By Qateel Shifai
yun lage mujh se khafa ho
se ka juda ho
se ka juda ho
“Your turning away from me, my friend, feels like fragrance parting from a flower.”
Romanहिन्दीQateel Shifai
यूँ लगे तिरा मुझ से ख़फ़ा हो
फूल से का जुदा हो
फूल से का जुदा हो
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 whole weight of the verse rests on a single comparison — a friend's withdrawal is like fragrance leaving a flower. It is exact and devastating: the flower remains, intact to the eye, yet emptied of the very thing that made it itself, and nothing announces the loss.
For You, Today
When a friendship cools, name the quiet loss honestly — what looks unchanged on the surface may have lost its essence.
The verse is loved for finding, in a small natural image, the silent and total nature of estrangement.
Themes:FriendshipLove & Loss
More from Qateel Shifai
The heart of this site stays with Iqbal: explore his couplets → Or browse the whole Other Voices shelf →