Dr.

TheresaThompson English2130Spring2010

2/19/11

Dr. Theresa Thompson English 2130 Spring 2011

Mirza Azadullah Khan Ghalib: Indian Persian poet 1850 appointed poet Laureate by the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II Urdu language

Context
Lyric verse: usually a fairly short poem consisting of an utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought or feeling.
Ghazal: lyric verse, ~10th-c. Persia, developed from Arabic verse form, qasda.
Still practiced in Iran (Farsi), Pakistan (Urdu), and India (Urdu & Hindi)

The ghazal is usually a contemplation of love.

Wine (X, 1066-67)

In traditional ghazal, as in the Biblical Song of Solomon, love acts as a METAPHOR for the relations between humans, god, and world. Fire doesnt do it: lust for fire does it. This heart hurts for the spirits fading. (XXI, 1068)

Lover in the desert

With every step I took, my goal seemed farther away. I ran my fastest, but the desert ran faster.

Dr.TheresaThompson English2130Spring2010

2/19/11

Green Language: Coded Language

Islam and the language of birds
In Sufism, a mystic branch of Islam, the language of birds is the mystical language of angels.

Nightingales and doves: symbols of spiritual longing

The Conference of the Birds (mantiq attair) is a mystical poem of 4647 verses by 12th-c. Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar. Uses the journey of 30 birds as an allegory for a teacher leading his pupils to enlightenment.

Wings are like dust, weightless; the wind may steal them.

The dove is a clutch of ashes, nightingale a clench of color.

Otherwise they would have neither power or endurance. (XIV, 1067)

A cry in a scarred, burnt heart, to that, is nothing. (XXI, 1068)

Traditional Ghazal Form

Shers: couplets, two paired rhyming lines of verse.
~five to fifteen shers connected by a common METER & RHYME scheme (qafiyah).

Each sher focuses on a separate thought, image, or mood. The final sher often contains the authors pen name (takhallus).
MATLA : the first rhyming SHER ( Couplet) of a ghazal.
Matla sets the qafiyah.

QAFIYAH: meter and rhyme scheme.

Rhyme scheme of Matla repeated at end of second line in each succeeding Sher, so the rhyming pattern may be the same.

RADEEF: a repeated word or phrase at the end of the Qafiyah.

Ghalib sometimes violates rules of ghazal in favor of a more complete emotional expression.

Dr.TheresaThompson English2130Spring2010

2/19/11

Ghalibs Ghazals
Ghalib plays with sabk-i hindi, an 18th-c. poetry of style that moves image from abstract metaphor to fact.
Rose: common enough symbol for love Rose, Ghalib, the rose changes give us our joy in seeing. All colors and kinds, what is should and be open always. (V 1066) Desert: metaphor of internalized, emotional desert pours out into the world (XIX, 1068)

Profound melancholy of ghazal XII (1067, translated by Adrienne Rich)

The ghazals characteristic melancholy deepens into a profound loneliness, an overwhelming sense of loss (Ghalib1065; XIII, 1067)