POST 24:Lagta nahin hai dil mera
लगता नहीं है दिल मेरा
Bahadur shah ‘ Zafar' was himself a good shayar and in his court, poets like Ghalib, Mir taki Mir, Ibrahim zauq were regulars. He was generous with his gifts, rewards and allowances to all the shayars in his court.
Bahadur Shah Zafar II , was the last Emperor of India. The first war of Independence was fought under his leadership. He ascended to the throne at the age of 62, on 28th September 1837. He was 82 years old, at the time of First war of Independence. By this time the area under the empire had shrunk to just the walled city of Delhi and Palam only . He was the symbolic leader ,under whose command, all rallied. He died in Rangoon, Burma, now Yangon in Myanmar on 7th November 1862, at the age of 87.
Some of his better known shers are here:
1 तुम ने किया न याद कभी भूल कर हमें
हम ने तुम्हारी याद में सब कुछ भुला दिया
2 न दूंगा दिल उसे मैं ये हमेशा कहता था
वो आज ले ही गया और ‘ज़फ़र’ से कुछ न हुआ
3 दौलत-ए-दुनिया नहीं जाने की हरगिज़ तेरे साथ
बाद तेरे सब यहीं ऐ बे-ख़बर बंट जाएगी
This ghazal is from film Lal Quila, released in 1960. the ghazal has been sung by Mohammed Rafi. Music was provided by S. N. Tripathi.
Zafar: victory, Conquest;आलम-ए-ना-पाएदार में : transient, temporary World; हसरतों unfulfilled desires;आलम-ए-ना-पाएदार: transient, impermanent ;दिल-ए-दाग़-दार: Heart with spots ,guilts;ऊमेए-दराज़: long life; सय्याद: hunter; फ़स्ल-ए-बहार : spring time; कू-ए-यार: the street where the beloved resides
लगता नहीं है दिल मिरा उजड़े दयार में
किस की बनी आलम-ए-ना-पाएदार में
My heart is restless in this ruined milieu.
I wonder what is this transient impermanent world made of?
कह दो इन हसरतों से कहीं और जा बसें
इतनी जगह कहाँ है दिल-ए-दाग़-दार में
Please tell all these unfulfilled desires, wishes
to go and settle somewhere else.
My broken heart , which itself is spotted with guilt.
It doesn’t have room for all the unfulfilled desires!
काँटों को मत निकाल चमन से ओ बाग़बाँ
ये भी गुलों के साथ पले हैं बहार में
Oh gardener! please don’t remove the thorns from the garden.
These thorns also have grown, flourished with flowers, in the bloom!
बुलबुल को बाग़बाँ से न सय्याद से गिला
क़िस्मत में क़ैद लिक्खी थी फ़स्ल-ए-बहार में
Bulbul, the victim has no complaints against the gardener or the cruel hunter .
It was destined that the victim would be in jail,
while the garden is in bloom, in spring time!
कितना है बद-नसीब 'ज़फ़र' दफ़्न के लिए
दो गज़ ज़मीन भी न मिली कू-ए-यार में
How unfortunate is ‘Zafar’,
in the matter of burial,
He couldn’t get even two yards of land,
in the street where the beloved resides!
ऊमेए-दराज़ माँग के लाये थे चार दिन
दो आरज़ू में कट गये, दो इंतज़ार में
The long life requested and was granted just four days. In Urdu and Hindi it is generally said that ‘ zindagi is of four days’. Of these precious four days two were spent in praying and two were spent in waiting!
There is a perception that this sher is a part of the ghazal written by Bahadur Shah Zafar.. This sher is at times credited to Zafar, but it was actually written by Seemab Akbarabadi. Seemab read the complete ghazal in a mushaira at Aligarh in 1919. It is his sher. However it so aptly describes the condition of Zafar, who was imprisoned in a jail in Rangoon. Zafar, all the time was praying and hoping to be brought back to Delhi and kept on waiting till his death in 1862, just five years after his arrest.
Have a good weekend.
19.12.2020
