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

mouth,

like a bud keeps itself closed.

Do walk through the garden freely

as you may like, but keep your secrets

firmly inside you like a fist closed.

mausam aaya to nakhl-e daar mein Mir

sar-e mansuur hi ka baar aaya

When the season came for the sacrifice, Mir,

the fruit that the desert palms bore

was actually the hanging head of Mansur!2

kuchh gul se hain shagufta kuchh sarv se hain qad kash

us ke khayal mein ham dekhe hain khwaab kya kya

Some are more cheerful than flowers,

some are like cypress trees.

Thinking of her beauty

what amazing dreams have I seen!

chashm ho to aaiina-khaana hai dahr

munh nazar aata hai diivaaron ke biich

If you have eyes,

this world is like a house of mirrors.

You can see faces upon faces

in the walls.

y a’ish-gah nahien hai yaan rang aur kuchh hai

har gul hai is chaman ka saaghar bhara lahu ka

This world is not a place

for merriment.

Beware of the colours!

Each flower is a goblet

filled with blood.

sarv-e lab-e ju laala o gul nasriin o saman hain shaguufe bhi

dekho jidhar ik baagh laga hai apne rangiin khayaalon ka

The tall cypresses

near flowing waters,

tulips and flowers,

white roses and jasmines.

Wherever I look,

there is a garden

of my colourful imagination.

va us se sar-e harf to ho go k y sar jaaye

ham halq-e buriidah hi se taqriir karein ge

Let there be dissent

even if the head is to be offered.

The word must be uttered

even if it has to come from

a severed head.3

kare hai jis ko mulaamat jahaan vo main hi huun

ajal rasiida jafa diidah iztiraab zadah

Profusely admonished

is none other than me.

The one who is condemned to death,

the one who has been deceived,

the one who is in terrible agony,

is none other than me.

maahiiyat-e do aa’lam khaati phire hai ghote

yak qatrah khuun-e dil y tuufaan hai hamaara

The existence of this world

and the other is sinking

and resurfacing in the tumult

of the ocean of thought.

A tiny drop of blood in the heart

and all this terrible tempest!

zulm hai qehr hai qayaamat hai

ghusse mein us ke zer-e lab ki baat

It is oppression.

It is cruelty.

It is a doomsday.

When in anger,

she curses quietly

under her breath.

is dasht mein ae sail sambhal hi ke qadam rakh

har samt ko yaan dafn meri tashna-labi hai

In this barren land, O flood,

be careful if you dare tread.

Be careful wherever you go,

you will find my thirst

buried underneath.4

maa’luum tere chehra-e purnuur ka sa lutf

bilfarz aasmaan p gaya phuul maah hua

I know the pleasure

of your luminous face.

A flower went up the sky

and it blossomed as moon.

maa-nind-e harf safah-e hasti se uth gaya

dil bhi mera jariidah-e aa’lam mein fard tha

Like a word, it got erased

from the book of existence.

My heart was one of its kind

in the journal of the world.

chaahe jis shakl se timsaal sifat is mein dar aa

aa’lam aaiine ke maanind dar-e baaz hai ek

You can enter in any form or shape,

this world is like a house of mirrors—

with only one door and no exit.

More than any other contemporary poet, Mir was influenced by the phraseology of the Persian ghazal and he grafted it well into the Urdu verse. Urdu, we should remember, was still a developing language. Many of the Persian phrases and idioms in Mir’s poetry slowly became a part of this evolving language. Such phrases may run into hundreds. Here are a few examples:PersianUrdukhush aamdankhush aana (to like)bar-ruue kaar aavardanbaruue kaar laana (to use)tamaasha kardantamasha karna (to see)saaz kardansaaz karna (to suit)niyaaz kardanniyaaz karna (to offer)

Waheeduddin Saleem has compiled a full list of such phrases that are found in Mir’s work. These phrases were later used by Ghalib and he earned notoriety for them. Let us look at some free-flowing lyrical word combinations:

sehra sehra vahshat (madness everywhere)

duniya duniya tohmat (world being thought, only a thought)

aa’lam aa’lam i’shq o junuun (whole world being love and madness)

josh-e ashk-e nadaamat (to be full of tears of remorse)

ghuubaare diidah-e parvana (haze in the eyes of the moth)

sar nashiin raah-e mai-khaana (leader in the path of tavern)

hangaama garm-kun (to celebrate the event)

harf-e zer labi (to utter something softly under the lip)

These Persian word combinations and phrases blend so well in Mir’s poetry that the reader takes them as original Urdu innovations. Al-e Ahmed Suroor rightly said that Mir’s style never loses its sweetness and delightful demeanour. Even mountains of izafats appear like balls of cotton. In fairness, Mir uses izafats rather sparingly in contrast to Ghalib, but his stylistic word innovations are found in abundance. Waheeduddin Saleem has a point when he says that Mir sometimes goes into very complex word formations which appear excessive in Urdu. But who could find fault with Mir’s malleable lyricism? Waheeduddin Saleem has rightly noted that Mir is sometimes flexing point number four of his own Nikaat-us Sho’ra that says Persian phrases should be such that they have some affinity with Rekhta and that there was no better judge of this than a poet with a fine taste. Mir brings forth Persian word combinations and phrases, both familiar and unfamiliar, traditional as well as innovative, good as well as bad, but once these things go through his creative oven, they become a part of poetic Urdu. The highly creative absorption and naturalization of Persian elements in standard Urdu is a glittering spot of Mir’s poetry. Let us look at couplets where we see creative transformation of Persian into literary Urdu with hardly any effort. Mir delights the reader in this task while maintaining the integrity of Urdu’s Urdupan, i.e. Urdu’s lingual genius.

sehra-e mohabbat hai qadam dekh ke rakh Mir

y sair sar-e kuucha o bazaar n hove

This is the desert of love.

You should walk carefully Mir.

This is not like strolling

in the streets and bazaars

with gay abandon.

roz aane p nahien nisbat-e i’shqi mauquuf

u’mr bhar ek mulaaqaat chali jaati hai

A loving relationship does not depend

on daily interactions.

It is a meeting of living hearts

that lasts a lifetime.

sainkron harf hain girha dil mein

par kahaan paaiye lab-e izhaar

There are hundreds of words

bundled up in the heart,

but where can the lips find

a way to express them.

jam gaya khuun kaf-e qaatil p tera Mir zabas

un ne ro ro diya kal haath ko dhote dhote

Mir, your blood froze

on the hands of the killer.

She cried bitterly

while washing her