Quatrain after Max Babi

While my grief is tongueless & unjawed
yet is your aloofness a facade?
must be time   to turn the eyes inward!
life itself pantomimes Marat-Sade

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मेरा ग़म बेज़ुबान है
तेरी बेखुदी बद-गुमान है
घूमा तो ले दीदा अन्दर
ज़ीस्त तक लहू-लुहान है.
(c) Max Babi

Transliteration :
Mera gham bezubaan hai
teri bekhudi budd-gumaan hai
ghoomaa to le deeda andar
zeest tak lahu-luhaan hai.

And Max's "transcreation" (rendering):
My grief is tongueless
Your detachment is illusory
Turn your eyeballs inward
Even life itself seems gored.


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Alternatively:
Here was an earlier version I tried -- before noticing how Max's poem follows the rubai rhyme-scheme (hence I retooled this into the top-most & finalized version seen above, mirroring the rhyme stucture of the original Urdu/Hindi quatrain).

While my despair remains tongueless
is your aloofness a facade?
it's time to turn the eyes inward
when life resembles Marat-Sade

Paradox of Moth & Warbler (after Saadi)

O morning warbler!    you who love to sing!
forth from obscurity    yon moth might bring
love's meaning    singed amid the flame of loving
see how she burns    yet utters not a thing!

who speaks of such a burning    barely knows it!
who dives in fire is dead!    who'll then disclose it?

Ghazal (After Ghani)

Your love has made me forget stories so various!
who're pledged to obey garner worries so various!

not once in my dream could I dream up this treasury
of secrets that gleam with your glories so various

you too could resolve to go on holy pilgrimage
since thither wend planes & trains & lorries various

for sake of his Master Meher now old Ghani
what dubious scoundrels' friendship curries? various

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This new ghazal rendition is based on a literal translation of a poem wryly penned in the 1920s by Meher Baba's disciple Dr. Abdul Ghani Munsiff, as detailed in Ramjoo's Diaries.

"In my heart" [ghazal]

by Bhau Kalchuri



O Meher    since you gained sway in my heart
there's naught save     pain & dismay in my heart

your wine turned     into a blade in my heart
heartbroken! groovy!     I say in my heart

I'm facing     mountains of trouble & woe
Beloved!     where is your jai in my heart?

I wot not     whither my wander might wend
I merely     follow whim's way in my heart

with naught save     shipwreck & tumult O Bhau
you're ruined yet     somehow okay in your heart



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[re-rendered into English verse by David Raphael Israel]

Bhau's own literal English translation of his Hindi ghazal appears in the volume Meher Sarod.

After Ghalib [couplet]

When so proximate to the nest   your snare was hidden
Before even our wings could spread   we were in prison

A version from the Urdu

Astute connoisseurs of letters claim
this alone in my favor
it's useless to seek within meaning's frame
whence flows my poem's flavor




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Based on this:

Connoisseurs of literature / say only this in my favour:
The beauty of his verse / is not in its meaning.

--Shahryar, trans. Baider Bakht & Marie-Anne Erki
[according to Vivek Narayanan's Facebook Status Update]

After Kaifi Azmi ("tears have come") [ghazal transcreation]

When those days I recollect   what tears have come
since a smile I could reflect   what years have come

at every footfall   still backward my gaze turns
in the place where we'd connect   what cares have come

life continues   through this blanketing of pain
to the heart I should protect   what snares have come

in the heart's fine nerves   verging on devastation
in an unbearable respect   what tears have come


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Aaj Socha (Hanste Zakhm, 1973, Kaifi Azmi)

Aaj sochaa to aansoo bhar aaye
muddate ho gayee muskuraye

har kadam par udhar mud ke dekhaa
unakee mahafil se hum uthh to aaye

rah gayee zindagee dard ban ke
dard dil mein chhupaaye chhupaaye

dil kee naajuk rage tootatee hain
yaad itanaa bhee koee naa aaye


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Thanks to N. Madhavan, as well as to Gazala Raza and Mahendra Rathod, for their translations that allow and help me to attempt this; see this Caferati thread.