The Urdu poet Kunwar
Akhlaq Muhammad Khan “Shahryar” (1936–2012) wrote the following maqta‘ (final sher or
couplet of a ghazal) in his fifth collection (Neend ki kirchen/
“Splinters of Sleep”; 1995):
Hai aj ye gila
ki akela hai Shahryar //
Tarsoge kal
hujum men tanhayi ke liye
Today the complaint is
that Shahryar is alone.
Tomorrow you’ll crave
solitude among the multitude.
In a prefatory essay
to the same collection, the noted Urdu critic
