Persian · noun · The Tavern & the Cup
Maikash
मयकश
said mai-KASH
also written: mai-kash, may-kash, maikashaan
Meaning
A habitual wine-drinker; a frequenter of the tavern.
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
Maikash in Iqbal’s couplets
Main shakh-e-taak hun meri ghazal hai mera samar
Mire samar se mai-e-laala-faam paida kar
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
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