Urdu Dictionary

Persian · noun, feminine · The Tavern & the Cup

Mai-kashi

मय-कशी

said mai-ka-shee

also written: Maikashi, mai-kashee, maikashi, mae-kashi

Meaning

Wine-drinking; the practice of imbibing, used metaphorically for the pursuit of divine love.

Literally: wine-drinking; the drinking of wine

How Iqbal uses it

Mai-kashi is the act and habit of wine-drinking — and in the mystical key the lifelong practice of drinking divine love, the seeker's chosen vocation at the tavern of the spirit. It is a discipline, not a debauch: a steady, devoted imbibing of grace. Iqbal frames it as the worthy occupation of the rind, the daily drinking of love that keeps the self ablaze.

See it in the verse

Mai-kashi in Iqbal’s couplets

Main shakh-e-taak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mire samar se mai-e-laala-faam paida kar

I am the vine-branch; my ghazal is my fruit — from my fruit, press out the rose-red wine.

Aspiration · Action · Youth

Kya dabdaba-e-nadir kya shaukat-e-taimuri
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

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

Mai-noshi

Wine-drinking, the act of quaffing wine; figuratively, partaking of divine love.

Badah-khwaar

A wine-drinker; one devoted to the cup, often the free-spirited lover of the tavern.

Rind

The libertine or free-spirited reveller who flouts pious convention; in Sufi verse, the true lover of God.

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