My aunt asked me to pick my favourite Gulzar shayari, nazm or poem and interpret it for her because she enjoys seeing me talk about poetry so passionately. She says I look exactly like my father, my eyes light up exactly how his do when he recites poetry for us. I guess I agree for I got obsessed with Gulzar because he never stops quoting him when he talks.

I thought I would share my thoughts here as well. Let me know what y’all think!

शाम से आँख में नमी सी है
आज फिर आपकी कमी सी है
दफ़्न कर दो हमें के साँस मिले
नब्ज़ कुछ देर से थमी सी है
वक़्त रहता नहीं कहीं टिक कर
इसकी आदत भी आदमी सी है
कोई रिश्ता नहीं रहा फिर भी
एक तसलीम लाज़मी सी है
-Gulzar Saab

Gulzar’s work is for everyone with a heart.

He writes about love, lost love; expectation, unmet expectations; familial bonds, broken familial bonds; and my personal favourite- eyes; be it shy eyes, smiling eyes, sad eyes, scared eyes.

To him, a pair of eyes does more talking than a person ever could and I agree.

This is one such poem Gulzar saab wrote which was made into a song sung by my father’s favourite- Jagjit Singh.
It is a poignant poem written in the memory of someone special, missing, and its impact on his very human self.

Roughly translated,

• The first two lines mean– My eyes are teary this evening, perhaps it is because you are not around; you, my love are missing.

Tears are a very common response to missing someone you love; they are the pain felt by your soul, solidified.
Perhaps the absence of a loved one triggered these tears?

• The next two lines mean– Bury us in the ground so that we can finally breathe, my heart hasn’t been beating for some while now.

The loss of a loved one, no matter what the reason be, makes one feel lost, dead perhaps. Nothing makes sense, nothing excites one or even brings a smile on one’s face.
Gulzar says that perhaps death is the only way one will be alive again, happy again for life has no meaning without love. Death is more exciting than a half-lived life now?

• The next lines mean– Time does not wait for anyone, just how humans aren’t habited to be at one place for too long.

Humans can’t stay put in one place for a long time, they don’t know how to. Perhaps that’s why the loved one left?
Time too, waits for no one. Thus, the happiness wasn’t constant and neither would be the pain as well?

• The last lines mean– Even though there is no relationship left anymore but a final confrontation is a must

Even though love is lost, the bond is lost, and time has passed but a final confrontation with the loved one is necessary.
For closure? Or just as a final goodbye?

I am sure that every reader will understand the given lines differently and maybe none will match the intention Gulzar saab wrote them with

But,

This is the very reason why I love poetry. The same words could never mean the same thing to two people. Its interpretation is for each one to his own.

Its unique.

But it is also immortal.

For poetry never stops being rational, beautiful, inspirational.

To me, the same words, the same verse, the same poem changes its meaning and significance with time and my state of mind. So there would never come a day when I will have read and interpreted every bit of poetry in the world because no poem is the same when read a second time.

And that is pure literary magic.