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Mirza Ghalib: Modern
English Translations by Michael R. Burch
Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) is considered to be one of the best Urdu poets of all time.
The last great poet of the Mughal Empire, Ghalib was a master of the sher
(couplet) and the ghazal (a lyric poem formed from couplets). Urdu/Hindi
shayari (poetry) is notable for its highly romantic images, evocative metaphors, emotional content, depth of feeling,
transcendence, and sheer passion! Ghalib remains popular in India,
Pakistan, and among the Hindustani diaspora. He also wrote poetry in Persian.
with modern English translations by Michael R. Burch
If you like my translations you are welcome to share
them for noncommercial purposes, but please be sure to credit the original poet
and translator. You can do this easily by copying the credits along
with the poem.
Every wave conceals monsters,
and yet teardrops become pearls.
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Daam-e har mauj mein hai halqa-e-sad kaam-e-nahang
Dekhein kya guzre hai qatre pe guhar hone tak.
A lifetime of sighs scarcely reveals its effects,
yet how impatiently I wait for you to untangle your hair!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Aah ko chaahiye ik 'umr asar hone tak,
Kaun jeeta hai teri zulf ke sar hone tak.
All your life, O Ghalib, you repeated the same mistake:
your face was dirty but you kept obsessively cleaning the mirror!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Umar bhar Ghalib ye hi bhool karta raha,
Dhool chehre par thi aur aaina saaf karta raha!
Oh naïve heart, what will become of you?
Is there no relief for your pain? What will you do?
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
dil-e-naadaa. N tujhe huaa kyaa hai ?
aaKhir is dard kii davaa kyaa hai ?
Cost Analysis
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I get that 'Ghalib' is not much,
but when a slave comes free, what’s the problem?
mai.n ne maanaa ki kuchh nahii.n 'Ghalib'
muft haath aaye to buraa kyaa hai ?
I believe Ghalib is complaining to his beloved that since he has become her
slave, his lack of "value" in her eyes is immaterial. The fact that he puts his
name in quotation marks suggests that she may have been talking derogatorily
about him.
My face lights up whenever I see my lover;
now she thinks my illness has been cured!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
unhe dekh kar aati hai chehre pe raunak,
aur wo samajhte hain beemar ka haal achha hai
If you want to hear rhetoric flower,
hand me the wine decanter.
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Phir dekhiyen andaz-e-gul afshaani-e-guftar;
rakh de koyi paimaan-e-saiba mere aage
I tease her, but she remains tight-lipped ...
if only she'd sipped a little wine!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
main unhein chheDun aur wo kuchh na kahen
chal nikalte jo mai piye hote
People don’t change, their true colors are revealed.
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Log badalte nhi 'galib' benaqab hote hai
Drunk on love, I made her my God.
She quickly informed me God belongs to no man!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Ten thousand desires: each one worth dying for ...
So many fulfilled, and yet still I yearn for more!
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Hazaaron khwaishein aisi ke har khwaaish pe dam nikle,
Bahut nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle..
While you may not ignore me,
I’ll be ashes before you understand me.
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
humne maana ke tagaaful na karoge lekin
khaak ho jayenge hum, tumko khabar hone tak
I’ll only wish ill on myself today,
for when I wished for good, bad came my way.
—Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
khuub tha pahle se hote jo ham apne bad-khvah
ki bhala chahte haiñ aur bura hota hai
Bleedings
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Love requires patience, while passion races;
must my heart bleed constantly until it expires?
'Aashiqi sabr-talab aur
tamanna betaab
Dil kaa kyaa rang karoon khoon-e jigar hone tak.
Abstinence?
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Let me get drunk in the mosque,
or show me the place where God abstains!
Peene de sharab masjid me baith
ke Galib
Ya woh jaga bata jaha KHUDA nahi hai!
Exiles
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Often we have heard of Adam's banishment from Eden,
but with far greater humiliation, I depart your garden.
Nikalna khuld se
aadam ka sunte aaye hain lekin,
Bahut be-abroo hokar tere kooche se hum nikale
It's Only My Heart!
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It’s only my heart, not unfeeling stone,
so why be dismayed when it throbs with pain?
It was made to suffer ten thousand darts;
why let one more torment impede us?
Inquiry
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The miracle of your absence
is that I found myself endlessly searching for you.
Near Sainthood
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Kanu V. Prajapati and Michael R. Burch
On the subject of mystic philosophy, Ghalib,
your words might have struck us as deeply profound
and we might have pronounced you a saint ...
Yes,
if only we hadn't found
you drunk
as a skunk!
Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Not the blossomings of songs nor the adornments of music:
I am the voice of my own heart breaking.
You toy with your long, dark curls
while I remain captive to my dark, pensive thoughts.
We congratulate ourselves that we two are different:
that
this weakness has not burdened us both with inchoate grief.
Now you are here, and I find myself bowing—
as if sadness is a blessing, and longing a sacrament.
I am a fragment of sound rebounding;
you are the walls impounding my echoes.
The Infidel
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Ten thousand desires: each worth dying for ...
So many fulfilled, yet still I yearn for more.
Being in love, for me there was no difference between living and dying ...
and so I lived each dying breath watching you, my lovely Infidel, sighing
afar.
Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Life becomes even more complicated
when a man can’t think like a man ...
What irrationality makes me so dependent on her
that I rush off an hour early, then get annoyed when she's "late"?
My lover is so striking! She demands to be seen.
The mirror reflects only her image, yet still dazzles and confounds my eyes.
Love’s stings have left me the deep scar of happiness
while she hovers above me, illuminated.
She promised not to torment me, but only after I was mortally wounded.
How easily she “repents,” my lovely slayer!
Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It’s time for the world to hear Ghalib again!
May these words and their shadows like doors remain open.
Tonight the watery mirror of stars appears
while night-blooming flowers gather where beauty rests.
She who knows my desire is speaking,
or at least her lips have recently moved me.
Why is grief the fundamental element of night
when everything falls as the distant stars rise?
Tell me, how can I be happy, vast oceans from home
when mail from my beloved lies here, so recently opened?
To Whom Shall I Complain?
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
To whom shall I complain when I am denied Good Fortune in acceptable measure?
Thus I demanded Death, but was denied even that dubious pleasure!
Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
You should have stayed a little longer;
you left all alone, so why not linger?
We’ll meet again, you said, some day similar to this one,
as if such days can ever recur, not vanish!
You left our house as the moon abandons night's skies,
as the evening light abandons its earlier surmise.
You hated me: a wife abnormally distant, unknown;
you left me before your children were grown.
Only fools ask why old Ghalib still clings to breath
when his fate is to live desiring death.
The following are links to other translations by Michael R. Burch:
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Gulzar
Ahmad Faraz
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Allama Iqbal
Rahat Indori
Nasir Kazmi
Amir Khusrow
Rabindranath Tagore
Rumi
Hafez
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