KarunaIntermediate

किस का रस्ता देखे, ऐ दिल, ऐ सौदाई

Kis Ka Rasta Dekhe, Ai Dil, Ai Saudai

1 min read 3 versesLoneliness Sadness Journey

3 verses · ~1 min

किस का रस्ता देखे, ऐ दिल, ऐ सौदाई मीलों है खामोशी, बरसों है तनहाई भूली दुनिया, कभी की, तुझे भी मुझे भी फिर क्यों आँख भर आई ओ, किस का रस्ता देखे ...

कोई भी साया नहीं राहों में कोई भी आएगा न बाहों में तेरे लिए मेरे लिए कोई नहीं रोने वाला हो झूटा भी नाता नहीं चाहों में तू ही क्यों डूबा रहे आहों में कोई किसी संग मरे, ऐसा नहीं होने वाला कोई नहीं जो यूँ ही जहाँ में, बाँटे पीर पराई हो, किस का रस्ता देखे ...

तुझे क्या बीती हुई रातों से मुझे क्या खोई हुई बातों से सेज नहीं, चितह सही, जो भी मिले सोना होगा, हो गई जो डोरी छूट हाथों से, ओ लेना क्या छूटे हुए साथों से खुशी जहाँ माँगी तूने, वहीं मुझे रोना होगा न कोई तेरा, न कोई मेरा, फिर किसकी याद आई ओ, किस का रस्ता देखे ...

इति

Rasa: Karuna
Stanzas: 3
Lines: 21
Reading time: ~1 min
Form: Geet (lyric song)
Metre: geet
Rhyme: irregular

The poem evokes a profound sense of karuna through a desolate, monochromatic landscape of endless silence and abandoned roads, where the only figure is a solitary traveler lost in the hollow echoes of memory. Visually, this translates to a dim, twilight-drenched path stretching into an empty horizon, cluttered not with living companions but with the oppressive weight of ghosts and unrequited sighs. The artistic tone is deeply elegiac and existential, stripping away the comfort of human connection to reveal that the only final destination is a pyre, representing the inescapable solitude of the human condition. It captures a moment of sharp, bitter realization where the heart is forced to confront the futility of waiting, turning the act of remembering into a quiet, tear-stained resignation toward the inevitable void.

किस का रस्ता देखे, ऐ दिल, ऐ सौदाई (Kis Ka Rasta Dekhe, Ai Dil, Ai Saudai), by Sahir Ludhianvi runs to 21 lines across 3 stanzas, set as Longer stanzas with a recurring, haunting refrain. Its governing rasa is Karuna, shaded by Shanta. The metre is geet. Rhyme falls as irregular.

It belongs to the 1921 · 1980 span of Sahir Ludhianvi's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for संसार की निष्ठुरता और अकेलापन and अतीत की यादों से मुक्ति का प्रयास. 4 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Dark and difficult was the Road: A somber and introspective atmosphere pervades this depiction of the epic Mahabharata, where the righteous Yudhishthira undertakes a harrowing, solitary pilgrimage through the dark abyss of the underworld. The narrative…

Words worth pausing on

सौदाई: दीवाना या पागल
पीर: दर्द या पीड़ा
सेज: बिस्तर या शैया
चितह: चिता (मृत्यु शैया)

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Loneliness Sadness Journey Memory

The Poet

साहिर लुधियानवी

Sahir Ludhianvi

1921 · 1980

Sahir Ludhianvi possessed a voice that refused to separate the agony of romance from the brutal inequalities of the world. Born Abdul Hayee in 1921 in Punjab, he adopted the pen name Sahir, meaning magician, and proved it entirely accurate through a lifelong mastery of Urdu poetry. As a prominent figure in the Progressive Writers Movement, he rejected the traditional obsession with the idealized beloved. Instead, he forced his readers to look at the poverty, the exploitation, and the hypocrisies of society that destroy love before it can even bloom. When he entered the Hindi film industry, he fundamentally changed the stature of the lyricist. Directors and composers adapted their music to his words, rather than the other way around. Through films like Pyaasa and Kabhi Kabhie, he brought profound literary dignity and fierce anti establishment critique to mainstream cinema. He passed away in 1980, but his poetry remains a burning torch. Sahir remains the ultimate poet of the disenchanted, a man who wrote beautiful verses to express an absolute refusal to accept an ugly world.