Lagta nahee hai...

(see image information below)

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lagata nahee hai jee mera ujadey dayaar mein

kis kee banee hai aalam-e-naa-paayedaar mein

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[ My heart is not happy in this barren land

Who has ever felt fulfilled In this temporary world]

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keh do in hasaraton se kahee aur jaa basen

itnee jagah kahaan hai dil-e-daaGadaar mein

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[Please tell my desires * to go away somewhere else

there is not enough room for them in my sad heart]

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bulabul ko baagabaan se na saiyyaad se gilaa

qismat mein qaid thee likhee fasal-e-bahaar mein

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[The nighthingale laments neither to the gardnerer nor to the hunter

Imprisonment was written in fate in the season of spring]

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umr-e-daraaz maang ke laaye the chaar din

do aarazu mein kat gaye, do intzaar mein

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[I had requested for a long life a life of four days

Two were spent in wishing* and two were spent in waiting]

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hai kitna badnaseeb zafar dafn ke liye

do gaz zameen bhee na milee ku-e-yaar mein

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[ How unlucky Zafar is !For his burial

he could'nt get even two yards of earth in my beloved country]

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- Bahadur Shah Zafar

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About the Poet: Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal King of India and is regarded as one of the greatest Urdu Poets in Indian history. The British exiled Zafar to Rangoon ( now Yangon, Myanmar ) where he lived the last few years of his years yearning to return to his homeland. He died in Rangoon in 1862 and is buried there. The above poem was written by Zafar as his epitaph

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References:

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1) Read more about Bahadur Shah Zafar at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahadur_Shah_II

2) For a good collection of Zafar's poetry see http://www.urdupoetry.com/zafar.html

3) The English translation is from http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/zafar.html and wikipedia ( except words marked by * , which I find more closer to the intended meaning)

Image Information: This image if from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jzakariya/191481747/