Ligo Haibun Challenge ~ Ghazal!

Prompt ~

http://artifactsandfictions.wordpress.com/

This Ligo challenge is about ghazals. A ghazal is composed of five or more couplets that may just have formal unity derived from a strict rhyme and rhythm pattern. (for more details  http://smriti.com/urdu/ghazal.def.html)

An English ghazal that observes the traditional restrictions of the form are rare like the one below.

Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight?
Whom else from rapture’s road will you expel tonight?

Those “Fabrics of Cashmere—” “to make Me beautiful—”
“Trinket”— to gem– “Me to adorn– How– tell”— tonight?

I beg for haven: Prisons, let open your gates–
A refugee from Belief seeks a cell tonight.

God’s vintage loneliness has turned to vinegar–
All the archangels– their wings frozen– fell tonight.

Lord, cried out the idols, Don’t let us be broken
Only we can convert the infidel tonight.  – Agha Shahid Ali

Mirza Ghalib an urdu poet of the 19th century remains unmatched till date. He liked to pose as a rake, yet his deep understanding of life and the sadness that comes through in his lines denotes a pathological despair of human affairs. Often I am forced to accept that good ghazals are a product of extreme sadness and excellent poetic skills. Definitely out of my reach  😦

The prompt reminds me of a ghazal by Ghalib translated below (the original is below the haiku)

I think I will go and live in a place where there is no one

No one to talk to and no one who understands my lingo

 

Make a house without door and walls

None in the vicinity and none with a shadow

 

In case of sickness, no one to look after me

If fatal, no one to dispose the remains also

 

Skill is not ghazal

try getting afflicted with

incurable Love  

————

Original in urdu by Mirza Ghalib

Rahiye ab aisi jagah chal kar jahaan koi na ho
Hamasukan koi na ho aur hamazabaan koi na ho
Rahiye ab aisi jagah

Be-dar-o-diwaar kaa ik ghar banaayaa chaahiye
Koi hamasaayaa na ho aur paasabaan koi na ho
Rahiye ab aisi jagah

Padiye gar bimaar to koi na ho timaaradaar
Aur agar mar jaaiye to nauhakwaan koi na ho
Rahiye ab aisi jagah )