lagega lagne laga hai magar lagega nahin
nahin lagega use dekh kar magar khush hai
main khush nahin hun magar dekh kar lagega nahin
“If we part, this heart will not settle for a lifetime — it will, it is beginning to; and yet it will not. Seeing me, her heart will not settle — yet she is happy; I am not happy, and seeing her, mine still will not settle.”
लगेगा लगने लगा है मगर लगेगा नहीं
नहीं लगेगा उसे देख कर मगर ख़ुश है
मैं ख़ुश नहीं हूँ मगर देख कर लगेगा नहीं
The verse in Devanagari — it carries the authenticity of the original, and every Hindi reader can read it.
The whole couplet runs on one verb, lagega — to settle, to take, to feel — repeated until it becomes a heart arguing with itself: it will settle, it is beginning to, and yet it will not. The second verse turns the same word on the beloved, who is happy though her heart will not settle, against the poet who is unhappy and whose heart still will not settle, leaving both unmoored by the same word.
Accept that a grieving heart can both begin to heal and refuse to heal at once — the contradiction is not failure, it is how loss actually feels.
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →