Day 6

I was listening to some ghazals rendered by the late great Habib Wali Mohammad the other day and stumbled across my word for today" saabit''. It means ''whole'', or ''intact'' or ''to prove''. The couplet placed below, part of an old classic penned by Moen Ahsan Jazbi, goes like this: 

"jab kashtii saabit-o-saalib thii, saahil kii tamanna kisko thii
ab aisii shikasta kashtii me.n saahil kii tamanna kaun kare"
A boat is used as a metaphor of life in this ghazal. The poet says, when my boat was intact, I did not care for safe harbours. So, today, now that my boat is broken and ready to sink, why should I care for safe harbour anyway?

K C Kanda, in his lovely 2001 book Masterpieces of Urdu Ghazal - From 17th to 20th Century defines a ghazal thus:- 

"A ghazal is a short poem rarely of more than a dozen couplets in the same metre. It opens with a rhyming couplet called matla. The rhyme of the opening couplet is repeated at the end of second line in each succeeding verse, so that the rhyming pattern may be represented as AA, BA, CA, DA, and so on. 

In addition to the restriction of rhyme, the ghazal also observes the convention of radif. Radif demands that a portion of the first line -- comprising not more than two or three words -- immediately preceding the rhyme-word at the end, should rhyme with its counterpart in the second line of the opening couplet, and afterwards alternately throughout the poem. 

The opening couplet of the ghazal is always a representative couplet: it sets the mood and tone of the poem and prepares us for its proper appreciation. The last couplet of the ghazal called makta often includes the pen-name of the poet, and is more personal than general in its tone and intent. Here the poet may express his own state of mind, or describe his religious faith, or pray for his beloved, or indulge in poetic self-praise. The different couplets of the ghazal are not bound by the unity and consistency of thought. Each couplet is a self-sufficient unit, detachable and quotable, generally containing the complete expression of an idea."

Enough verbosity.

Today's word "saabit'' comes from the alphabet or harf "Se" (pronounced ''say'')