Monday, May 31, 2010

Her Zeenay Per

Her zeenay per her manzil per
Her pair talay her shaakh talay
Her parday her deevaar talay
Her khirki mein darvaazay mein
Her aatay jaatay rastay per
Her toli mein her dastay mein
Aye dost jahaan tak jaao ge
Tum mera chehra paao ge
Aye saathi dekho aik dafa
Tum apnay mann ka raaz to do
Main dil se tumhaari mukhlis hoon
Tum aik dafa aavaaz to do

~ Unknown

zeena = staircase
manzil = destination
pair = tree
talay = under
shaakh = branch
toli = group (informal - usually refers to a group of close friends)
dasta = group of people (usually used in reference to army)
mann = self
mukhlis = sincere

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Jo Tu Ne

Jo tu ne banaayee hai khwabeedah bahisht
Jo tu ne jalaaye hain mohabbat ke chiraagh
Khaab shehzaada jisay tum dekhti ho
Naadeeda saahir jisay tum poojti ho
Roz chala aata hai saahir sa yahaan
Gar yeh he banay teray naseebon ka suhaag
Phir jo past kheyalaat ka maara niklay 
Tum he kaho ishq mein paagal larki
Kaun tiray khaabon ki gavaahi de ga

~ Muhammad Sabir

khwabeedah = dreamy
bahisht = heaven
naadeeda = invisible
saahir = magician
suhaag = husband
past = indecent
gavahi = testimony; witness

(This imaginary heaven that you have created in which you have lit the light of love; in which you dream of your prince charming, this magician who has enticed you with his many charms, who comes here everyday; if he ends up being your life partner, but turns out to be a bad person, who then will testify for the beauty of your dreams?)

(Explanation [One of my personal greatest concerns as well]: Every girl conjures up an image of an ideal life partner. When deciding to get married, every girl chooses what she thinks is the guy who best fits her fantasies. But then, what if, this guy that you placed on a pedestal, after getting married to you, turns out to be this giant ass. [E.g. says something like, "well, you went out with me and stuff, I don't know how many other guys you went out with, let come close to you, how can I trust your loyalty?] And then what choice would you have? What option? This is the guy you chose, he is the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, it was your decision... Who will ever understand the legitimacy of your aforementioned dreams? Who will ever be able to testify to the discrepancy between those dreams and how they panned out?!) 

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sher and Info

Since I've graduated, and a little before that too, I've been having computer issues. So I sincerely apologize for not having been so punctual in adding poems and such.

Here's a sher I read a while ago, and it has been stuck with me since then. Reminds me of ammi's death actually; rather the fragility of human life. Here goes:

Khaali haathon ko kabhi ghaur se dekha hai Faraz
Kis tarah log lakeeron se nikal jaatay hain