— Divan-e-Ghalib, from the ghazal "hui muddat ke Ghalib mar gaya"
About this quote
देवनागरी:
हुई मुद्दत कि ‘ग़ालिब’ मर गया पर याद आता है
वो हर एक बात पर कहना कि यूँ होता तो क्या होता
English: It has been long since Ghalib died, yet one remembers him — his way of asking, at every turn: and had it been thus, what then?
Meaning: Ghalib writes his own obituary and chooses, as his epitaph, his habit of endless speculation — the incurable ‘what if’. A poet remembered not for answers but for the beauty of his questions.
अर्थ: ग़ालिब ख़ुद अपनी मौत पर लिखते हैं — लोग उन्हें उनके ‘यूँ होता तो क्या होता’ के लिए याद रखेंगे। सवालों से मोहब्बत ही उनकी पहचान है।
An authentic couplet from the Divan-e-Ghalib, the collected Urdu ghazals of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869), from the ghazal beginning “hui muddat ke Ghalib mar gaya”. Transliteration and English rendering are our own.
