Moods sometimes arrive for no apparent reason.
arz hai:
aaj to be-sabab udaas hai jī
ishq hota to koi baat bhi thī
This sher is by Nasir Kazmi (b. 1925).
sabab: reason
udaas: sad, dull, dejected
jī: heart-mind, emotional state
A rough translation:
today, for no reason, I feel sad
if it were love, at least there’d be something to say
The sher is quietly self-mocking, with a subtle, wry humor. The speaker measures his own melancholy and finds it lacking. If it were caused by love, it would at least come with meaning, and have some dignity. But this causeless sadness is embarrassing because it hasn’t been “earned” through the trials of love. It is a slightly neurotic, but relatable sentiment.
In the tradition of Urdu poetry, ishq is the grand legitimizer of suffering. Pain rooted in love acquires depth and narrative.
The language of the sher is clean and spare. The first misra uses jī, not the romantic dil. It refers to a more diffuse inner state, closer to modern “mood” than passionate “heart”. The key words are be-sabab, jī, and baat. Linger on them a little longer when reading the sher aloud.
The idiom “to koi baat bhi thi” delivers the twist perfectly. It implies there is no story here, nothing to tell. Without ishq, the udaasi is not worth mentioning.
The good news is that be-sabab udaasi rarely lasts long. A walk in the woods, a long ride, a conversation with a friend – the mood lifts as mysteriously as it arrived.
And if nothing else, one can always promote it – give it a story, and call it ishq.
