Mir Taqi Mir’s ghazal “Jin ke liye apne to yun jaan nikalte hain”

A ghazal by Mir Taqi Mir.

Ghazal

Those for whom my life itself was almost spentWalk this path like strangers, as if they never knew me

Did the arrows of cruelty break in her breast too?Whatever wound I tear open, arrowheads come out

Do not take us lightly; the heavens wheel for yearsBefore a human being emerges from the veil of dust

Whose fabric is this, all of it stuffed with rags?Do not look at the collections of poetry that people bring out

At times blood drips from the eyes, at times pieces of the heartOr bits of the liver come out every moment

Whom should we blame? As we once longed, so nowOur desires are coming out just the same

You lose your place and become harsh of tongueThose are not words that come out fit to be spoken

Why so? Ours is the round of a yogiOnly once in years do we come out this way

Is Mir too a lover of these mirror-faced beauties?Whenever they leave home, they come out bewildered

Difficult words

• Tir-e-sitam: arrow of cruelty
• Paikan: arrowhead
• Sahl: easy, ordinary
• Falak: sky, heaven
• Qamash: cloth, goods (here: quality)
• Godar: old rags
• Diwan: a poet’s collected verse
• Lakht-e-dil: piece of the heart
• Khashan: harsh, rough
• Shayan: fit, suitable
• Jogi ki si phairi: the comings and goings of a yogi
• Aaina ru: those with shining, mirror-like faces

Background

The third couplet, “Do not take us lightly; the heavens wheel for yearsBefore a human being emerges from the veil of dust”, is prominently quoted on Mir’s profile page on Rekhta. In the fourth couplet, Mir calls other poets’ collections stuffed with godar (rags). According to the Rekhta profile, Mir was himself aware of his greatness². The text is from the Rekhta page¹.

Source of the text: Text published on Rekhta, word for word¹.