This ghazal of the great Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir, has been sung beautifully by the great singer Lata Mangeshkar.
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I treat this ghazal as metaphorical. Many great Urdu poets often write not in direct language but in indirect language, using metaphors, hints, suggestions, allusions or indications. So to understand their real meaning the reader must go behind the plain, literal and superficial meaning, and try to find out the deeper, inner, real meaning which the poet is trying to convey. To find out this deeper, inner real meaning one has to often wrack one’s brain to find it out, and often it may not be initially evident or easy to understand.
https://nayadaur.tv/25-Jun-2021/the-true-meaning-of-faiz-s-poem-gulon-mein-rang-bharay
https://www.pakistanlink.org/Commentary/2025/March25/07/05.HTM
Also, Urdu poetry has the quality that several meanings can be given to many shers ( couplets ). Sometimes a meaning can be given by the reader which even the shaayar ( poet ) may not have contemplated.
So I am giving the above ghazal my own interpretaion, which is that it is a song sung by a patriotic revolutionary fighting selflessly for his country
” Dikhaayi diye yun ki bekhud kiya
Hamein aap se bhi juda kar chale ”
My interpretation of this sher ( couplet ) is :
” The patriotic revolutionary has become ‘bekhud’ i.e. forgotten himself
He has even forgotten his beloved ( since he only thinks of his country and its people ) ”
” Jabeen sajda karte hi karte gayi
Haq-e-bandagi hum ada karte chale ”
The word jabeen means forehead, and sajda means to bow. So jabeen sajda means bowing one’s forehead.
The patriot bows his forehead before his country, i.e. regards himself as a servant of his country and its people.
” Parastish ki yaan tak ki ai but tujhe
Nazar mein sabhon ki khuda kar chale ”
Parastish means worship. बुत means idol ( whose worship is forbidden by Islam ). But a patriotic revolutionary’s passion makes him even
worship idols i.e. his passion goes beyond and crosses all limits
” Bahut arzoo thi gali ki teri
So yaas-e-lahu mein naha ke chale ”
Aarzu means desire, gali means lane, yaas means despair or disappointment, and lahu means blood.
So this sher means that though the patriotic revolutionary ardently wants a revolution, his journey will be covered with blood ( because all
genuine revolutions are violent e.g. the British, American, French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions ).
This ghazal reminds one of the poem ‘Song of the Stormy Petrel’ written by the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky, about which I have
written this article :
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