Dil-e-Nadan Tujhe Hua Kya Hai — Mirza Ghalib
Table of Contents
dil-e-nadan tujhe hua kya hai
aakhir is dard ki dawa kya hai
ham hain mushtaq aur woh bezaar
ya ilaahi yeh maajra kya hai
jab ki tujh bin nahin koi maujood
phir yeh hungaama ai KHuda kya hai
yeh paraaye roz-o-shab hai hai Ghalib
taaza hai junoon ki intihaa kya hai
main bhi munh mein zabaan rakhta hun
kaash poochho ki maajra kya hai
Sher 1 — Matla #
आख़िर इस दर्द की दवा क्या है
| Word | Roman | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| दिल-ए-नादाँ | dil-e-nadan | the naive heart, the unknowing heart (dil = heart; nadan = naive, ignorant, innocent) |
| तुझे | tujhe | to you, what has happened to you |
| हुआ | hua | happened, is the matter |
| क्या है | kya hai | what is it |
| आख़िर | aakhir | after all, in the end, tell me finally |
| इस | is | this |
| दर्द | dard | pain |
| की | ki | of |
| दवा | dawa | cure, remedy, medicine |
| क्या है | kya hai | what is it |
What Ghalib is saying: O naive heart — what has happened to you? After all, what is the cure for this pain?
Ghalib addresses his own heart in the second person — a distancing that is at once tender and diagnostic. The heart is nadan: innocent, naive, unknowing. The tone is not contemptuous; it is the tone one uses with a child who has hurt itself and doesn’t understand why. The second line asks the practical question — what is the remedy? — but asked this way, after acknowledging the heart’s naivety, it carries the implication that no remedy exists, because a naive heart does not know what it is suffering from or why.
Sher 2 #
या इलाही यह माजरा क्या है
| Word | Roman | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| हम हैं | hum hain | I am, we are |
| मुश्ताक़ | mushtaq | eager, longing, full of desire |
| और | aur | and |
| वो | woh | she, he |
| बेज़ार | bezaar | disgusted, fed up, weary (be = without; zaar = complaint, suffering — here: the one who is done with it all) |
| या इलाही | ya ilaahi | O God, O Lord (exclamation of bewilderment) |
| यह | yeh | this |
| माजरा | maajra | situation, affair, what is going on |
| क्या है | kya hai | what is this, what does this mean |
What Ghalib is saying: I am eager; she is repelled. O God — what kind of situation is this?
The asymmetry could not be more complete. The lover wants; the beloved is bezaar — not merely indifferent but actively weary. The appeal ya ilaahi is addressed to God as an astonished witness to this mismatch. Ghalib does not explain it or justify it; he simply holds it up for divine inspection. The incompatibility is absolute and mysterious. Why would God arrange the world this way? The question is not answered.
Sher 3 #
फिर यह हंगामा ऐ ख़ुदा क्या है
| Word | Roman | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| जब कि | jab ki | given that, since |
| तुझ बिन | tujh bin | without you, except you |
| नहीं | nahin | there is no, nothing exists |
| कोई | koii | anyone, anything |
| मौजूद | maujood | present, in existence |
| फिर | phir | then, in that case |
| यह | yeh | this |
| हंगामा | hungaama | uproar, commotion, all this noise |
| ऐ ख़ुदा | ai KHuda | O God (direct address) |
| क्या है | kya hai | what is it |
What Ghalib is saying: Given that nothing exists except You — then, O God, what is all this commotion about?
This is the most philosophically dense couplet in the ghazal. Ghalib invokes the Sufi concept of wahdat ul-wujud — the unity of existence, the idea that only God truly exists and all of creation is a manifestation of the divine. If that is so — if nothing exists outside of God — then what is the meaning of all this suffering, all this longing, all this drama of lover and beloved? The question punctures religious consolation: if you say God is all, then the pain is also God. Explain that.
Sher 4 #
ताज़ा है जुनूँ की इंतिहा क्या है
| Word | Roman | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| यह | yeh | this |
| परायी | paraaye | belonging to another, not your own |
| रोज़-ओ-शब | roz-o-shab | day and night (roz = day; shab = night) |
| है है | hai hai | alas, the cry of grief |
| ‘ग़ालिब’ | ‘Ghalib’ | the poet’s name |
| ताज़ा | taaza | fresh, new, renewed |
| है | hai | is |
| जुनूँ | junoon | madness, obsession |
| की | ki | of |
| इंतिहा | intihaa | limit, end, the ultimate degree |
| क्या है | kya hai | what is it |
What Ghalib is saying: Day and night are not yours, Ghalib — alas. And the madness is fresh again — what is its limit?
Time itself belongs to someone else — the days and nights are paraaye, not the lover’s own. His existence passes through time that is not his to keep. And the madness — junoon — is fresh again: this is not old grief but renewed obsession, returning with new force. The question intihaa kya hai — what is the limit of this madness — is asked not to find an answer but to register that no limit has been found.
Sher 5 — Maqta #
काश पूछो कि माजरा क्या है
| Word | Roman | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| मैं | main | I |
| भी | bhi | also, too |
| मुँह में | munh mein | in the mouth, in my own mouth |
| ज़बान | zabaan | a tongue, a language |
| रखता हूँ | rakhta hun | do keep, do have |
| काश | kaash | I wish, if only |
| पूछो | poochho | you would ask (intimate imperative) |
| कि | ki | what |
| माजरा | maajra | the situation, what is happening |
| क्या है | kya hai | what it is |
What Ghalib is saying: I too have a tongue in my mouth. If only you would ask me what is going on.
The maqta is Ghalib’s most naked statement of the lover’s predicament: he is capable of speech, he has language, he has the whole story — but the beloved never asks. The kaash — “if only” — is the word of wishes that one knows will not be granted. He is not silent by choice; he has been rendered mute by the beloved’s incuriosity. The whole ghazal, with its questions addressed to the naive heart and to God, arrives here: the person who could actually answer, and who longs to be asked, is never consulted.