ye na thee hamaaree qismat ke wisaal-e-yaar hota
agar aur jeete rehte yahee intezaar hota

tere waade par jiye ham to ye jaan jhooT jaanaa
ke KHushee se mar na jaate agar 'eitabaar hota

teree naazukee se jaana ki bandha tha 'ehed_booda
kabhee too na toD sakta agar oostuwaar hota

koee mere dil se pooche tere teer-e-neemkash ko
ye KHalish kahaaN se hotee jo jigar ke paar hota

ye kahaaN ki dostee hai ke bane haiN dost naaseh
koee chaarasaaz hota, koee Ghamgusaar hota
rag-e-sang se Tapakta wo lahoo ki fir na thamta
jise GHam samajh rahe ho, ye agar sharaar hota

GHam agarche jaaN_gulis hai, pe kahaaN bachaiN ke dil hai
GHam-e-ishq gar na hota, GHam-e-rozgaar hota

kahooN kis se maiN ke kya hai, shab-e-GHam buree bala hai
mujhe kya bura tha marna ? agar ek baar hota

hue mar ke ham jo ruswa, hue kyoN na GHarq-e-dariya
na kabhee janaaza uThata, na kaheeN mazaar hota

use; kauN dekh sakta ki yagaana hai wo yaktaa
jo dooee ki boo bhee hotee to kaheeN do chaar hota

ye masaail-e-tasawwuf, ye tera bayaaN 'GHalib' !
tujhe ham walee samajhate, jo na baada_KHwaar hota


this was not our destiny, that union with the beloved would take place.
if we had kept on living longer, then would have been kept waiting

if I lived on your promise, then know this that I knew it to be false
for would I not have died of happiness, if I had had trust [in it]?

from your delicacy I knew that the vow had been bound loosely
you could never have broken it, if it had been firm

let someone ask my heart about your half-drawn arrow
where would this anxiety/ pain have come from, if it had gone through the liver?

what kind of friendship is this, that friends have become Advisors?
if someone had been a healer, if someone had been a sympathizer!

from the rock-vein would drip that blood which would never have stopped
if this which you are considering 'grief' this were just a spark

although grief is life-threatening, how would we escape, while there is a heart?

if there were not the grief of passion, there would be the grief of livelihood

to whom might I say what it is-- the night of sadness is a bad disaster!
why would I have minded dying, if it took place one time?

since upon having died, I became disgraced-- why were I not drowned in the ocean?
neither a funeral procession would ever been formed, nor would there anywhere be a tomb

who can see him? for that Oneness is unique
if there were even a whiff of twoness, then somehow [He] would be two or four

these problems of mysticism! this discourse of yours, Ghalib!
we would consider you a saint-- if you weren't a wine-drinker