Home | September '98 Index

For those of you who have recently joined the mailing list, we 
usually dedicate one week to a particular poet and the poet of the 
week is Qateel Shifai.


yo.n lage dost teraa mujhase Khafaa ho jaanaa
jis tarah phuul se Khushbuu kaa judaa ho jaanaa

ahal-e-dil se ye teraa tark-e-ta'alluq
vaqt se pahale asiiro.n kaa rihaa ho jaanaa

[tark-e-ta'alluq = breaking off the acquaintanceship/relationship]
[asiir = prisoner]

yo.n agar ho to jahaa.N me.n ko_ii kaafir na rahe
mo'ajuzaa tere vaade kaa vafaa ho jaanaa

[mo'ajuzaa = miracle]

Note: This word is often pronounced as "mojezaa" as in the famous 
Qateel Shifai ghazal "ye mojezaa bhii muhabbat kabhii dikhaaye mujhe"


zi.ndagii mai.n bhii chaluu.Ngaa tere piichhe-piichhe
tuu mere dost kaa naqsh-e-kaf-e-paa ho jaanaa

[naqsh-e-kaf-e-paa = footprints]

jaane vo kaun sii kaifiyat-e-Gam_Khvaarii hai
mere piite hii "Qateel" us ko nashaa ho jaanaa

[kaifiyat-e-Gam_Khvaarii = empathy]

[In my opinion, the maqta fails to live up to the promise of the 
other ashaar in the Gazal, thus relegating it to the domain of not-so-
great Gazals. However, the matlaa and other ashaar are nice]

FYI, a brief description of the various forms of Urdu poetry can be 
found at:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/6631/define.html

A technical explanation (in lay man's terms) of what constitues a 
Gazal, and more important, what is NOT a Gazal, can be found at the 
following site: 

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~navin/india/songs/ghalib/ghazal.def.html

This is a reproduction of a post on rec.music.indian.misc based on 
the definition provided in the book Aaina-e-Ghazal