For those who have joined now, let me say few words about this Ghalib series. 

Ghalib, his Ghazals, his poems, his genius, and his wits have always fascinated millions of Urdu lovers including myself. Those who want to read my previous work please Ctrl + click  or copy and paste in internet address window, the following link: http://www.mirza-ghalib.org or, if you choose, you may send me an email request; I will email back my previous explanations just for asking.  

This is my 16th installment.  I have received excellent response from lot of friends; both Urdu and non-Urdu speakers. Please know that this is my own, Asghar Vasanwala’s, work and not a forwarding of someone else’s work as some you thought. Please forward this to your friends. Also please send me your comments/complements. I will appreciate if you forward me emails of your Urdu/non-Urdu friends. 

Here is today’s verse (she'r) in Urdu, Gujarati, and Roman script.

Hai nou aamooz-e-fana himmat-e dushwar pasand                                                                                      My challenge-seeking spirit was yet a trainee, a novice in art of  sacrificing life (for love)                                                 SaKHt mushkil hai ke yeh kam bhi aasaN nikla                                                                          Damn it! It was so easy for me, a novice.                                                

Nou = new    Amuz= learning (it is imperative of Farsi verb Amukhtan=to learn)       Fana= end, death, destruction           Nou amoz-e-fana= a novice in (school of) sacrificing life, an apprentice     Dushwar= difficult         pasand=like, fond of          In Urdu “pasand” has been cleverly substituted for “a person who likes”; viz.   Taraqqi pasand = progressive, one who likes progress.   Shohrat pasand=one who likes to be talked about, fame seeking person     Himmat=courage                       himmat-e-dushwar pasand = courage that likes difficulty, a Challenge-seeking spirit        Sakht mushkil=very difficult           yeh kaam= this job, this lesion     AasaN= easy   

This is the 5^th verse of Ghalib’s 6^th ghazal.  This ghazal is one of the most celebrated ghazals of Ghalib. It has been sung among others, by the top singers like Rafi, Talat-Asha, & Lata. To listen each of them, click here. Many singers have omitted above she'r; probably it is hard to sing.

http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/200409/mpegYbRhCThK3V.mpeg   Rafi http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/200409/mpegrwiKIHRsT9.mpe        Unknown http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/200409/mpegbw11mgDYCZ.mpeg   Lata

Meaning: We see again, in above She'r, Ghalib’s mastery in saying so many things in just two lines. Here, Ghalib wants to say that he was in just a beginner in classes of master’s degree in “sacrificing life” for sake of love. But he was so frustrated that his challenge-seeking spirit found such a hard task so easy. Ghalib in real life also was such a genius that every thing came to him so easy. Many times this made him frustrated. Such frustrations reflect in his poetry and Ghazals. We’ll discuss it as we progress. 

In above verse he says: Oh my challenge-seeking courage, the course of giving life for love, is considered very very difficult, but you learned it all, just in no time! You didn’t face any difficulty in zipping through this very tough course. Oh my courage, because you seek difficult tasks, my problem is, what task do I select for you now? I thought sacrificing life was pretty tough; but, you found it so easy. Oh my courage seeking spirit, now you need a task harder than giving life! Where do I find it? 

Genius people are presented with a big problem. A whiz kid easily gets bored in his classes. When he talks to other classmates there is nothing common to talk. He finds his teachers and other students losers and his classes boring. Ghalib voices such frustration in this verse 

Ghalib was born in 1797 and died in1869. In 1969 India celebrated Ghalib’s 100^th death anniversary. To honor Ghalib, several Mushaeras, programs, and functions were organized during that year. Following, special postal stamps were released to commemorate him.

 Ghalib’s Divan, his book of verse, has been printed several times during his life time and after. There are some variations in each publication. At his 100^th anniversary a new Divan was compiled by a renowned Urdu authority “Malik Ram”, a Hindu.  In this book, in above she'r, the word “Fana” =death or sacrifice life, is substituted by “Wafa”= honoring one’s promise or loyalty. It reads as follows

Hai nau aamoz-e-wafa himmat-e-dushwar pasand    

Change of one word has changed entire meaning of this verse; I don’t think above substitution is correct.   

Finer Aspects: Look at Ghalib’s choice of words. He uses all related words: Muskil and AasaN opposite words. In first line he uses Dushwar = difficult. To avoid repetition of the same word, he also uses another word Sakht =difficult, hard in second line