Khwaja Mir Dard

Khwaja Mir Dard (Urdu: خواجہ میر درد‎) was born in 1721 and died in 1785. He is one of the three major poets of the Delhi School — the other two being Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Sauda — who are considered the pillars of the classical Urdu ghazal.

Poetry

Dard's Persian prose works are extensive, consisting of the Ilm ul Kitab, a 600+ page metaphysical work on the philosophy of the Muhammadi path, and the Chahar Risalat, collections of more than a thousand mystical aphorisms and sayings.

Example work:

دوستوں دیکھا تماشا یہاں کا بس

تُم رہو اب ہم تو اپنے گھر چلے ۔

“	doston dekha tamasha yahan ka bas. tum raho ab hum to apne ghar chale	”
— Dard

Or as translated into English:

“	My friend, we've seen enough fine sights, through which we loved to roam. You stay on to enjoy them; we are ready to go home.	”
— Dard

• Translation by David Matthews

References

• Homayra Ziad, "Poetry, Music and the MuHammadī Path: How Khvājah Mīr Dard Brought Three Worlds Together in Eighteenth-Century Delhi," Journal of Islamic Studies, 21,3 (2010), 345-376.

External links

• Khwaja Mir Dard at Kavita Kosh (Hindi)
• Khwaja Mir Dard: Life and Ghazals
• http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/20/10Ziad.pdf