Goliyan tekay ya goliyan bullets gunshots?
Mein qareeb ul Marag maqtool Mirza right?
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Musalmano ka bhai zafar bhai,
Qadyanio ka bhai zafar bhai,
Mirzayon ka bhai zafar bhai
Kafiron ka bhai zafar bhai,
Yazediyon ka bhai zafar bhai,
Sab ka bhai sab ka dost,
Yaron ka yaar zafar bhai ict.
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Nothing existed before I was born! My parents, the sky, the land, and God were all absent.
Helgurd Aziz Mirza
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While you may not ignore me,
I’ll be ashes before you understand me.
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu translation by Michael R. Burch
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My face lights up whenever I see my lover;
now she thinks my illness has been cured!
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu translation by Michael R. Burch
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I you want to hear rhetoric flower,
hand me the wine decanter.
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch
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I tease her, but she remains tight-lipped ...
if only she'd sipped a little wine!
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch
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I get that 'Ghalib' is not much,
but when a slave comes free, what’s the problem?
(Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch)
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Oh naïve heart, what will become of you?
Is there no relief for your pain? What will you do?
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch
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Ten thousand desires: each one worth dying for ...
So many fulfilled, and yet still I yearn for more!
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch
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All your life, O Ghalib, you repeated the same mistake:
Your face was dirty, but you kept cleaning the mirror!
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet translation by Michael R. Burch
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People don’t change, it’s just that their true colors are revealed.
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu translation by Michael R. Burch
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We have often heard of Adam's banishment from Eden,
but with far greater humiliation, I abandon your garden.
('Exiles' by Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet, loose translation by Michael R. Burch)
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Let me get drunk in the mosque,
Or show me the place where God abstains!
—Mirza Ghalib, Islamic couplet, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
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Love requires patience while passion races;
must my heart bleed constantly before it expires?
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
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I’ll only wish ill on myself today,
for when I wished for good, bad came my way.
—Mirza Ghalib, Urdu couplet, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
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Every wave conceals monsters,
and yet a teardrop still becomes a pearl.
(by Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch)
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A lifetime of sighs scarcely reveals its effects,
yet how impatiently I wait for you to curl your hair!
(Mirza Ghalib, loose translation by Michael R. Burch)
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