Urdu Dictionary

Persian · noun · Everyday Life

Sheesha

शीशा

said SHEE-sha

also written: Shisha, shisha, sheesha-e-mai

Meaning

Glass; a mirror or pane of glass.

Literally: glass; glass wine-vessel

How Iqbal uses it

The sheesha is glass — the wine-flask or cup of glass — and in poetry its fragility makes it a favourite emblem: the heart is a sheesha, easily broken, holding the precious wine of love. The clarity of glass also figures sincerity, a heart with nothing hidden. Iqbal exploits both senses, the breakable heart and the see-through soul, in the wine-imagery of love and loss.

See it in the verse

Sheesha 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

Utha na sheesha-garaan-e-firang ke ehsaan
Safaal-e-Hind se mina-o-jaam paida kar

Do not be indebted to the glassmakers of the foreign land — fashion your goblet and cup from the clay of your own soil.

Selfhood · Freedom · Action

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

Gilaas

A drinking glass or tumbler.

Mina

A flask or decanter of wine, often of glass or enamelled ware.

Jaam

A goblet or wine-cup; the fabled cup of Jamshed that showed the whole world within it.

Dil

Heart — the seat of love, vision and the living self.

Shishagar

A glassmaker or glazier; one who works in glass.

Aaina

A mirror; a favourite poetic emblem of the heart and of clear reflection.

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