===
{617},
trans.
===

 

Notes:

SRF's translation comes, with his permission, from Mir Taqi Mir: Selected Ghazals and Other Poems, translated by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019. Murty Classical Library of India; Sheldon Pollock, General Editor. Ghazal 51, pp. 145-147.

S. R. Faruqi:

(1) It was enough to keep me half-drunk for my whole life:
one little goblet of my bloodied heart.

(2) It's only morning and my heart seems to collapse and fall already.
How much havoc will I have to suffer to get through the night?

(3) The bud has acquired the art of opening little by little
from her half open sleepy eyes.

(4) She removed her veil and it was like the rising of the moon.
Her going about unveiled scars my heart.

(5) There was much that I needed to do in love, Mir.
But I discharged all the tasks rather quickly.

 

FWP:

(inspired by SRF's translation)

(1) For my whole life I was like a drunkard,
from a single rosy flagon of the blood-filled heart,

(2) Since dawn my heart has been-- ah, in collapse.
How will I ever make it through the night?

(3) The bud has learned to open bit by bit,
from the dreaminess of her half-sleepy eyes.

(4) She lifted her veil-- as if a moon rose.
I am scarred by her unveiledness.

(5) Passion gave me a lot to do, Mir.
But I got through it all, rather quickly.

 

Zahra Sabri:

Zahra Sabri is a special guest translator for this site.

(1) I remained like a drunkard, all my life long
Due to one small flagon, comprising my blood-filled heart

(2) My heart has been caving in since dawn time, alas!
How devastating would getting through the night be?

(3) The bud has learned to blossom little by little
From the drowsy seduction of her half-open eyes

(4) As soon as the covering over her face was lifted, a sort of moonrise occurred
My heart wears the brand of her unveiledness

(5) There was much that needed doing in passion; however, ‘Mir’
I got through with it all rapidly