Koi Umeed Bar Nahi Aati - Mirza Ghalib

koi umeed bar nahin aati

koi soorat nazar nahin aati

maut ka ek din mu'ayyan hai

neend kyun raat bhar nahi aati

aage aati thi haal-e-dil pe hasee

aab kisi baat par nahi aati

jaanta hoon sawaab-e-taa'at-o-zahad

par tabiyat idhar nahin aati

hai kuch aisee hi baat jo chup hoon

warna kya baat kar nahin aati?

kyon na cheekhon ki yaad karate hain

mere awaaz gar nahin aati

daag-e-dil gar nazar nahin aata

boo bhi aye chaaraagar! nahin aati

hum wahan hain jahaan se humko bhi

kuch humari khabar nahin aati

marte hain aarzoo mein marne ki

maut aati hai par nahin aati

kaaba'a kis munh se jaaoge 'ghalib'

sharm tumko magar nahin aati

---

No hope comes to fulfillment

No face comes into view

One day of death has been decreed -

Why doesn't sleep come, all night?

I used to laugh at the state of my heart,

Now I don't laugh at anything.

I know the merit of obedience and asceticism, But my temperament just doesn't incline that way.

There's something or the other, that makes me silent -

Otherwise, don't I know how to speak?

Why shouldn't I scream? For she remembers me -

If she doesn't hear my voice.

If you don't see the burning wound in my heart, Oh physician, can't you even smell it?

I am in a place where even to me

No news comes about myself.

I'm dying with longing to die -

Death comes, but does not come.

How will you have the nerve to go to the Ka'ba, Ghalib?

Perhaps you have no sense of shame.