نشۂ عشق کا گر ظرف دیا تھا مجھ کو
عمر کا تنگ نہ پیمانہ بنایا ہوتا
بہادر شاہ ظفر –
nashsha-e-ishq ka gar zarf diya tha mujh ko
umr ka tang na paimanaa banayaa hota
– Bahadur Shah Zafar
नश्शा-ए-इश्क का गर ज़र्फ दिया था मुझ को
उम्र का तंग न पैमाना बनाया होता
– बहादुर शाह ज़फ़र
Photo by Simon Fanger on Unsplash
For you gave me an immense capacity to bear love’s ecstasy
you should not have made my life so bound by transiency
Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal king, was also a poet. Though his literary standing was not as high as that of his Ustad (Mohd. Ibhrahim Zauk) and contemporaries, Ghalib and Momin, his writings are highly respected and appreciated. Zafar was a king (though in the British Raj, his kingdom did not extend beyond the Red Fort) and a freedom fighter.
This ghazal is one of his finest works, especially when read in the context of India’s freedom struggle and a helpless (and impotent when it came to doing anything for his country and men) king’s sentiments.