Meer Taqi Meer (A Biography)
Mir Taqi Mir is one of the immortals among Urdu poets. A specialist of the ghazal, he has left behind six poetical collections callled Dewans, containing a total of 13,585 couples. He has also written masnavis, marsias, and qasidas, besides a Dewan in Persian poetry, and at least three important works in Persian prose- Nikaat-ul-Shora, containing lives of Urdu poets, Zikar-e-Mir, an autobiography, and Faize-e-Mir, a book specially written for the edification of the poet's son.
Mir Taqi Mir is one of the immortals among Urdu poets. A specialist of the ghazal, he has left behind six poetical collections callled Dewans, containing a total of 13,585 couples. He has also written masnavis, marsias, and qasidas, besides a Dewan in Persian poetry, and at least three important works in Persian prose- Nikaat-ul-Shora, containing lives of Urdu poets, Zikar-e-Mir, an autobiography, and Faize-e-Mir, a book specially written for the edification of the poet's son.
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At the age of 17, Mir suffered a stroke of madness, a consequence of cumulative mental tension, precipitated, one may surmise, by frustration in love. In this state of manic depression the boy-poet would be haunted by a fairy-faced apparition, that would descend to him every night from the moon, and disappear at dawn, leaving him restless during the day. This hallucinatory experience is the basic of Mir's masnavi, "Khwab-o-Khayal", which is included in this book in an abridged form.
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Apart from being a fine piece of narrative art, this poem contains a moving account of the plight of psychic patient, and the callous way this sickness was treated in the past. It is remarkable that even when the poet is passing through the worst phase of mental and physical agony, he doesn't lose his hold on love and beauty which glimmer every now and then through the generally dark imagery of this poem, as in the following couplet:
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Carking cares of life my mental peace did foil,My luck, like my darling's locks, always caught in coils.
Carking cares of life my mental peace did foil,My luck, like my darling's locks, always caught in coils.
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Khwab-o-Khayal ( in Roman)
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Sakhun zuef se sakht dushwar tha,
Sakhun zuef se sakht dushwar tha,
Palak ka uthana bhi ik baar tha.
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Khara hun agar paaon laghzan rahe,
Badan baid ki tarah larzan rahe.
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Chala jaae sar paaon thra thra kare,
Naseem-e-sahar kaar-e-sar sar kare.
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Pas az chand aankhen thahrne lagin,
Nigahen bhi kuchh kaam karne lagin.
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Bandha natawaani ka rakht-e-safar,
Kiya taaqat-e-rafta ne munh idhar.
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Kise tha miri zindagani ka dhayan,
Walekin nihayat tha main sakht jaan.
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Lagi jaan si aane aaza ke beech,
Koi roz rahna tha duniya ke beech.
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Phira natawan main bahut door se,
Ke nazdik tha aalam-e-gor se.
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Woh soorat ka wahm aur deewanagi,
Lagi karne dar parda be-ganagi.
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Na dekhe miri oar us payaar se,
Gharibana sar maare deewar se.
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Kahin tuk tasalli, kahin be qarar,
Kahin shauq se mere be ikhtiar.
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Khwab-o-Khayal ( in English)
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I couldn't stir or speak, I'd grown so weak,
Even to life my eye-lids was a trying feat.
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If I tried to stand, my feet beneath would shake,
My body would tremble, my limbs would quake.
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My legs would totter, my head would reel,
Blast-like appeared to me even the gentle breeze.
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Slowly my faculties began to stablize,
Day by day I regained my clearer sense of sight.
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Debility from my body did at last depart,
With the vigour returning, life resumed its part.
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Who was there, after all concerned about my life,
But for my tenacious will I would sure have died.
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My body's failing strength at last revived,
I wasn't fated, so it seemed. so soon to die.
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I had staged a comeback from the farthest end,
From the very edge of grave I had been returned.
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Rarely that illusory shape sprang before my sight,
I would catch a glimpse of her, albeit, once a while.
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She wouldn't look at me with love, as heretofore,
Despairingly she beat her head against the walls & doors.
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