Lyricist: Mirza Ghalib
Singer: Jagjeet Singh
आह को चाहिए इक उम्र असर होने तक
कौन जीता है तेरी ज़ुल्फ़ के सर होने तक।
आशिक़ी सब्र-तलब और तमन्ना बेताब
दिल का क्या रंग करूँ ख़ून-ए-जिगर होने तक।
हम ने माना कि तग़ाफुल न करोगे लेकिन
ख़ाक हो जाएँगे हम तुमको ख़बर होने तक।
ग़म-ए-हस्ती का ‘असद’ किस से हो जुज़ मर्ग इलाज
शमा हर रंग में जलती है सहर होने तक।
—
सब्र-तलब = Desiring/Needing Patience
तग़ाफुल = Ignore/Neglect
जुज़ = Except/Other than
मर्ग = Death
शमा = Lamp/Candle
सहर = Dawn/Morning
Their Words, Their Voice 
i’m quite uncertain about meaning of the second line
“कौन जीता है तेरी ज़ुल्फ़ के सर होने तक”
need ur help for that
read hindi meaning
who lives as long as , I got the victory over your zulf… Means tujhko paane tak kon jeeta hai
“Love Sonnets of Ghalib” by Dr. Sarfaraz K. Niazi, page 306.
It takes a lifetime for the sighs to have any effect.
Who would ever live long enough to win your tresses?
“कौन जीता है तेरी ज़ुल्फ़ के सर होने तक” meaning “who wants to wait till your hair becomes white” (in a literal sense). “आह को चाहिए इक उम्र असर होने तक” and I don’t wait to wait…
We have a Ghulam Ali Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ghulamalisfans/ in case you want to discuss this further.
kaun jeeta hai teri julfe ke sar hone tak -what it means:
i will convert into ashes till your hair become tied “it means this or what”reply me
yes it means no one can live till ur hair ties in a not from untied hair
knot*
First of all you guys need to know the meaing of “sar hona”. its meaning is to WIN or to CONQUER
A sigh needs a lifetime until it becomes effective
Who lives until your curls will be won over?
In simple words
“You’ll take a lot of time to understand my pain and i am not capable to live that long”
That is how i interpret it your interpretation may be different.
Kon jiyega. teri jhulf ko sar Hona yani teri jhulfo ko hasil karna . Yani tuje hasil karne Tak kon jiyega !?!?
AAH KO CHAAHIYE IK UMR ASAR HONEY TAK
KAUN JEETAA HAI TIRI ZULF KE SAR HONEY TAK
[My] longing [for you] requires a lifetime for its realization
Who may live that long to see its effect on you?
AASHIQI SABR TALAB AUR TAMANNA BETAAB
DIL KA KYA RAnG KAROOn KHOON- E- JIGAR HONEY TAK
Love demands patience while my yearning is restive
How should I placate the heart till the demise?
HUM NE MAANAA KE TAGHAAFUL NA KAROGEY LEKIN
KHAAK HO JAAYEnGEY HUM TUM LO KHABAR HONEY TAK
Even if I believe that you won?t be apathetic to me, but I won’t be around by the time you’ll get to know [my condition]
GHAM -E -HASTI KA ASAD KIS SE HO JUZ MARG ILAAJ
SHAM?A HAR RAnG MEIn JALTI HAI SAHAR HONEY TAK
O Asad! There is no remedy for the anguish of living save death A candle has to go through varied phases till the morn
GHAM -E -HASTI KA ASAD KIS SE HO JUZ MARG ILAAJ
SHAM?A HAR RAnG MEIn JALTI HAI SAHAR HONEY TAK
O Asad! There is no remedy for the anguish of living except death A candle has to go through varied phases till the morn
Beautiful translation. Thanks for enlightening us. After understanding, this poetry is extremely beautiful
Kumar Keshav
yeah… this has been the most convincing translation till now… plz be in touch… thnx Debasish.
vishnu
vishnsoni@gmail.com
Debasish Dalui, well done, dost.
Thank you for your time.
What is ‘Asad’ in this ghazal
it is the nik name of asadaulla khan ghalib means ghalib .
different people have different meanings of the lines, but i dont think explaining it is that much simple, eg on the first couplet Ghalib said…”Aah ko chahiye ek umar asar hone tak.”.the meaning of aah is diffrent here ..i dont this the explanation given by Debashish fits here..
” Kaun jeeta hai tere zulfon ke sar hone tak”
As far as I understand the meaning of this line is, who lives that long, the time you take to put back your ‘Zulf’ on head…. pls forgive me if I’m too wrong, that’s what I felt!!!
I guess it was the perfect time for Ghalib to die after reading your translation.
Feel this rather to read , & find your mind reacting…..
Aah ko chaiye ik umr asar hone tak !
Kaun jeeta hain yahaan teri zulf ke sar hone tak !!
A sigh needs a life time to come in effect !
who is that to live here till your tresses (hair) turn grey !!
AAH KO CHAHIYE EK UMR ASAR HONE TAK means that
MY PAIN OR MY YEARNING FOR YOU WILL TAKE A LIFETIME FOR YOU TO REALISE
KAUN JEETA HAI TERI ZULF KE SAR HONE TAK means that
IT WILL TAKE SO LONG FOR YOU THAT
BY THE TIME YOU REALISE MY PAIN OR YEARNING FOR YOU,YOUR HAIR WILL BECOME WHITE,AND AT THAT TIME I WILL BE DEAD
“YOUR HAIR WILL BECOME WHITE”??
what kind of translation is that???
as i said above
“First of all you guys need to know the meaning of “sar hona”. its meaning is to WIN or to CONQUER
A sigh needs a lifetime until it becomes effective
Who lives until your curls will be won over?
In simple words
“You’ll take a lot of time to understand my pain and i am not capable to live that long”
That is how i interpret it your interpretation may be different.”
But thanks and nice to know that girls at your age take interest in ghalib’s poetry. keep it up.
Simran, you are almost near to it,,, Ghalib’s words were never too easy to understand. The actual bayaan or expression of this word (Sar)is really of white and grey hair,,,,(growing old)but infact the growing of it is in a sense the tresses used to be grown till the knees in those days and regarded for beauty.
Yun tho hain duniya mein sukhanwar bahuth achchey !
par Ghalib ka hay Andaaz-e-bayaan aur !!
“The actual bayaan or expression of this word (Sar)is really of white and grey hair…”
Really???
Now read this:
Sar Kiye Yeh Pahaar
Daryaon Ki Gehraiyon Mein
Tujhay Dhoonda Hai…
“First of all you guys need to know the meaning of “SAR HONA or KARNA”. its meaning is to WIN or to CONQUER
Kuch Aisay Haadsay Bhi Zindagi Mein Hoty Hain ~~~ Gh@lib ~~~
K Insan Bach To Jata Hai Magr Zinda Nahi Rehta.
GAMME HASTI KA ASAD KIS SE HO JUZ MARG ILAAZ
According to me ASAD means a NAME for anyone and the whole line means that
A LIFE OF GAM OR A PAINFULL LIFE CAN ONLY BE NAMED AS DEATH
can anyone comment on this
“ASAD” ghalib used this subname previous to “Ghalib”
According to me (not a great scholar of urdu let me tell you) its mean is: ‘Asad’ (ghalib used this subname previous to “Ghalib”) what else cure is possilbe except death from grief of life
Actually his name was asadullah khan and he used the pen name “asad” in the makta (the last couplet) of his gazals to indicate whose creation this gazal was. But upon being jokingly told by his father in law that another poet who had taken the name “asad” and that all the good gazals of ghalib would be credited to this other asad while all the bad poems of the other asad would be credited to ghalib; he thereupon changed his pen name to “ghalib”. The word “ghalib” literally means conqueror and he became Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib
U r really good in understanding the meaning of ashaar
Rikhta mein tum hi ustaad nahin ho Ghalib,
Kehte hai agle zamaane mein koi ‘RAMAN’ bhi tha …..!!!!!
Kya baat hai Barkatul sahab!
Sau sunar ki aur ek lohar ki!!
zulaf ka sar hona mean,grow hair…nd it takes long time so ghalib says i can,t wait more….
“zulaf ka sar hona mean,grow hair” XD
Dear all, here ”Zulf ke sar hone tak” Ghalib means It is something which is impossible. It means the love of his life can never be with him. Zulf ke sar means your head is shaded with the hair of your love which in turn means when you lie down beneath your love then her Zulf (hair) surrounds you and according to Ghalib that is not possible. So he meant with the line ”Kaun jeeta hai tere zulf ke sar hone tak” that he will not live that long that the above mentioned circumstance comes true.
“First of all you guys need to know the meaning of “sar hona”. its meaning is to WIN or to CONQUER
A sigh needs a lifetime until it becomes effective
Who lives until your curls will be won over?
In simple words
“You’ll take a lot of time to understand my pain and i am not capable to live that long”
That is how i interpret it your interpretation may be different.”
