# Persian:مپرس تاچه نوشت ست کلک قاصر ما



## Shounak

*Hello,*

Can anyone tell me the meaning of the lines in the image?

Thanks,


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## farzan

مپرس: do not inquire.
تا: (here) about, as to.
چه: what.
نوشت ست: has written. A short form of نوشته است.
كلك: pen.
قاصر: inadequate.
ما: our. (Here) my.
مپرس تا چه نوشت ست كلكِ قاصرِ ما
Do not ask about what my inadequate pen has (tried to) put in writing.

خط: line.
غبار: dust.
من: my.
ست: is. The short form (by liaison) of است.
اين: this.
خاطر: mind, the place for thoughts.
خطِ غبارِ من ست اين غبارِ خاطرِ ما
This dust that has settled on my mind is a line or trace of my dust. 

Taken all together, I think the poet is saying: There is a blemish of sorrow on my mind that I can only inadequately communicate through poetry, and which is caused by the thought of the fact that I am bound for death and will someday turn into dust, of which fact and my present state of sorrowfulness my verse can but produce a mere trace here.


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## Shounak

Thank you Farzan. It is an absolute pleasure to read your meaning and the wonderful English translation. Thanks a lot.


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## Dib

Hi farzan, thank you very much for your explanation. I have two questions about the (abbreviated) spelling of ast, which tripped me up in understanding the verse.

1) How common is the spelling نوشت ست? Will نوشته‌است or نوشته‌ست with the final he of neveshte written out be a more likely/common spelling? That was my expectation, at least. And for that matter, how common is the pronunciation "neveshtast" rather than "neveshte-ast" in poetry?
2) Similarly for "man-ast" will منست be a more common spelling? At least, in my meagre experience, I'd have expected it that way.

Also, I am reading the whole verse as follows. Is it correct?
ma-pors taa che nevesht-ast kelk-e qaaser-e maa
khatt-e ghobaar-e man-ast iin ghobaar-e khaater-e maa


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## farzan

Shounak said:


> Thank you Farzan. It is an absolute pleasure to read your meaning and the wonderful English translation. Thanks a lot.


 You are very welcome, Shounak. Could I ask what the name of the poet is?


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## Shounak

Well, I don't know. It is from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's "Ghubar e Khatir". I have posted another line in the forum, waiting for the answer....


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## farzan

Hi, Dib. You are most welcome.
I wouldn’t have said نوشت ست was common at all. نوشتست is fairly common, especially if the written text is a bit dated.
نوشته است is the proper spelling, while نوشته ست is the version that one would use to ensure the alef was definitely omitted by the reader of the text.

The same goes for من ست. This spelling is uncommon and a typical pedant will most likely frown upon it. منست is common enough, while من است is considered the proper spelling.


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## PersoLatin

farzan said:


> خطِ غبارِ من ست اين غبارِ خاطرِ ما
> This dust that has settled on my mind is a line or trace of my dust.



Hi farzan, can خطِ غبارِ من also refer to 'inexperience due to youth' ?


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## farzan

Hi, PersoLatin. “Inexperience of youth” might be a nuance, but I am afraid I just don’t see it.


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## farzan

Dib said:


> ma-pors taa che nevesht-ast kelk-e qaaser-e maa
> khatt-e ghobaar-e man-ast iin ghobaar-e khaater-e maa


Perfect, though personally I would stress lack of a _tashdeed_ by transliterating so: khat-e ghobaar ...


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## PersoLatin

farzan said:


> Hi, PersoLatin. “Inexperience of youth” might be a nuance, but I am afraid I just don’t see it.


Also خطِ غبارِ was a style of hand writing:

See here:
*ویژگی‌ها[ویرایش]*
این خط دارای حروف ریز و ساختاری مدور است. بعضی ویژگی‌های این خط وابسته به خط ثلث و خط نسخ است. این نوع خط در ابتدا برای فرستادن پیغام هائی استفاده می‌شد که کبوتران نامه بر حامل آن بودندو همچنین خط بال هم نامیده می‌شد. خط جامع و یکپارچه‌ای بوده و به طور برجسته‌ای مدور، بدون کشیده، خیلی فشرده و سریع می‌تواند نوشته شود. کاربرد خط غبار بیشتر در نگارش پیام‌هایی بود که می‌بایست با کبوتر ارسال شوند. همچنین در نگارش نامه‌ها و مکاتبه روی ورقه‌های کوچک کاغذ و حتی کتابت قرآن‌های کوچک از این خط استفاده می‌شده است.


