Desiring Lovesickness: An Urdu love poem by 'Iram'

Saiyid Ashraf Husain Jafri

Saiyid Taqi Husain Jafri ‘Iram’ (1881-1911) was a scholar, poet, and essayist who wrote in both Urdu and Persian. Born into the Jafri family of Salon (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India), his untimely death left little opportunity to publish. Taqi Husain Jafri’s poetry was compiled by close admirers, particularly Shah Naim Ata (d. 1966), who posthumously published the collection under the title ‘Naghma-e-Iram’ (The Melody of Iram). Taqi Husain Jafri also wrote a substantial account of Sufi funerary practices, offering a vivid and intimate portrayal of death rituals, qawwal (Sufi devotional singer) performances, and sama (listening) gatherings among Subcontinent Sufis. The following ghazal (poem) is taken from the Naghma-e-Iram, which was recently republished by Taqi Husain Jafri’s grandson, Saiyid Zaheer Husain Jafri (d. 2026).

'Muhabbat' (love) serves as the ghazal’s radif (repeating word). I have tried my best to preserve this repetition throughout the translation, despite the obvious innate incongruity embedded in all attempts at translation. Taqi Husain Jafri’s ghazal places love at its centre. Love is portrayed as both painful and redemptive. In doing so, the poem weaves together Sufi symbolism, Quranic allusions, and classical Persian imagery. The poetry imagines love as a necessary illness that one shouldn’t wish to escape, a wound that the great healer, Jesus himself, ought to desire. Alluding to the necessary prick that stings the one possessing the capacity to love, a scar borne by all who have loved, and a wound that makes the onlookers break into wistful admiration of the person bearing those scars, the scars of Muhabbat.

یارب! کبھی اچھا نہ ہو بیمارِ محبت

تا حشر نہ ہو کوئی گرفتارِ محبت

معلوم جو ہو لذتِ آزارِ محبت

عیسیٰ بھی بنے شوق سے بیمارِ محبت

اس عشق نے معشوق کی بھی قدر نہ کری کچھ

یوسف کو بھی بیچا سرِ بازارِ محبت

مخلوق سے تیغِ نگاہِ یار کی زخمی

جاں لینے کو ہے ابروئے خم دارِ محبت

تسبیح ہے گردن میں، ذرا سچ تو بتانا

یا زیبِ گلو، رشتۂ زنّارِ محبت

سر دیتا ہے، لیتا ہے ترے عشق کا ہم داد

اس زور پہ ہے گرمیِ بازارِ محبت

ہم دشت نوردوں سے ہے سایہ بھی گریزاں

پرہول ہے کیا وادیِ پُرخارِ محبت

دعوائے مسیحائی سے محجوب ہوں دل میں

آئے کاش ہو عیسیٰ کو بھی آزارِ محبت

!کیوں رازِ محبت کو چھپاتے ہو ارم تم

چہرے سے عیاں صاف ہیں آثارِ محبت

O Lord! May the one afflicted by love never recover;

May no one become love’s captive until the Day of Resurrection.

If one were to realize the sweetness hidden in the afflictions of love,

Even Jesus would desire to become a sufferer of love.

This love spared not even the beloved himself;

Love even sold Joseph in the marketplace of love.

Creation lies wounded by the sword-like glances of its beloved;

The beloved’s arched eyebrow stands poised to take life through love.

You wear a rosary around your neck, so tell me the truth:

Is it not the sacred thread, adorned upon you, woven by love?

One gives his head and receives the recompense of your love;

Such is the exchange that keeps alive the marketplace of love.

Even our shadows flee from us, the wanderers of the wilderness;

How terrifying indeed is the thorn-filled valley of love.

My heart is veiled by the claim of Messiahship;

If only Jesus, too, had known the affliction of love.

Why do you try to conceal the secrets of love, O Iram?

The signs of love are plainly manifest upon your face.

Saiyid Ashraf Husain Jafri is a PhD candidate in sociology at Ibn Haldun University, Turkey. His writings have appeared in Sociology of Islam, Maydan, Scroll.in, and Maktoob Media. This is his first attempt at translating Urdu poetry.