But thanks and nice to know that girls at your age take interest in ghalib’s poetry. keep it up.
EDIT : Since it was cutting pasting from my above comment i forgot to remove last line where i refer you as girl Sorry!
अब तक का बेहतरीन अनुवाद्। गालिब को समझना इतना आसान होता तो बात ही क्या थी! शायरी में शब्दार्थ से ज्यादा भावार्थ का महत्व होता है। तहे-दिल से शुक्रिया ।
Waah
Zulf ke sar hone tak…here implies the uncurling of knots of hair……..life is like a riddle of curled hair……..by the time it is sorted out………it’s almost over ………..that’s the irony of life………a prayer (aah) requires a lifetime to show results but who lives till we actually know what to pray for…it’s so unclear/knotted
zulf ke sar hone tak:
it looks to me like you are bald and waiting for hairs to grow up on that.
Guys I want to join a good group where I get good collection of shayaris and ghazals Speciall Sad one. can some one please email me on mittal.anam@gmail.com
I agree with Raman on Zulf ke sar hone tak. Sar here means win over /conquer. Ghalib belonged to the age where one needs to understand how women were respected and treated. Those days a lady would indicate acceptance of love by letting her hair be fiddled by the man she chooses. Given the social background such instances were very few. Further, in context to Ghalib here he is refering to a lady who socially is not looked upon well. She had her own limitations. While she had enough soft corner for Ghalib but she never acknowledged due to her limitations. That was the delima of Ghalib. That is the reason why reference to “Hopelessness” is frequent in his lyrics.
beautiful..contect 4 ur gajal 9935553 994
wow…bht achi shayri h i like this shayri….dedicated to my gf
shayd is shyari ko pardhne k baad usko apno galti ka ehssas ho……
Note: I am surprised nobody has pointed out the major flaw in this…the actual usage is ‘hote tak’ and not ‘hone tak’ as wrongly mentioned.
Hote tak is an archaic usage which does imply hone tak, but the right phrase is ‘hote tak’
Also by ‘Asad’ ..Ghalib is implying to himself…his name as everybody knows is Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’ Ghalib being his pseudonym later in life.
Here ‘Asad’ is the takhallus he uses in the makta…as someone rightly pointed out above.
not satisfied by the meaning of second line.
zulf ka sar hona means safed ho jana..kaun jeeta hai tere zulf k sar hone tk..According to me here in this line lover says that Aah ko chahiye ik umra asar hone tk means uski mohabbat,uski ibadat ko qubool hone me ek lamba arsa lag jayega kayi saal gujar jaynge shayad jb uski mashuka budhi ho jaye, zulf ka sar hona mtlb uski mashuka ke zulfo ka safed ho jana,umar ki akhri dahleej pr a jana aur ashiq khta hai ki uske pass itna waqt nhi hai ki vo apni mashuka ke budhe hone tak intzaar kr paaye uski betaabi ka aalam ye hai ki vo umar k akhri padaav tk intzaar nhi kr skta,apni mashuka ke budhe hone tk vo intzaar nhi kr skta hai
Than U Nice explanation
jitne log utne mayene yahi to Ghazal hai, har ek ki samajh apne experience ke mutabik hogi, overall nice lines
When one meets his beloved,he keeps his head in her lap.Her hair fall on the head of the lover.
This can be the meaning of SAR HONA here.
Ultimately we all interpret the same i.e life long wait.
To add up here i agree how ASIF has portrayed , besides finding the actual meaning—- its all about how we perceive the couplets, everyone searches what they long to in a ghazal. Ghalib did the same lets do too.
My favorite galib
very nice I m happy to seeing this
Aah ko chaheyay Ik umar asr hoonay tk …
koun jeeta hair taeri zulf k sar hoonay tk…
A life time a wish may take to make its impact
Long enough who may live for love to become fact ….
Wonderful ghazal
Thnx for translate
aah ka matlab dil se nikli hue aawaz…..
aah ko chahiye ek umra asar hote tak meaning
dil ki aawaz/dua ko pura hone me kuch waqt lagta hai…..
kaun jeeta hai tere zulf ke sar hone tak
Who would wait so long to see you fixing the tangles in your hair
1″Aah ko chahiye ek umr asar hote tak,
2 Kaun jeeta hai teri zulf ke sar hote tak”
I understand it as:
1 it takes a lifetime for a sigh (lover’s) to take effect (on beloved, esp if beloved doesn’t know about it)
2 Lovers can’t live that long enough (e.g. even a short span is too long for a lover in waiting, like the duration a woman moves her hair up)