Mirza Ghalib’s ‘Dil hi to hai’ sung by Jagjit Singh

Ghalib, born Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (1797-1869), was the subcontinent’s preeminent Urdu and Persian-language poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British. They were finally deposed following the War of Independence in 1857, events that affected Ghalib and his work deeply.

My best translation (his work is impossible to translate):

Dil hii to hai na sang-o-Khisht dard se bhar na aaye kyuuN
Roenge ham hazaar baar koii hamen sataaye kyuuN

It’s only a heart, not stone or brick, why should it not run over with pain?
I shall cry a thousand times. Why should anyone trouble (with) me?

Qaid-e-hayaat-o-band-e-Gam asl men donon ek hain
Maut se pahale aadamii Gam se najaat paaye kyuuN

Life’s prison cell and the shackles of sorrow are, truthfully, one and the same
Why should one hope to escape sorrow, before one’s eventual death?

“Ghalib” e Khastaa ke baGair kaun se kaam band hain
Roiie zaar-zaar kyaa, kiijie haaye-haaye kyuuN

When this wretched Ghalib is gone, the work of the world will not stall
What’s the point of crying then? Why should anyone wail in grief?