فرضی لطیفہ Farzi Latifa (An Imaginary Anecdote)

अकबर कहते हैं - सुनो, एक बनावटी क़िस्सा सुनाता हूँ।

Opening lines (verbatim, source: Rekhta). Meaning: Akbar says wryly that he despairs of his people's prosperity - they long for their goal but will not go near hard work. Then he announces: listen, I shall tell you an 'invented anecdote' which I have set down on paper.

माँ कहती है - M.A. पास कर ले तो लैला से शादी करा दूँगी।

Laila's mother tells Majnun: son, if you pass your M.A., I will at once marry Laila to you and gladly become your mother-in-law. (A modern 'degree' condition is slipped into the ancient love-tale - the root of the satire.) (Verbatim; source: Rekhta.)

मजनूँ - कहाँ इश्क़, कहाँ कॉलेज की रटी हुई पढ़ाई!

Majnun replies: a fine thing to say! What has a lover to do with college nonsense? Where is this natural ardour of temperament, and where the burden of crammed-in, rote material? True passion and bookish cramming have nothing in common. (Verbatim; source: Rekhta.)

हिरन पर घास नहीं लादते - मुझे क्लर्क मत समझो।

Majnun says: dear lady, what has come over you - is grass ever loaded onto a deer? (Loading a degree onto a lover is as absurd.) A fine way to value me - you have taken me for some 'Harcharan Das' (an ordinary clerk)! (Verbatim; source: Rekhta.)

मजनूँ - अगर M.A. शर्त है तो मेरा इस्तीफ़ा हाज़िर है!

Majnun says: I am ready to bleed my heart dry (give my life in love), but I will not accept a 'swelling of the brain' (battering my head with rote study). If passing the M.A. is the condition for union with Laila, then here, with longing and despair, is my resignation! The poem ends on its satirical clash of love versus the modern degree. (Verbatim closing couplets; source: Rekhta.)