dil mira soz-e-nihaan se be-muhaaba jal gaya

My heart, from a secret anguish, recklessly burned away; Like a silent, unseen fire, it simply burned away.

No joy of union, no memory of my love, could stay; Such a fire swept through this house that all I had burned away.

I am far beyond oblivion now; or else, you would have seen From the heat of my own sighs, the phoenix’s wing burned away.

Where can you find a heat like the essence of pure thought? A single notion of my madness came, and the desert burned away.

I cannot show my heart, or you would see its scars in bloom; What use is this bright festival? The master of the show burned away.

It is I, Ghalib, and this longing for despair I hold so fast, For my heart, seeing the world's feigned warmth, has burned away.

A lover's household is a shop where fireworks are made; When the flame-faced beauty watched the show, the spectacle burned away.

O thought, how long will you lament for company's warm grace? The heart, from the fire of the scar of desire, has burned away.

The smoke that rises from me rivals fields of hyacinth, For in my passion for the rose's fire, my whole self burned away.

Seeing the henna-dyed fingers of the candle-faced beloved, The rosebud, scattering its petals, like a moth burned away.