kyuun mai ke peene se

Interpretation

This sher sparkles with defiance and irony. The poet directly addresses the preacher who scolds him for drinking wine. His reply is blunt: why should I abstain? I am no ascetic living by renunciation, no saint guided by divine light, and no paragon of purity. The act of drinking is consistent with his identity—he does not pretend otherwise.

The sher is not just about wine, but about authenticity and the rejection of hypocrisy. The poet mocks religious posturing by claiming his fallibility openly. There is freedom in this admission: he refuses to cloak his desires in false sanctity. Instead of pious self-denial, he embraces a worldly honesty, laughing at the preacher’s moral rigidity. This is a classic theme in Urdu poetry—wine as a metaphor for rebellion, truth, and self-acceptance.