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
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