[Lyric] To hell with these doors and walls before my eyes (Mirza Ghalib)

To hell with these doors and walls before my eyes!
An ardent gaze finds wings and feathers in doors and walls.

Brimming tears made the house such a blur
That my walls and doors became doors and walls.

There’s no shade. Since they heard that she’s arriving,
They’ve gone ahead to greet her, the doors and walls.

What an abundance of the wine of your glory.
In your street they’re all drunk, the doors and walls.

If you deal in waiting, then come to me—
They’re a warehouse full of gazing, my doors and walls.

Whenever I thought of shedding floods of tears,
They fell at my feet, my desperate doors and walls.

When she came and lived next door, then in the shadow,
My doors and walls adored her doors and walls.
It stings my eyes—a bustling house, without you.
I always weep, when I see doors and walls.

Don’t ask about the self-lessness of the joy when the flood comes.
For they dance, fallen end to end, the doors and walls.

Don’t tell anyone, Ghalib. For there’s no one nowadays
Fit for love secrets, except the doors and walls.



(translated by Frances W. Pritchett and Owen T. A. Cornwall)