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अलि अब सपने की बात

Ali Ab Sapne Ki Baat

Mahadevi Varma

1 min read 5 versesDreams Flute Separation

5 verses · ~1 min

अलि अब सपने की बात- हो गया है वह मधु का प्रात!

जब मुरली का मृदु पंचम स्वर, कर जाता मन पुलकित अस्थिर, कम्पित हो उठता सुख से भर, नव लतिका सा गात!

जब उनकी चितवन का निर्झर, भर देता मधु से मानस-सर, स्मित से झरतीं किरणें झर झर, पीते दृग - जलजात!

मिलन-इन्दु बुनता जीवन पर, विस्मृति के तारों से चादर, विपुल कल्पनाओं का मंथर- बहता सुरभित वात

अब नीरव मानस-अलि गुंजन, कुसुमित मृदु भावों का स्पंदन, विरह-वेदना आई है बन- तम तुषार की रात!

इति

Rasa: Shringara
Stanzas: 5
Lines: 18
Reading time: ~1 min
Form: Geet (lyric song)
Metre: geet
Rhyme: irregular

The poem evokes a poignant transition from the vibrant, golden luminescence of a springtime union to the desolate, frost-bitten silence of abandonment, casting a melancholy shadow over the remnants of past intimacy. A visual representation would juxtapose a fading, dream-like vision of a lover’s flute-playing amidst blooming vines with the stark, chilling reality of a dark winter night where the speaker stands shivering in isolation. Symbolically, the nectar-filled imagery of lotus eyes and flowering emotions dissolves into the suffocating mist of cold frost, signaling the shift from the warmth of shringara to the numbing ache of viraha. The emotional tone is profoundly tragic and elegiac, capturing the heartbreak of a soul forced to trade the fragrant, soft breezes of shared dreams for the harsh, silent void of separation.

अलि अब सपने की बात (Ali Ab Sapne Ki Baat), by Mahadevi Varma runs to 18 lines across 5 stanzas, set as Five stanzas of varying lengths. Its governing rasa is Shringara, shaded by Karuna. The metre is geet. Rhyme falls as irregular.

A beautiful song depicting the transition from the joyful spring of union to the cold, dark winter of separation.

Read it for मिलन के क्षणों का स्वप्न बन जाना and विरह की अंधकारमयी रात का आगमन. 3 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Damayanti Deserted in the Forest: Raja Ravi Varma’s chromolithograph evokes a heavy, sorrowful mood of profound isolation and psychological vulnerability, capturing Queen Damayanti abandoned in the depths of a dense, intimidating forest. Clad in a…

Words worth pausing on

गात: शरीर या देह
दृग-जलजात: कमल रूपी आँखें
तुषार: ओस या पाला

Threads

Dreams Flute Separation Pain

The Poet

महादेवी वर्मा

Mahadevi Varma

1907 · 1987

Mahadevi Varma stands as the absolute pinnacle of lyrical mysticism in modern Hindi literature. Born in 1907 in Farrukhabad, she was a central pillar of the Chhayavaad romantic movement and is universally revered as the modern Meera for the intense spiritual devotion embedded in her verse. She lived a life of fierce intellectual independence. As the principal of the Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, she revolutionized women's education in India, while her literary salon in Allahabad became the epicenter of Hindi letters. Her poetic masterworks, including Yama, Nihar, and Rashmi, are profound meditations on sorrow, the eternal soul, and the quiet strength of the natural world. She did not merely write about pain. She transformed it into a vehicle for spiritual liberation. Honored with the Jnanpith Award in 1982 and the Padma Vibhushan, she passed away in 1987. She remains an immortal figure whose words continue to offer solace to anyone who has ever felt the ache of existential longing.