2010-08-24

Verbs in दीवान्-ए ग़ालिब्

This post is a follow-up on "A Deluge of Verbs ...?" which reiterated the opinion that (non-compound) verbs are falling out of use in literary उर्दू. To arrive at a metric of this phenomenon, one method is to enumerate the verbs found in the works of famous poets. Who better to start off with than ग़ालिब्!

The following verbs encountered in दीवान्-ए ग़ालिब् have been extracted by me manually. Those listed in parenthesis occur as verbal nouns; however, because of the rather interrupted nature of this project, I've not been consistent in terms of exactly when I noted something down as a verbal noun and when I didn't. Nevertheless, this list gives a fairly good idea of the verbs which were in vogue in literary उर्दू; and things haven't change significantly since then.

This is a Work-In-Progress, and this post will get updated as and when I get the chance to pump effort into it.

Notes
- कर्‌ना and होना are not noted, but देना and लेना are.
- Verbs that occur in a रदीफ़् are noted just once under the "Common:" label for that ग़ज़ल्.
- The ग़ज़ल्s and शॆऽर्s are listed in the order they appear in "A Desertful of Roses" by Frances W. Pritchett.

2010-08-03

रोते भी रहे , हँस्‌ते भी रहे ...

In Lighter Vein

During a spaced-out drive today, I was listening to a बिहाग्-esque rendition by बेगम् अख़्तर् of सुदर्शन् फ़ाख़िर्'s "ऽइश्क़् मेँ ग़ैरत्-ए जज़्बात् ने रोने न दिया" when I realized that I could wholesale replace "रोना" with "हँस्‌ना" and it would still mean something tangible (albeit, as a spoof). So, here goes, with more than due apologies to फ़ाख़िर्:

(१)
ऽइश्क़् मेँ ग़ैरत्-ए जज़्बात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया
वर्नः क्या बात् थी किस् बात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया

(२)
आप् कह्‌ते थे कि हँस्‌ने से न बद्‌लेँगे नसीब्
ऽउम्र् भर् आप् की इस् बात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया

(३)
हँस्‌ने वालोँ से कहो उन् का भी हँस्‌ना हँस्‌ लेँ
जिन् को मज्बूरी-ए हालात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया

(४)
तुझ्‌से मिल्‌कर् हमेँ हँस्‌ना था, बहुत् हँस्‌ना था
तंगी-ए वक़्त्-ए मुलाक़ात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया

(५)
एक् दो रोज् का सद्मः हो तो हँस्‌लेँ "फ़ाख़िर्"
हम् को हर् रोज़् के सद्मात् ने हँस्‌ने न दिया

Interestingly, the मत्लऽ (शॆऽर् १) and मक़्तऽ (शॆऽर् ५) actually work really well; infact, the मक़्तऽ is perfect. It's only शॆऽर् २ which stands out as odd. शॆऽर् ३ kind of makes sense. शॆऽर् ४ reads rather nicely.