The beloved's cruelty of the eyebrows became famous.
The soldier does the work, but the general gets the credit.
Is your palace close to the jugular vein's lane?
The breath is stuck in the throat of your ailing one.
Like Jesus, access was gained to their service.
We climbed onto the rooftop, using character as a ladder.
At night, the beloved's image reappeared beneath the eyes.
Wow, how the star of the sleepless eye shone!
Qadar, how did my fame grow from Ghalib's correction?
It's like the fence being cut, but the sword gets the name.
This ghazal, likely by a poet named 'Qadr', embodies classical Urdu poetic themes of intense, often unrequited love and longing. The verses depict the beloved's powerful influence, the lover's suffering and sleepless devotion, and the aspiration for proximity. A significant cultural element is the poet's humble attribution of their fame to the 'correction' or mentorship of Ghalib, a titan of Urdu poetry, illustrating the traditional reverence for literary masters and the guru-shishya (mentor-disciple) relationship prevalent in South Asian arts.
love & longing (ishq, judāī) · the world's unfairness (shikwa)