Persian · noun · People & Roles
Mai-Kash
मयकश
said mai-KASH
also written: maikash, mai-kash, may-kash, maikashaan
Meaning
A wine-drinker, toper; one devoted to the cup.
Literally: the wine-drinker; tippler
How Iqbal uses it
The maikash is the habitual wine-drinker — and in the mystical idiom the devotee who drinks the wine of divine love, brother to the rind and the baadah-khwaar. The name, a slur in pious mouths, is a title of honour among the lovers. Iqbal counts the maikash among the truly alive, the ones who have drunk love rather than merely talked of it.
See it in the verse
Mai-Kash in Iqbal’s couplets
Kya dabdaba-e-nadir kya shaukat-e-taimuri
Ho jaate hain sab daftar gharq-e-mai-e-naab aakhir
Ho jaate hain sab daftar gharq-e-mai-e-naab aakhir
What of Nadir's dread power, what of Timur's splendour? In the end every such record is drowned in the pure wine of time.
Humility · Self-Knowledge · Adversity
Main shakh-e-tak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
Mere samar se mai-e-lala-fam paida kar
I am a branch of the vine, my song is my fruit; from that fruit press out the tulip-red wine.
Action · Aspiration · Youth
Related words
PERSIAN
Rind
The free-spirited libertine of the tavern, who scorns hypocritical piety in favour of sincere, intoxicated devotion.
PERSIAN
Mai
Wine; in Sufi poetry, a symbol for the intoxicating love and ecstatic knowledge of the Divine.
PERSIAN
Mai-kashi
Wine-drinking; the practice of imbibing, used metaphorically for the pursuit of divine love.