Here is a beautiful prelude to the legendary ghazal Aahista Aahista which has been covered on our blog before (link below). In this prelude couplet to the ghazal, the poet creates a beautiful moment of love between the famous lovers from literature, Laila and Majnun (Qais), leading to the same ending of ‘Aahista Aahista’ (slowly slowly)
Layla and Majnun is the famous love story between Qais ibn Al-Mulawah and Layla that took place in the 7th century Arabia, written by the poet Nizami Ganjavi who also wrote “Khosrow and Shirin“. It is the third of his five long narrative poems, Panj Ganj (The Five Treasures). Lord Byron called Layla and Majnun as “the Romeo and Juliet of the East.”
Mazaar-e-Qais par, jab roohe Laila ek din ayee
Toh armano ke, murjhaye hue kuch phool bhi layee
Lagi jab phool rakhne, toh kabr se awaaz ye aaye
Chadhana phool jane mann, magar, aahista aahista..
When the spirit of his beloved Laila visited Qais at his grave one day,
She brought with her some wilted flowers of desire
When she began to place the flowers on his grave, his voice called out from beneath
Place the flowers, my beloved, but slowly slowly…
Here is the link to the entire ghazal with the video of the ghazal sung by Jagjit Singh –
https://urduwallahs.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/ahista-ahista/
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