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## Dib

farzan said:


> I wouldn’t have said نوشت ست was common at all. نوشتست is fairly common, especially if the written text is a bit dated.
> نوشته است is the proper spelling, while نوشته ست is the version that one would use to ensure the alef was definitely omitted by the reader of the text.
> 
> The same goes for من ست. This spelling is uncommon and a typical pedant will most likely frown upon it. منست is common enough, while من است is considered the proper spelling.



Thanks a lot again, farzan, for your kind answer, and this matches perfectly my expectation. I was quite confused with the free-standing ست's. 



farzan said:


> ... personally I would stress lack of a _tashdeed_ by transliterating so: khat-e ghobaar ...



Oh wow. Is this (=lack of tashdeed) a poetic licence here to fit the metre, or is this the usual pronunciation of khat(t)-e?


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## Qureshpor

خظِ غبار is a term used to describe "the smallest Arabic or Persian hand writing" and غبارِ خاطر implies "grief or anxiety of the mind". So, the poet is saying:

مپرس تا چہ نوشست ست کلک قاصر ما
خظ غبار من است ایں غبار خاطر ما

Ask me not how my reed-pen has fallen short in writing
My mind's agony is in the scratches of this hand-writing

In a nut-shell, whatever I have manged to write, whether good or bad, is a reflection of the state of my mind.


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## Alfaaz

The book is currently available here and the quoted couplet is here in the دیباچہ (page 36).


			
				Shounak said:
			
		

> Can anyone tell me the meaning of the lines in the image?


 There is a list of 474 Urdu translations of the quoted poetry titled ترجمانی اشعار (here - page 404) towards the end of the book that you might* find helpful:


> (٨) یہ سوال نہ اٹھاؤ کہ ہمارے خامۂ فرومایہ نے کیا کچھ تحریر کر ڈالا ہے بلکہ یہ تو ہمارے دل کی کیفیتوں کا غبار تھا جس نے ان شکستہ لفظوں کی شکل اختیار کرلی ہے


* In some cases, however, the translations might be just as or even more complicated than the original (example: خامۂ فرومایہ for کلک قاصر)!


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## farzan

Is it actually خظ or is it خط? If the style is based on letters that are very diminutive in size or otherwise minimal in form, then the meaning is changed to 'do not inquire about what I have written with the lowly pen; this dust of my mind is the small _ghobaar_ style'. Is this it? Is there a second, hidden, meaning here?


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## Qureshpor

farzan said:


> Is it actually خظ or is it خط? If the style is based on letters that are very diminutive in size or otherwise minimal in form, then the meaning is changed to 'do not inquire about what I have written with the lowly pen; this dust of my mind is the small _ghobaar_ style'. Is this it? Is there a second, hidden, meaning here?


Hi Farzan, the word is indeed خط and the meaning is as per my translation, as confirmed by @Alfaaz who has provided an Urdu translation carried out by a scholar مالک رام. There are hundreds of Persian verse quotations in this book and if we were to translate all of them, we'll be here till eternity!


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## farzan

Thanks, Qureshpor. Eternity suits me fine, actually.
I was wondering who the author of the original poem might be.


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## Shounak

Thanks everyone for the help. Also I have one question to @Alfaaz. How can you copy the line  یہ سوال نہ اٹھاؤ کہ ہمارے خامۂ فرومایہ نے کیا کچھ تحریر کر ڈالا ہے بلکہ یہ تو ہمارے دل کی کیفیتوں کا غبار تھا جس نے ان شکستہ لفظوں کی شکل اختیار کرلی ہے into text? It is all in pdf format.


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## Alfaaz

Shounak said:
			
		

> Thanks everyone for the help. Also I have one question to @Alfaaz. How can you copy the line یہ سوال نہ اٹھاؤ کہ ہمارے خامۂ فرومایہ نے کیا کچھ تحریر کر ڈالا ہے بلکہ یہ تو ہمارے دل کی کیفیتوں کا غبار تھا جس نے ان شکستہ لفظوں کی شکل اختیار کرلی ہے into text? It is all in pdf format.


 The text cannot be directly copied and has to be typed out.


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## Shounak

Ok thanks.


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