zindagi kya hai janne ke liye
zinda rehna bahut jaruri hai
aaj tak koi bhi raha to nahi

saari waadi udas baithi hai
mausam e gul ne khudkashi kar li
kisne barood boya baagon mein

aao hum sab pehen le aaine
saare dekhenge apna hi chehra
sab ko saarein haseen lagenge yaha

hai nahi jo dikhai deta hai
aaine par chhapa hua chehra
tarjuma aaine ka thik nahin

humko gaalib ne ye duwa di thi
tum salamat raho hazar baras
ye baras to faqat dino mein gaya

lab tere mir ne bhi dekhe hai
pankhadi ek gulab ki si hai
baat sunte to gaalib ho jaate

aise bikhre hai raat din jaise
motiyon wala haar tut gaya
tumne mujhko bhi roke rakha tha

To know what life truly is,
to truly live, is the first decree.
None have yet escaped this test,
and the valley weeps, eternally.
The season's bloom has taken its own life,
who sowed the powder in the garden's heart?

Let us all don mirrors now,
and each will gaze upon their own face.
All will find beauty here,
in what is not, what hides unseen.
The face reflected on the glass,
the mirror's translation, is untrue.
Ghalib gave us this blessing then,
may you live on for a thousand years,
but these years, they vanish in days.

Your lips, Mir, have witnessed them too,
like a rose petal's tender grace.
If you spoke, you'd become Ghalib,
scattered are the nights and days now,
as if a pearl necklace had snapped,
and you, too, had kept me tethered.