Saturday, October 19, 2013

Qufale-Abjd (Combination lock)

Internet is an amazing thing. You meet different people. I found a relatively small urdu blog "Elementary" belongs to a person named "Kay" (here). He reminded me an old forgotten (for me) but one real classic ghazal of Mirza Ghalib, 

عشرتِ قطرہ ہے دریا میں فنا ہو جانا
درد کا حد سے گزرنا ہے دوا ہو جانا

Ishrate-qatra hai darya main fana ho jana, 
Dard ka had se guzarna hai dawa ho jana 

(pleasure of drop is to get dissolve in river, 
Once sorrow crosses the line, it becomes a remedy). 

The whole ghazal is pure Ghalib's classic but following verse is just out of world!

تجھ سے قسمت میں مری، صورتِ قفلِ ابجد

تھا لکھا بات کے بنتے ہی جدا ہو جانا

Tujh say qismat may mayri surate-qufale-abjad
Tha likha, baat kay buntay hi  juda ho jana


(Our relationship was alike combination lock, 
as soon numbers matched we were separated!)


*Sorry for ghulabi translation

4 comments:

Beyond said...

I so wish I was able enough to understand Ghalib.

mystic-soul said...

I still feel, I haven't read Ghalib, as I should have. Just yesterday, I emailed a friend to pick his brain on one verse of Ghalib!

(I am glad you are still around)

bsc said...

Iqbal is much more difficult to understand than Ghalib (I am not saying Ghalib is easy) Both have Farsi and Urdu as their vehicles of poetical language.
But this Qufl-abjad type of use in that expression is beyond the reach of common writers/poets. In this respect they are (both Iqbal and Ghalib) almost at the level of prophets

Mystic said...

"tujhe hum wali samjhte....."!