Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Urdu translation of Hafiz's Persian couplets

Legendary poet Hafiz, the Bulbul-e-Shiraz, is one of all time great poets of the world whose poetry transcends the barriers of language, country and race.

For centuries the lovers of Hafiz deemed Diwan-e-Hafiz as almost next to divine. His son Khwaja Bahauddin came to India and was buried in Burhanpur (the newly created district of Madhya Pradesh) at the border of Maharashtra where originally Mumtaz Mahal, Shahjehan's lovely wife, was also buried before being shifted to Agra.

Gar aan turk sheerazi be-dast aarad dil-e-maara
ba khaal hindosh bakhsham samarqand o bukhara ra

(If that Turk listens to my heart's cry, I can foresake Samarqand and Bukhara against the black mole on his face)

Legend is that after hearing this Tamerlane (Amir Taimur) called Hafiz and asked him that how dare he could gift the magnificent cities so easily which the king had won with great effort.

Hafiz gauged the mood of Tamerlane and said that this habit of spendthrift has reduced him (Hafiz) to penury. Tamerlane laughed and set him free.

Hafiz loved nothing but Ruknabad, the beautiful city which was his homeland. Interestingly, few now realise that like most of the early Urdu poetry of Meer, Ghalib and other Persian poets, Hafiz's lover used to be a boy and not a girl.

Urdu translation:
Hafiz sa-deeda dana-e-ashke hamee fishan
bashad ki murgh-e-wasl kunad qasde-daam-e-maa
[Hafiz, aankhon se aansuon ke daane bikher, shayad wisaal ka parinda hamare jaal ka qasd kare]
shahid aan nees ki moo-e-o-miyaan-e-daaad
banda-e-tala'at aan baash ki aane darad
[Maashooq woh nahin hai jo zulf o kamar rakhta ho/Uske chehre ka ghulaam ban jo koi aan rakhta ho]

Plan to write a lot more on Hafiz soon.