Na tha kuch to khuda tha…
In the last few days, I’ve found this new fixation with Ghalib’s poetry. It was just an accident that my music player happened to play one of his ghazals and a sudden interest was generated. I’ve been listening to a number of his ghazals ever since. And this one the most….
Each word of this ghazal seems to be our lives and how we think. I am about to attempt not just to translate but also interpret his poetry and relate them to our life (mine at least).
Na tha kuch to khuda tha…Na hota kuch to khuda hota…
Duboya mujh ko hone ne…Na hota main to kya hota…
The classic translation and interpretation that you might read for this verse is “when there was nothing in this world…there was God and if there was to be nothing in this world then also there would have been God.”
My interpretation though is slightly different, for me this verse means,
“When I was nothing I had my God and my faith…and if I had not achieved anything then also I would have had my God and my faith…
The desire of being something and achieving something has become the cause of all my suffering…though it wouldn’t have mattered if I wasn’t anyone or anything…”
This ghazal was written in his older days, while he looks back at his life and all that he has given up to be what he wanted to be. And he realizes that he gave up too much to get what he wanted and still probably hasn’t got what he was looking for.
Isn’t it true for all of us; the desire of success is the coz of all suffering (stress, poor relationships, poor health and anything that we suffer from), and yet one day you might realize that it hardly makes a difference what you have achieved coz what really matters is happiness.
Possessed by blind ambition we are willing to do anything to be successful just to realize that in the end all you need is your God and faith.
Hua jab gham se yun behis to gham kya sarr ke katne ka…
Na hota garr juda tann se to zanno pe dhara hota….
My translation of the above verse is “when one decides to befriend pain and misery like in love then one shouldn’t be afraid of dying (by being beheaded)…
Coz if you were left to live…then your head would have merely been on your lap while you sobbed for your love…”
Hui muddatt ki Ghalib marr gaya magar yaad aata hai…
Woh harr ek baat pe kehna yun hota to kya hota…
This is my favorite verse from this ghazal. The “What ifs” of life, “yun hota to kya hota..”.
Ghalib here is used as a metaphor for not just people but also for incidents in our lives.
My interpretation “even after ages of something that happens in ones life we keep thinking about the What if…
What if I had done so…What if I had not…
What if I said so…what if I had not…
We keep imagining how our lives would be different if we would have done certain things differently, clearly forgetting that while thinking about the “what if”, what you have is just passing you by…”
