Ghalib remarked that he would gain fame after death, and he was right

Artists, poets, writers, are beautiful and why shouldn’t they be? They spend their entire lifetime creating works that please souls, that touch souls. However, in some cases, it seems as though it costs a creator’s death for the world to take notice and admire his contributions. And Mirza Ghalib, the eminent Urdu and Persian poet, who began composing poems at a tender age of 11, stated himself during his lifetime that he would be recognized for his contributions by the later generations, and he could not be more accurate on this one.

Another interesting fact about this great poet is that he had a weakness for two things – drinking and gambling. These two vices stuck with him throughout his life.  Talking about his work, Ghalib was one of the important poets in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar II. The emperor, who was also his student, honoured Ghalib with royal titles of Dabber-ul-Mulk and Najm-ud-daulah. These titles helped Ghalibs enter the nobility of Delhi.

Ghazal maestros have kept his beautiful works alive

It is said that Ghalib was much prouder of his works in Persian, but it is his Urdu poems that garnered him major fame. His beautifully strung shayaris  reflect diverse aspects of life and are so poignant that they are even sung by some of the many renowned ghazal maestros like Jagjit Singh, Mehdi Hassan, Abida Parveen, Asha Bhosle, Ghulam Ali, Lata Mangeshkar, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

While we are convinced that each and every shayari he has ever composed is a work of sheer perfection, however for you readers, we have selected  the ones we found to be extremely heart-warming.

#1. Translation:

#2. Translation:

I accept her all talkings as truth by thinking that how her beautiful lip could even lie.

#3. Translation:

Thousands of desires, each worth dying for…
many of them I have realized…yet I yearn for more…

#4. Translation:

Don’t go by the lines on the palm of hand Ghalib,
Luck is bestowed even on those who don’t have hands.

#5. Translation:

I considered her my god, too drugged/blinded by my lover for her,
It was only then I realised I was blinded, when she quoted that god never belongs to just one.

#6. Translation:

The terrors that the darkness of the night holds
Can only be known by the homeless birds

#7. Translation:

I’m too occupied to think, i’ll think someday when I can spare sometime,
Whatever it is that i keep forgetting, so that i can remember you.

#8. Translation:

We live in an age where everything seems such a task,
One cannot even afford to be human these days.

#9. Translation:

The sighs of love take a lifetime to realize
Who may live that long to see you untie the knots of your tresses?

 

#10. Translation:

I am broken by her cheating that if any other one is seeing me with love, I can’t stand it.

 

#11. Translation:

There is no control over love, Ghalib, it is that flame,
which cannot be forcefully lit, and cannot be extinguished too

#12. Translation:

Allow me to drink alcohol in the mosque , church…if you can’t  then tell me the place where there is no God.

#13. Translation:

O my fond heart,what is that ails you
What’s the cure for this pain, what I can possibly do

#14. Translation:

For me, the world is a child’s playground,
Day in and day out, I see this act played before me!

#15. Translation:

My pain did not seek favours from any opiate
I don’t mind the fact that I did not recuperate

#16. Translation:

I was also a man of worth until i fell in love.

#17. Translation:

I know all the truth of heavens. But for the sake of happiness, let it be.

#18. Translation:

Oh God! why people are trying to erase me. I am not the letters of the alphabet.

#19. Translation:

Let the birds fly in the free skies
Those that genuinely are your own, will return back some day

#20. Translation:

She is exasperated and I am so keen
O lord, what might it all mean