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 22nd 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) & its explanation in Urdu, Gujarati, and English

Yeh lash-e- be-kafan, Asad-e-khasta jaN ki hai          This corpse without shroud is that of Asad, the tormented soul             Haq   maghferat kare;   ajab    azad    mard   tha!          May ultimate truth (God) bless his soul; what a true free person he was!          lash-e-be-kafan= a dead body without shroud   Asad = real name of Ghalib       khasta jaN=tormented soul        Haq=ultimate truth, Allah, God       maghferat kare=bestow salvation

This is the 7^th verse of  7^th ghazal. This ghazal is not popular at street level yet it is beautiful one; I love it.

 Meaning: Ghalib in his book of verse give great importance to human freedom. In this verse Ghalib looks at his own injured or mutilated corpse, which is without shroud and is lying in a street. However he doesn’t lament on its condition; but, takes pride that this man, Asad, during his life remained free from the shackles of social customs and the religious rituals and even after death he has remained free from the wrapping of a shroud and the weight of a tomb. He calls ‘Asad’ a tormented soul because those who want to live free always suffer a lot at the hands of vested interests. He goes on and prays to almighty to bestow Asad, a salvation not because he was a virtuous person, but because he was a ‘fiercely’ free man. To Ghalib, the greatest virtue worthy of salvation is to live free and to continue the freedom after death by avoiding the constraint of a shroud or the prison of a tomb. Ghalib believes that to remain free is a greatest virtue; it is worthy of winning a salvation. But alas! As Jean Jacques Rousseau has said, “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” When will that dawn arrive when men would be from slavery of social customs, religious rituals, Popes, Gurus, Mullahs, and hegemony of Super powers?

 When I see the dead bodies, without shroud or tomb, of the freedom lovers, who were killed by bombs and tanks, on the streets of Falujah and Palestine, Ghalib’s this verse jumps into my mind. Also, when I think of the battle of Karbala or 1857 war of independence, I recite this verse.

 To call a body without shroud, a symbol of freedom, is a miracle that only Ghalib can produce! Every word in this verse viz. body, shroud, soul, Haq, salvation, freedom, and man are related to death. What a precise verse!