Meenai]

****

naamaa gayaa ko_ii na ko_ii naamaabar gayaa
terii Khabar na aa_ii zamaanaa guzar gayaa

[Seemab Akbarabadi]
****
This is from the famous ghazal "Hazaron khwahishen aisi"...

Magar likhavaa_e koii usako Khat to hamase likhavaae
Huii subah aur ghar se kaan par rakh kar qalam nikale
` [Mirza Ghalib]

****
jis par hamaarii aa.Nkh ne motii bichhaye raat bhar
bhejaa vohii kaaGaza use ham ne likhaa kuchh bhii nahii.n
[Bashir Badr]
****
vo bhii shaayad ro pa.De viiraan kaaGaz dekh kar
mai.n ne use aaKhirii Khat me.n likhaa kuchh bhii nahii.n

[Zahur Nazar]
****
We'll end with another one of my favourites, I love this ghazal, I think I'll post it in its entirety as a different post:

Ko_ii din ghar zindgaani aur hai,
Apne dil mein hum ne thaani aur hai,

Deke Khat muu.Nh dekhataa hai naamaabar
Kuchh to paiGaam-e-zubaanii aur hai

[Mirza Ghalib]


Feel free to comment or add any sher's that you may like on this topic.

7 comments:

Always Happy said...

Too good sunil! I failed to understand a few of them. May be because i am reading it in English.

A very nice read for the afternoon.

Irfanuddin said...

some nice collection of the great Shayers....

as AH said.... english script does create some problem here...

Best wsihes,
irfan.

Sunil Goswami said...

Irfan ji, welcome to my blog, and thank you for the comment.

@AH, Irfan - I actually forgot to put the Hindi transcript there, but now I have corrected that. I agree reading Hindi in Roman script works but Urdu, especially shayri is too complex for the English script to handle.
Thank you both for pointing it out.

Always Happy said...

Thats better Sunil. I have read them over and over again now. They are just so good. So talented no these shayars were? I mean what must have been going on in their heads when they came up with such great shers.

Thank you so much for sharing and also for making it an easy read following our suggestions. appreciate it.

Sunil Goswami said...

AH, I have often wondered about the same thing. When I try my hand at shayri, I have to try so hard to make it sound sensible, and these people, they just belted out sher after sher and each one like a gem of philosophy as well as poetry.

SEI MADHU-MUKH... said...

Will u plz make me understand the entire meaning of the following?

kab se hoon, kya bataaoun, yahaa-ne kharaab me
shab haaye, hijr ko bhi rakhu, ghar hisaab me

mujh tak karam ki bazm me, aata tha door-e-jaan
saaki ne kuch mila na diya ho, sharaab me

Taahir na intezaar me, neend aaye umr bhar
aane ka éhd kar ghaye, aaye jo khwaab me

Thanks in advance
--
Puja Bhattacharyya

Sunil Goswami said...

Hi Puja, let me try to explain them as best I can.

kab se hoon, kya bataaoun, jahaa-ne kharaab me
shab haaye, hijr ko bhi rakhoon, ghar hisaab me
If you ask me how long I have been in this wicked world,
I am not sure if I should count those nights as part of my life which I spent
separated from my beloved.

mujh tak kab un ki bazm mein, aata tha daur-e-jaam
saaki ne kuch mila na diya ho, sharaab me
In their mahfil (party), the service of drinks never used to come as far as me.
Today it has been served to me, so I am suspicious if the saaki (the barman/bargirl)
has put something in it.

Taaphir na intezaar me, neend aaye umr bhar
aane ka éhd kar ghaye, aaye jo khwaab me
Once she came into my dream and promised to come to me,
Just so I couldn't sleep for the rest of my life.


Ghalib's stuff is very deep, people do a whole Ph.D. level research on a single sher. I have tried to explain the ones here in simple words but there's no limit to how much can be said about their deeper interpretation and their various meanings.

Still, I hope this helps.
Cheers.