By Faiz Ahmed Faiz
dil na-umid to nahin nakaam hi to hai
lambi hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hi to hai
lambi hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hi to hai
“The heart is not without hope — only without success; the evening of grief is long, but it is, after all, only an evening.”
Romanहिन्दीFaiz Ahmed Faiz
दिल ना-उम्मीद तो नहीं नाकाम ही तो है
लंबी है ग़म की शाम मगर शाम ही तो है
लंबी है ग़म की शाम मगर शाम ही तो है
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 couplet draws a careful line between defeat and despair — the heart has failed, but it has not given up hope. The image of grief as a long evening is consoling precisely because it is honest: the evening is genuinely long, yet an evening, by definition, ends. Faiz offers endurance without false cheer.
For You, Today
Failing is not the same as being hopeless — your hardest stretch may be long, but length is not permanence.
A beloved couplet of measured hope, distinguishing the absence of success from the absence of hope.
Themes:HopeAdversity
More from Faiz Ahmed Faiz
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →