ग़ालिब-गलौज/Assailing Asadullah

१
आह को चाहिए इक उम्र असर होने तक

कौन जीता है तेरी ज़ुल्फ़ के सर होने तक

Sighs, unlike highs, take a lifetime to hit 

A lifetime is too short for your locks to split

दाम हर मौज में है हल्क़ये-सदकामे-निहँग,

देखें क्या गुज़रे है क़तरे पे गोहर होने तक
Gators are traitors, they hide in each wave
Watch out for one drop that the oyster can save

आशिक़ी सब्र-तलब और तमन्ना बेताब

दिल का क्या रंग करूँ खून-ए-जिगर होने तक 

Pinings are whinings, but love knows its pace
My guts may be bleeding but heart's in its place

यक नज़र बेश नहीं फुर्सते-हस्ती ग़ाफिल,

गर्मी-ए-बज़्म है इक रक़से-शरर होने तक 
Glances or dances of flames - it's the same
For a moment they burn, then life's back to lame

परतव-ए-ख़ुर से है शबनम को फना की तालीम,

मैं भी हूँ इक इनायत की नज़र होने तक
Sun-rays in fun ways teach death to dewdrops

I too must play on till the music stops

हमने माना की तग़ाफ़ुल ना करोगे लेकिन

खाक़ हो जायेंगे हम तुमको खबर होने तक 

It's one thing, you wanting to salvage my soul

By the time you find out, I'll be down in a hole

ग़म-ए-हस्ती का 'असद' किससे हो जुज़ मर्ग इलाज

शमा हर रंग में जलती है सहर होने तक
For sure there's no cure for this life-flu but death
Flames flutter all night but dawn steals their breath

२

न था कुछ तो खुदा था 

कुछ न होता तो खुदा होता 

डुबोया मुझको होने ने
न होता मैं तो क्या होता 

I was God when I was not
I'd be God if I was not
This sinking feeling is my being
Ghalib in English: who would've thought?

हुई मुद्दत की 'ग़ालिब' मर गया
पर याद आता है
वो हर एक बात पे कहना 
की यूँ होता तो क्या होता?
For ages now, he's a phantom
But lives on through his fan-dom
Still stuck with the age-old query
What if the reasonable was random?

Acrostics for Ascetics - III

Hegel the Herrmit
Get this: the idea is absolutely ideal
What's more, reality is also equally real
From this, it's clear that the real must be ideal

How'd I get this idea of awesome threesomes?
Every sum is sublated in the sum of sums
Germinating Germanators wasn't my job
English are matter-maniacs who won't shut their gob
Let's synthesise Locke the loquacious and Spinoza the sob

Kierkegaard the quirky
Kites flying high in the empty blue sky
Isn't that way beyond lambda or pi?
Existence is a choice, and it must be made right
Religion is belief, but then what else is light?
Knowledge has its own place, but just as a tool
Even the most learned sure can be quite a fool
God is the name of believing in your own choice
All these cloaked clumsy clowns can't hear His voice
Anguish or dread? Who cares, you must know that feeling
Regina stole my peace, and I've since been reeling
Does Hegel's spirit know what theories Marx's been stealing?

Acrostics for Ascetics-II

I finally studied more...

Spinoza the simple
So much for all these meaningless Cartesian doubts,
Please realize from a single seed reality sprouts
Idea of ideas ideated in an intellect infinite
Nature is its own making in a divine dance of delight
Or try to think of it as countless squares on a plane
Zero freedom means freedom from all pleasure and pain
An Advaitin Hegelian sure drives Hebrews insane


Immanuel the immaculate
Ideas, ideas, honestly it's too much noise
Mind truly doesn't really leave us much choice
Matters of fact too must finally follow its laws
A priori or not, space and time never pause
Nein, nein, never apply reason to God
Underworlds and demons are nice stories, but fraud
Everything we know of God we find in our head
Logic lights our path, but can't bring back the dead

Knowledge tries to hide from us, so it must be sought
A thing-in-itself though might just never be caught
Noumena are naught but a phenomenal fart
Transcendental means nothing, but it sure sounds smart


Wittgenstein the wistful
Look at this picture!
Unreal snapshot of reality
Don't you think that what you think can screw up your clarity?
What's this world but a bunch of logical atoms
Ideal language imitates a form it doesn't fathom
Gee, G.E. is sure keen on justifying substratum

Wait, what?
I don't think I get my own picture
There's no meaning, and usage follows no scripture
To learn a language is to live a life in itself
Game-like it sure is, but no rulebook on the shelf
Even this, what I'm saying, is just part of the game
No words carry meanings that simply stay the same
So many uses - singing, praying, making up jokes
Tractatus now seems like just one tool in a toolbox
Every simple situation has these infinite layers
It can't be a real game if there's no other players
New methods for old problems - from Plato's to Ayer's


Russell the regal
Bollocks to the Romantics and other German crap
Atomic facts are arrows on reality's map
What's in a name? William Shakespeare denotes 'Wily ol' Sap'

Remember the Principia that Newton didn't write?
Uh, I'm the Newton of logic, yeah, that's right
Sure, I was born an idealist, can you believe?
Semblance of realism is all I could ever achieve
Early Wittgenstein was a friend and fellow nutcase
Logic sure was fun then with all the atoms in place
Later Wittgenstein threw a rotten egg in our face



Moore the militant
Georgopher Moorumbus, defender of the obvious
Earth exists, don't you say you find this suspicious

Matter is matter, I don't see a problem with this
On Berkeley's perceived grave, I do take quite a piss
Of certain certain truths, I'm as certain as you
Rest assured, we're all still free to analyse too
Each time I beg a question, Wittgenstinians boo!