Mirza Ghalib 224th birth anniversary: 10 love couplets by legendary Urdu poet

Mirza Ghalib 224th birth anniversary: Do you hard relate with ‘Ishq ne ‘ġhālib’ nikammā kar diyā varna ham bhī aadmī the kaam ke’? Here are 10 relatable couplets by the Mughal era Urdu poet, Ghalib, that will add all the missing romance to your love and life

Veteran actor Sharmila Tagore once recalled how her late husband and former Indian cricketer and skipper, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, once passed off Mirza Ghalib's poem as his own. The poem was ‘Dil-e-Nadan Tujhe Hua Kya Hai’ and it was her Safar (1970) co-star Feroz Khan who had corrected her and said that it was Ghalib's work.

Mirza Ghalib 224th birth anniversary: 10 love couplets by legendary Urdu poet (HT Digital)

That is the beauty of Ghalib's massive literary work - it is so vast and beautiful that one can't help but use it in their favour to woo their beloved and he is one of the most quotable Urdu poets whose sher or couplets relate with almost all situations of life. Sadly, many lousy poetry, too often, is passed off as Ghalib's words on the Internet and unless you are a hardcore fan of the legendary Mughal era Urdu poet, it would be tough for you to distinguish.

Our favourite are his couplets that capture the pathos of love and are also, the best life coach. They are the epitome of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb which make Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, who wrote under the pen name ‘Ghalib’, occupy a place of pride in the world of literature.

Do you, like us, hard relate with ‘Ishq ne ‘ġhālib’ nikammā kar diyā varna ham bhī aadmī the kaam ke’? On Mirza Ghalib's 224th birth anniversary this Monday, here's remembering the poet with 10 relatable couplets that will add all the missing romance to your love and life.

1. Ishq par zor nahīñ hai ye vo ātish ‘ġhālib’

ki lagā.e na lage aur bujhā.e na bane

Translation: Love is not in one’s control, this is that fire rousedIt cannot be willed to ignite, nor can it be doused (HT Digital )

 

2. Ham ko un se vafā kī hai ummīd

jo nahīñ jānte vafā kyā hai

Translation: From her I hope for constancy

Who knows it not, to my dismay

3. Ishq ne ‘ġhālib’ nikammā kar diyā

varna ham bhī aadmī the kaam ke

Translation: Ghalib, a worthless person, this love has made of me Otherwise a man of substance I once used to be  (HT Digital )

 

4. Dard minnat-kash-e-davā na huā

maiñ na achchhā huā burā na huā

Translation: My pain did not seek favors from any opiate

I don’t mind the fact that I did not recuperate

5. Na thā kuchh to ḳhudā thā kuchh na hotā to ḳhudā hotā

Duboyā mujh ko hone ne na hotā maiñ to kyā hotā

Translation: In nothingness God was there, if naught he would persistExistence has sunk me, what loss, if I didn't exist (HT Digital )

 

6. Hazāroñ ḳhvāhisheñ aisī ki har ḳhvāhish pe dam nikle

bahut nikle mire armān lekin phir bhī kam nikle

Translation: I have a thousand yearnings, each one afflicts me so

Many were fulfilled for sure, not enough although

7. Ishq se tabī.at ne ziist kā mazā paayā

dard kī davā paa.ī dard-e-be-davā paayā

Translation: My being did, from love’s domain, the joy of life procure Obtained such cure for life’s travails, which itself had no cure (HT Digital )

 

8. Aage aatī thī hāl-e-dil pe hañsī

ab kisī baat par nahīñ aatī

Translation: Nothing now could even make me smile,

I once could laugh at my heart’s own plight

9. Mohabbat meñ nahīñ hai farq jiine aur marne kā

usī ko dekh kar jiite haiñ jis kāfir pe dam nikle

 

Translation: In love there is no difference ‘tween life and death do know The very one for whom I die, life too does bestow (HT Digital )

 

10. Jī DhūñDtā hai phir vahī fursat ki raat din

baiThe raheñ tasavvur-e-jānāñ kiye hue

Translation: Again this heart seeks those days of leisure as of yore

Sitting just enmeshed in thoughts of my paramour

(Couplets and translations credit: Rekhta org.)

Born on December 27, 1797 in Agra’s Kala Mahal, Ghalib belonged to a family descending from Aibak Turks who moved to Samarkand (modern-day Uzbekistan) after the downfall of Seljuk kings. He came to Delhi as a married 13-year-old boy and left behind a treasure of quotes that will long be memorised, narrated and cherished generations after generations. 

During the last years of the Mughal Empire, Ghalib was a prominent Urdu and Persian poet who was appointed as the poet tutor of Bahadur Shah Zafar II and of Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza, eldest son of Bahadur Shah II. Despite being made an important courtier of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II, Ghalib had proclaimed that he would gain fame only after his death and rightly so. 

Mirza Ghalib’s poetry and prose are distinguished for his sparkling wit, tough ratiocination and his innovations in technique and diction. He died in his rented accommodation in Old Delhi’s Ballimaran which was declared a heritage site by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Irrespective of your literary interests, you cannot be in Delhi and afford to miss the essence of 19th century Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib who was buried in Nizamuddin. Exuding the lifestyle and architecture of the Mughal era, which was on a decline then, Ghalib ki haveli or Ghalib’s mansion is a must-visit for all poetry lovers and travel enthusiasts.

Located in the Gali Qasim Jan of Ballimaran, Old Delhi, the haveli’s walls are smeared with life-size portraits of the legendary poet and his couplets preserved in hand-written form or painted to house the memorial museum. Ghalib’s sculpture, books and other housing objects related to him also adorn the large columned-compound of the haveli.

Ghalib ki Haveli, was a gift to Mirza Ghalib by a physician or ‘hakim’ who was smitten by his work. It was this house that witnessed the poet pen his Urdu and Persian ‘diwans’ and after his death in 1869, the hakim would sit there every evening, refusing anyone to enter the building.

The fame and glory that evaded him during his lifetime has now turned his poems and writings immortal as they act as the best life coach. They are highly popular for holding relevance even today.