By Faiz Ahmed Faiz
na-umid to nahin nakaam hi to hai
lambi hai ki magar hi to hai
lambi hai ki magar 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
ना-उम्मीद तो नहीं ही तो है
लंबी है की मगर ही तो है
लंबी है की मगर 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 →