Dekh to Dil

I am trying something different here: I have uploaded the mp3 of my most favourite ghazal, Dekh to Dil, written by Mir Taki Mir (1722-1808) and sung by the great Pakistani singer Mehdi Hassan. It is here: Dekh to Dil. The size of the file is 10 MB.

If you have trouble downloading it please let me know, since this is new to me.

If you are not familiar with ghazal -- or even if you are -- let me know what you think of it. I'll leave it up for about a week.

Here is the Urdu:

And the transliteration:

Dekh to dil ke jaan se uthta hai,
Yeh dhuaan sa kahaan se uthta hai.

Gor kis dil jale ki hai yeh falak,
shola ek subah yaan se uthta hai.

Khana-e-dil se zinhaar na ja,
Koi aise makaan se uthta hai.

Larti hai uski chashm-e-shokh jahan,
Ek aashob waan se uthta hai.

Bethne kaun de hai phir usko,
Jo tere aastaan se uthta hai.

Yun uthe ah us gali se ham,
Jaise koi jahaan se uthta hai.

Ishq Mir ek bhari pathhar hai,
Kab yeh tujh naatwaan se uthta hai.

And the (so-so) translation, slightly modified by me, all from Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal from 17th to 20th Century, translated by K. C. Kanda (Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.):

Watch, from where does it rise, from the heart or the soul,
From where does it rise, this plume of smoke?

What smouldering heart lies buried under the sky?
Every morning a flame rises here.

You should never leave the chamber of my heart,
Who would leave such a secure place?

Where she casts her coquettish glance,
A storm begins to blow.

Who will take him in,
Who has been banished from your door?

As I left that lane, I felt
as if I were leaving the world.

Love, Mir, is a heavy rock,
Beyond your strength to lift.

Even now, so many years after I first heard this, while walking through a busy bazaar in Karachi, it still makes me catch my breath, especially when Hassan sings

Yun uthe ah us gali se ham,
Jaise koi jahaan se uthta hai.

(Self-winding has suggested this page which describes the ghazal form.)