The Hidden Garden by Gopi Narang (phonics books txt) 📕

he deserved to be called the best of the best, and what were the distinctive features of his golden voice, his andaaz.

After Mohammad Husain Azad, who wrote about Mir in the nineteenth century, Maulavi Abdul Haq was the first to publish Mir’s poetic selection in the early twentieth century together with a detailed critical appreciation. But his common refrain was Mir’s simplicity. Jafar Ali Khan Asar Lakhnavi, who was a great admirer of Mir, also presented a good analysis, but his examination too lacked any critical insight. Even when he tried hard, the only thing he said was that there is an unusual flow in Mir’s work, there is sweep and gush, pain and suffering, and these distinctive elements can be appreciated by sophisticated minds. All this is fine, but there is much more to Mir than that. A quick assessment does not complete the picture. Mir was the first great Indian poet who used multiple lenses in his work. His deceptive simplicity was in fact his ‘multiplicity’. Both Ghalib and Iqbal are great poets, but they too borrow many phrases and features perfected by Mir as part of his andaaz. There are multiple streams coming from different traditions that merge and amalgamate into Mir’s verse and this results in a creative confluence that has not been seen in any other poet. There is a strong link between Iqbal and Ghalib and between Ghalib and Mir with respect to what Ghalib called Bedil’s ‘spring-like creativity’. Both Maulvi Abdul Haq and Syed Abdullah rightly say that Ghalib’s poetic style has its roots in Mir, whose poetry has several treasures of meaning (ganjiina-e maa’ni) that Ghalib took to greater heights.

Fundamental Stylistic Attributes

gali mein us ki gaya so gaya n bola phir

main Mir Mir kar us ko bahut pukar raha

I went to her lane.

It did happen.

Didn’t say a word after.

I called Mir, Mir—

an echo of silence,

no response!

While interpreting Mir’s work, we should keep in mind that we can’t make any judgement based on examples that are similar in essence. Any such attempt will be incomplete. Mir can’t be understood at the surface level. This is the weakness of logical reasoning—everything happens in a ‘serial’ fashion. But stylistic distinctions are rarely arranged as a sequence that eventually form a construction. They appear as one layer that sits upon another in a synthesized manner. There is always some difficulty in separating one layer from another. Let us look at a famous ghazal by Mir followed by two couplets of a ghazal by Ghalib and we shall examine their similarities and differences.

ulti ho gaein sab tadbiirein kuchh n dava ne kaam kiya

dekha is biimaariye dil ne aakhir kaam tamaam kiya

All my plans have collapsed,

and medicines have no effect.

This heart’s sickness

has brought life to its end.

a’hd-e javaani ro ro kaata piiri mein lein aankhein muund

y’aani raat bahut the jaage sub-h hui aaraam kiya

There was lot of weeping and crying during my youth,

and in old age I closed my eyes.

It was like there was lot of sleeplessness during the night,

but when the dawn broke, my sleep returned, and I rested.

harf nahien jaan-bakhshi mein us ki khuubi apni qismat ki

ham se jo pehle keh bheja so marne ka paighaam kiya

I do not question her power to grant me life,

but there is something peculiar with my luck.

The first message that I received from her

was ironically a death sentence.

naa-haq ham majbuuron par y tohmat hai mukhtaari ki

chaahte hain so aap karein hain ham ko a’bas badnaam kiya

The powerless are said to possess a free will.

It is nothing more than slander.

Actually, what He wills happens,

but we get blamed without any reason.

kis ka kaa’ba kaisa qibla kaun haram hai kiya ahraam

kuuche ke us ke baashindon ne sab ko yahiin se salaam kiya

Who is looking for Kaba, or direction for one’s prayer?

Or the robes to be worn on holy pilgrimage?

People of this city of non-conformists offer their greetings

while sitting here and without going anywhere.

sheikh jo hai masjid mein nanga raat ko tha maikhaane mein

hubba kharqa kurta topi masti mein in’aam kiya

Sheikh, who spent the night in the tavern,

stands naked in the mosque.

And in his drunken state, he gave away

his cloak, his gown, his shirt, and his cap.

yaan ke saped o siyaah mein ham ko dakhl jo hai so itna hai

raat ko ro ro sub-h kiya ya din ko jon ton shaam kiya

I have little say or control

in the black and white ways of this world.

I spend the night crying and spend the day

waiting for the evening to arrive.

sub-h chaman mein us ko kahien takliif-e hava le aaii thi

rukh se gul ko mol liya qaamat se sarv ghulaam kiya

She wanted fresh air,

so she walked into the garden in the morning.

She subdued the rose with her rosy cheeks,

and with her tall figure, she made the cypress her slave.

saa’d-e siimiin donon us ke haath mein laa kar chhor diye

bhuule us ke qaul o qasam par haae khayaal-e khaam kiya

I held her tender silver wrists in my hands

and then let them go. What stupidity!

She wasted no time in forgetting

the promises and vows she made.

aise aahuue ram khurdah ki vahshat khoni mushkil thi

sehr kiya ai’jaaz kiya jin logon ne tujh ko raam kiya

It was difficult to tame

the wild and beautiful one

with gazelle-like eyes.

Those who succeeded

may have used, I wonder,

some magic or miracle.

Mir ke diin o mazhab ko ab puuchhte kiya ho un ne to

qashqa khaincha dair me baitha kab ka tark islaam kiya

Why do you ask Mir’s religion?

Or what he believes in?

He put a sandal mark on his forehead

and he was found sitting in a temple.

He gave up on Islam a long time ago.

Mirza Ghalib wrote a ghazal of five couplets in the same zamiin (a lyrical invention with a rhyming scheme and musicality). Two couplets of the ghazal, the matl’a and the maqt’a (the last couplet) are presented below for comparison. It may be mentioned that Ghalib’s ghazal was found in Nuskha-e Bhopal, a collection that included ghazals written during 1813–16. This places Ghalib’s age, when he wrote the ghazal, between sixteen to nineteen years.

vahshi ban sayyaad