INEVITABLE (Lines from Ghalib's ghazals)

For just a few days more will you see Ghalib now,

This heart and this mind have borne enough now.



Afflictions came and stayed but they too left me,

It is the inevitable that I await now.



Often will you ponder on these words of mine,

In my lines will be wisdom revealed somehow.



How the Poet of the Court* deprived me,

He mocked and laughed but looks worried now.



I will be more famous as the belle and the Faqeer*,

Are singing my ghazals for fame and fortune now.

Author's Notes/Comments: 

*Poet of the Court: Ghalib's contemporary named Ibrahim Zouq who was held in esteem in the court of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
*Faqeer: Wandering minstrel of Old Delhi.
Some lines of Ghalib's last ghazals translated on July 6, 2002.
I have ventured to add a few lines of my own here as a tribute to the great poet to whom we, the Urdu speaking people and the Hindi speaking ones too, owe so much.

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