Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
/
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghalib ...
is the
meter
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
of a ''
sher Sher can refer to:
People
* Sher, a Baloch tribe in Pakistan
* Sher-e-Bangla (''Lion of Bengal''), a popular title of 20th century Bengali statesman A. K. Fazlul Huq
* Sher-e-Punjab (''Lion of Punjab''), a popular title of Maharaja Ranjit Sing ...
'' (couplet). Essentially, ''beher'' is a specific pattern, combining the ''arkaans'' (dummy meaningless words) of Urdu prosody that define the "length" of a ''sher''. However, generally ''beher'' is categorized in three classes: Short, medium, long, depending upon the length of the ''sher'' of the ''ghazal''.
For a ''ghazal'', since all the ''shers'' in it should be of the same ''beher'', determining the ''beher'' of one ''sher'' (or even one line of the ''sher'') is enough to determine the ''beher'' of the entire ''ghazal''. For example, in this ''ghazal'' of
Ghalib
Mirza Beg Asadullah Khan (Urdu, fa, مرزا بیگ اسد اللہ خان; 27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869) also known as Mirza Ghalib (Urdu, fa}) was an Urdu and Persian language, Persian shayar (poet), poet of the 19th century Mughal Em ...
, the length and meter of the ashaar is same throughout. In terms of the European method of scansion, the metre can be written as follows (where "x" = long or short, "u" = short, "–" = long, "u u" = one long or two short syllables):
:x u – – u – u – u u –
:''koii ummiid bar nahiin aatii''
:''koii suurat nazar nahiin aatii ''
:''aage aatii thii haal-e-dil pe hansii ''
:''ab kisii baat par nahiin aatii ''
:''jaanataa huun savaab-e-taa'at-o-zahad''
:''par tabiiyat idhar nahiin aatii ''
:''hai kuchh aisii hii baat jo chup huun''
:''varna kyaa baat kar nahiin aatii ''
:''kaabaa kis muunh se jaaoge 'Ghaalib
:''sharm tumako magar nahiin aatii''
The ghazal above is written in a beher called: ''khafiif musaddas makhbuun mahzuuf maqtu'' (Meter G8). This is a ten-syllable beher and by the standards of Urdu poetry, is a ''chotii'' (small) beher.
As with the scansion of Persian poetry, a syllable such as ''miid'' or ''baat'' consisting of a long vowel plus consonant, or ''sharm'' consisting of a short vowel and two consonants, is "overlong", and counts as a long syllable + a short one.
In Urdu prosody, unlike Persian, any final long vowel can be shortened as the metre requires, for example, in the word ''kaabaa'' in the last verse above.
Mufa_e_lan
There exist many behers, but mainly there are 19 behers used in Urdu poetry. These behers are further distributed in different types, but they are not described here. The names are:
* beHr-e-rajaz
* beHr-e-ramal
* beHr-e-baseet
* beHr-e-taweel
* beHr-e-kaamil
* beHr-e-mutadaarik
* beHr-e-hazaj
* beHr-e-mushaakil
* beHr-e-madeed
* beHr-e-mutaqaarib
* beHr-e-mujtas
* beHr-e-muZaara
* beHr-e-munsareH
* beHr-e-waafer
* beHr-e-qareeb
* beHr-e-saree
* beHr-e-khafeef
* beHr-e-jadeed
* beHr-e-muqtaZeb
Example
مفاعیلن مفاعیلن مفاعیلن
زندہ تھی کبھی توحید جن کے دلوں میں
وہی لوگ آج باہم بُغض رکھتے ہیں
کرکے رائیگاں زندگی کس طلب میں اپنی
کیوں یہ ہاتھ آج دھرے بیٹھے ہیں
جیسے سہانی ہوتی ہے خوشبوگلاب میں
ویسے ہی تیراذکرہے میری کتاب میں
ماناکہ چاند حسن میں ضرب المثال ہے
اس سے بھی تم حسین ہو میر حساب میں