By Qateel Shifai
aakhri hichki tire zaanun pe aae
maut bhi main shairana chahta hun
maut bhi main shairana chahta hun
“May my last gasp come while my head rests on your knees — even my death I want to be poetic.”
Romanहिन्दीQateel Shifai
आख़री हिचकी तिरे ज़ानूँ पे आए
मौत भी मैं शायराना चाहता हूँ
मौत भी मैं शायराना चाहता हूँ
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
♪ Hear the coupletA recitation in a synthesized voice.
The Interpretation
The speaker wants even his dying breath staged with tenderness — his head on the beloved's knees, the last gasp turned into an image. It is a startling wish: not to escape death but to aestheticize it, to make the final, ugliest moment of life obey the logic of poetry.
For You, Today
If you cannot choose when hardship arrives, you can still choose the grace and meaning you bring to it.
The couplet belongs to the romantic tradition that treats death less as terror than as the last scene a lover gets to compose.
Themes:MortalityLove & Loss
More from Qateel Shifai
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →