Urdu has a long tradition of laughing at life, and today’s poets keep it going. This list is all Urdu: an uncle’s WhatsApp forwards, Silk Board traffic in couplets, a lazy cloud that skips school, a very pious landlord, a growing paunch and a customer who haggles over Ghalib. Each pick has a few lines from the original and a short note in English, and every title opens the full poem on The Poetic Land, free.
1ماموں جان کا واٹس ایپ (Mamu Jaan's WhatsApp)
by Junaid Kherwadi Urdu Poem
ماموں جان نے جب سے سیکھا ہے فون چلانا
صبح سویرے "گڈ مارننگ" کا پھول ہے آنا
Ever since Uncle learned to use a smartphone: good-morning flowers at dawn, turmeric miracle-cure videos at noon. Every family has this uncle.
2سلک بورڈ کے اشعار (Silk Board Couplets)
by Ishaan Bhatnagar Rahi Urdu Poem
ایک گھنٹے سے کھڑے ہیں اسی چوراہے پر
کتنے رشتے بھی یوں ہی جام ہوا کرتے ہیں
Couplets written in Bengaluru's most famous traffic jam, where the metro has been 'coming' for ten years. Funny and just a little sad.
3بادل کی چھٹی (The Cloud's Day Off)
by Afreen Saba Shervani Urdu Poem
ایک دن بادل نے سوچا
آج میں اسکول نہ جاؤں
نیلی چادر اوڑھ کے سو کر
دیر تلک میں موج اڑاؤں
One day a lazy cloud decides to skip school and sleep in, until the sun, the peacock, the frogs and children with paper boats come knocking. A sweet, funny Urdu poem for children about rain.
4مالک مکان (The Landlord)
by Junaid Kherwadi Urdu Poem
ہمارے مالک مکان
بہت دیندار آدمی ہیں
مہینے کی پہلی تاریخ کو
ان کا ایمان
خاص طور پر تازہ ہو جاتا ہے
Our landlord is a very pious man, and on the first of every month his faith grows especially fresh. A dripping tap is ‘a blessing’, a leaking roof is ‘a blessing’, but late rent means ‘no barakat in today’s boys’. Biting Urdu humour about city life.
5توند (The Paunch)
by Junaid Kherwadi Urdu Poem
ڈاکٹر کہتا ہے، کتنا ٹھونس کر کھاتے ہیں آپ
اس لیے سیڑھی پہ چڑھتے ہانپ سے جاتے ہیں آپ
The doctor, the wife and the tailor all complain about his growing belly, while he lists nihari, biryani and falooda and talks about his diet. Even the mirror laughs. A comic Urdu ghazal everyone will recognise.
6رعایت (Discount)
by Arshad Beg Shadab Urdu Poem
“کتنے کا ہے؟”
میں نے کہا: دو سو
بولے: “سو میں دے دو
غالب کون سا
اب زندہ ہے”
میں نے کہا:
A customer in a bookshop wants Ghalib’s diwan for half price because ‘Ghalib isn’t alive anymore’, haggles over Iqbal, and finally buys a cookery book. A witty Urdu poem about how we value poetry.
Keep reading
Which one made you laugh out loud? Share the list with the friend who always sends you memes. Want more? Read more Urdu poems on The Poetic Land, or see all our TPL Articles reading lists.
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