Mirza Ghalib Translations

Near Sainthood by Mirza Ghalib translation by Kanu V. Prajapati and Michael R. Burch On the subject of mystic philosophy, Ghalib, your words might have seemed deeply profound and we might have pronounced you a saint... if only we hadn't found you drunk as a skunk! Ghazal by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch Not the blossomings of song nor the adornments of music: I am the voice of my own heart breaking. You toy with your long, dark curls while I remain captive to my black, pensive thoughts. We congratulate ourselves that we two are different: this weakness has burdened us both with inchoate grief. Now you are here, and I find myself bowing: as if sadness is a blessing and longing a sacrament. I am a fragment of sound rebounding; you are the walls impounding my echoes. Inquiry by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch The miracle of your absence is that I found myself endlessly searching for you. The Mistake by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch All your life, O Ghalib, You kept repeating the same mistake: Your face was dirty But you were obsessed with cleaning the mirror! Ghazal by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch Life becomes even more complicated when a man can't think like a man... What irrationality makes me so dependent on her that I rush off an hour early, then get annoyed when she's "late"? My lover is so striking! She demands to be seen. The mirror reflects only her image, yet still dazzles and confounds my eyes. Love's stings have left me the deep scar of happiness while she hovers above me, illuminated. She promised not to torment me, but only after I was mortally wounded. How easily she "repents," my lovely slayer! Ghazal by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch It's time for the world to hear Ghalib again! May these words and their shadows like doors remain open. Tonight the watery mirror of stars appears while night-blooming flowers gather where beauty rests. She who knows my desire is speaking, or at least her lips have recently moved me. Why is grief the fundamental element of night when everything falls as the distant stars rise? Tell me, how can I be happy vast oceans from home when mail from my beloved lies here, so recently opened? The Infidel by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch Ten thousand desires: each one worth dying for ... So many fulfilled, and yet still I yearn for more! Being in love, for me there was no difference between living and dying ... and so I lived each dying breath watching you, my lovely Infidel, sighing afar. It's Only My Heart! by Mirza Ghalib translation by Michael R. Burch It's only my heart, not unfeeling stone, so why be dismayed when it throbs with pain? It was made to suffer ten thousand darts; why let one more torment impede us? Bleedings by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch Love requires patience while passion races; must my heart bleed constantly before it expires? Abstinence? by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch Let me get drunk in the mosque, Or show me the place where God abstains! Step Carefully! by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch Step carefully Ghalib—this world is merciless! Here people will "adore" you to win your respect ... or your downfall. Ghazal by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch You should have stayed a little longer; you left all alone, so why not linger? We’ll meet again, you said, some other day like this, as if days like this can ever recur! You left our house as the moon deserts night’s skies, as the evening light abandons its cycle. You hated me: a wife abnormally distant; you left me before your children were grown. Only fools ask why Ghalib still lives: his fate is to live desiring death. Drunk on Love by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch Drunk on love, I made her my God. She quickly informed me God belongs to no man! Exiles by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch We have often heard of Adam's banishment from Eden, but with far greater humiliation, I abandon your garden. To Whom Shall I Complain? by Mirza Ghalib loose translation by Michael R. Burch To whom shall I complain when I am denied Good Fortune in acceptable measure? Dementedly, I demanded Death, but was denied even that dubious pleasure! A lifetime of sighs scarcely reveals its effects, yet how impatiently I wait for you to untangle your hair! —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Every wave conceals monsters, and yet teardrops become pearls. —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I’ll only wish ill on myself today, for when I wished for good, bad came my way. —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch People don’t change, it’s just that their true colors are revealed. —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Ten thousand desires: each one worth dying for ... So many fulfilled, and yet still I yearn for more! —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Oh naïve heart, what will become of you? Is there no relief for your pain? What will you do? —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch I get that Ghalib is not much, but when a slave comes free, what’s the problem? —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch My face lights up whenever I see my lover; now she thinks my illness has been cured! —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch I you want to hear rhetoric flower, hand me the wine decanter. —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch I tease her, but she remains tight-lipped ... if only she'd sipped a little wine! —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch While you may not ignore me, I’ll be ashes before you understand me. —Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch