Ghalib and The Art of The Ghazal

Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard
University
Ghalib and the Art of the "Ghazal"
Author(s): Sara Suleri Goodyear and Azra Raza
Source: Transition, No. 99 (2008), pp. 112-125
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the Hutchins Center for African and
African American Research at Harvard University
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Ghalib
and the Art
Sara
Mirza
Suleri
of the Ghazal
Goodyear
and Azra
Raza
his nom de plume alternated

(1797-1869,
was born in
between
the early Asad and the later
Ghalib),
Agra but spent most
of his life in Delhi, where he wrote
the
greatest poetry of his age
arguably
under conditions of extreme personal and historical
trauma. The British colo
Asadullah
Khan
Ghalib
the War of 1857 was to bring

conquest of India was almost completed:
in
the final collapse of the Mughal
court
Delhi and a seismic change to
as a whole. Ghalib,
the culture of that city and the politics of the subcontinent
whose
sublime poetry was written both in Persian and in Urdu,
is
perhaps
best known for the remarkable
transmutations
he brought about within
the
nial
about
traditions
of Urdu ghazal poetry. The ghazal is

in
stylistically formal, moving
in
lines of two that are symmetrical
not
in
prosody but
necessarily
subject
matter. The
can
obsessions
traverse
therefore
the
and
poems'
metaphysical
no discordance;
an
aching
interplay of desire and loss is
indeed
In Ghalib,
such an interweaving
cannot but also
prevalent motif.
reflect a loss of community,
both intimate and cultural. Ghalib's
contempo
raries were literal witnesses
to the huge massacres
that were perpetrated
by
the British in Delhi
saw his
the so-called mutiny. Ghalib
during
certainly
the erotic with
a
friends violated
later
and exiled;
understandably,
then, the exilic mode
haunts
his
verse.
The
translations
love of Ghalib.
we
offer here
are
inspired
of the poet
our mutual
and enduring
by
or of Urdu
more gen
poetry
Not being scholars

we
a
what
erally,
bring to this magnificent
body of work is reader's appre
ciation for the language
and the intricate
culture
that produced
it. Our
translations
and
the
approximate
accompanying
represent
interpretations
our
to replicate
we
acts of
rather than claim
attempt
reading:
abjure
and happily
embrace
the charges of overreaching
that we may
authority,
is in this respect
elicit. Our modesty
somewhat
of a
arrogant,
possessed
a
in
text
at
Nietzschean
we
the
can
hand. As
final line of defense,
joy
lack the presence
of their
always claim to be only shagirds [pupils] who
ustad: Ghalib,
the ultimate
teacher.
In terms of the shorthand
translation
of each poem, our aim was clear.
We had neither a desire nor the intention to
the architectonic
of
reproduce
the ghazal. For that, we commend
to the reader
Hollander's
virtuoso
John
enactment
of the ghazal's
form in Rhyme's Reason
than
(2001). Rather
112
Transition
99
to reproduce
internal rhythm or prosody, we have aimed dog
attempting
a
As
for
grace and beauty may of course
consequence,
meaning.
gedly
have flown out the window. We hope nonetheless
that our interpretations
some of the magic
of this poetry.
In this regard, we
help to convey
our
"It is generally believed
that something
invoke as
ally Salman Rushdie:
. . . that
can
to
is
in translation;
notion
the
lost
something
[we] cling
always
also be gained."
will
poetry,
ghazal tradition and Ghalib's
is to complement
translated, our purpose
extensively
was also
sede extant work. This undertaking
the Urdu
While
been
From the
a
generation
by the need to nourish
cannot
Urdu
but, sadly,
appreci
speak
its
for
whom
the lan
those
complexities,
impelled
that can
ate
in
has
particular,
rather than super
Ghalib's
of
interiority
voice
emerges
a new
idiom: an erotics
and intimate, but bereft of
guage is domestic
of asceticism.
of
formal
Our
splendor.
"Epistemologies
are gestures of devotion both to a
past master poet and to the cul
Elegance"
to inhabit. We
of the linguistic world that he continues
tural exactitude
hope
some of the
of Ghalib's voice.
passion, wit, and multiple humanity
a received
in
of
the
Ghalib, we have
against
grain
tropology:
not found most important the comforting
of the lover and the
paraphernalia
to transmit
We
have worked
beloved,
accoutrements
with
Instead, from the interiority

of asceticism.
We
of music,
of Ghalib's
to remain
wine,
voice
emerges
a new
nightingale.
idiom: an erotics
to certain
character
paradoxes
erotic
with
poetry
ghazals:
achingly
implica
an
with
and
divine
beloved
tions, they veer between
addressing
earthly
no
it
in
is
movement.
this
there
remarkable
impunity:
sacrilege
Similarly,
have
endeavored
faithful
and the occasional
as an amorous
istic of Ghalib's
is next
to impossible
to segregate Ghalib's
tragic vision from his endless
recourse
intricate wordplay,
in language
to humor,
and a delight
itself.
verse
most
is
and
the
of
his
difficult
power
Nothing
magical
heavy-handed,
we dislike when
is that it can appear so deft. An appellation
the
describing
ghazal form is the "couplet." It rings wrong,
ing lines [matla], the lovely internal rhythm
because
aside from the open

and
the refrain [radeef],
[qafia],
fine Kashmiri
poet Agha Shahid Ali?
a sher is
no means
a
by
couplet. The
a studied translator
himself
of ghazals?asserted
called
"twosomes."
prefer
To
to call them
commit
While
admiring
Ali's
and
should
idiosyncrasy,
be
we
shers.
or
academically
scholarly
the sins of the dilettante. However,
the more
that the lines
lost charm
we may
to
minded,
appear
we put our faith in a different
of the text and recognizes
that
one that shares in the

community,
pleasure
a reader's errors are
into the unending
process
only openings
we
reason
the
For this
ask
reader to consider
each ghazal
before joining us in our interpretive
quest.
Goodyear and Raza Ghalib and the Art of the Ghazal
of rereading.
in its entirety
113
Ghazal
S3 jy^
S3
?\ y^s. S\ <-.ul^-$5"o? A
Sj^?
?l5
ju3 Xil*- c-j ^ûo

^
y> ?b
a lifetime
sigh requires
The
of your mystery?
of a hundred
mouths
gaping
to take effect
the source
lives to reach
?-j 3J j? <_*^?Jj ?^ ?.j Ll^- J55 Who
crocodiles
form netted
traps
each wave
3J jfS ^j ?-^Li
S3 ^
oLlo
S3
,-j ?_j>? L5 ^^ô
IU J3I ?JL jyo ^??b
?5J ?J^
^j jil?j
S3 ?j 5J jy?. $5"^j ^
S3
Love
demands
<_>5J Îc- J5?- j3^5 ?iuj US' 15J? What

^5 bio ,_>^
cûjb-
Li ?
cj <_-<j$?- $3jj
^J,
fjb? jS
<_>5J ji?j JS lUjLc viol J5J^
^^
I agree
The
endurance,
should
5J *5U- I will
the sea change
the labor within
Consider
not
that you will

be dust by
remain
you have
dewdrop
devours
indifferent,
aware
patience?
but
of me
to vanish
how
not bestowed
to a peai
is consuming
desire
obsession
the time you become
sun's ray teaches
I live because
while
state until
be my
of a raindrop
the grace
of your
attention
upon me
jilt
S3
^?ô cu>> o^
?j xjj?
j?ij
o^ >^ ^
?51<->?y>
^?
?>U Sy> y;?-5J (=M1^yS juil IS"^?uo ?x

S3
This
<_>5J ^^ ^
^î^ oô J?j ?> gx-?
remarkable
ghazal
thetics
Leisure
for life is no more
The warmth
of festivity
than
the flash
is one dance
Asad,
what
can cure
the grief
The
candle
is obliged
to burn
of existence,
before
of a glance,
O,
ignorant
of the flame
except
dying?
extinguishing
at dawn
in the space of seven shers a range of aes

that leave even the most sophisticated
reader reel
from
conventional
space, turning
tropes of ghazals
achieves
and metaphysics
Each
sher switches
ing.
to
to do with culture as with
that have as much
questions
philosophical
classical
traditions
of love poetry. One of the key questions
raised in this
is
the
the
conflict
between
and
of
In
poem
infinity
actuality
temporality.
vistas of desire
almost every sher, the reader will note a tension between
are
in exquisitely
and the reality of mortality,
which
beautiful
presented
the transience
of a lock of hair, a dew drop, the burning
of a
metaphors:
is by no means
its vitality, but neither
is it segre
candle. Existence
denied
gated from its tragedy.
A
Who
114
sigh requires
lives to reach
a lifetime
to take effect
the source
of your mystery?
Transition
99
in
in conventional
that a sigh?or,
terms, a lover's
a lifetime
it matters
to have any effect at all. For readers,
a
of the ghazal, whether
the poet is addressing
the ambivalence
The
not, given
state
lines
opening
lament?needs
beloved or the Almighty

earthly beloved).
will live "to reach
thus takes one
(although, knowing Ghalib,

swerve
In a remarkable
the source
from
of your mystery."
of a lifetime
see
to that of a
day. We also
of irony: the second misra [line or verse]
the object of the poet's desire.
the impact
in this sher a great manipulation

is by no means
forlorn: it chides
The
gaping
mouths
it is probably an
no one
infinity to the finite,
In two short lines, the verse
from
of a hundred
crocodiles
traps in
form netted
each wave
the labor within
Consider
the sea change
of a raindrop
to a
pearl
the exigencies
of nature and danger, while
juxtaposes
identify
wave
a
is
work
man's
nature's
and
work:
also
fisherman's
net, so
every
ing
wave also
nature and culture.
between
there is no real separation
Every
a hundred
it
the
of
with
mouths
another
crocodiles.
opening:
gaping
brings
This
verse
In a characteristically
brilliant metaphoric
twist, Ghalib
observes,
given all
to fall and become
itmust be for any raindrop
these hazards, how difficult
a
that fall into the ocean
pearl?in Urdu mythology
only the first raindrops
is that survival of any kind is next
pearls. The implied analogy
as
as it is. Yet,
are
to
treacherous
pearls
impossible, with the world being
among them Ghalib's ghazah.
produced,
do become
Love
What
demands
should
be my
while desire is consuming

endurance,
state until obsession
devours patience?
tension between
sher represents an extraordinary
devotion
and desire.
in much
o? ghazal poetry
the two terms are coterminous,
here a
is constructed
between
the stillness
of love and the
strange
separation
This
Whereas
movement
of passion. The
and soul?
question
becomes:
Which
energy
is going
to
take over body
I agree that you will not remain indifferent,

aware
I will be dust
time you become
by the
Goodyear
and Raza
Ghalib
and
the Art
but
of me
of the Ghazal
115
we
an
witness
of Ghalib's
subtle poetic
He
arrogance.
example
not remain
his
will
the
of
desire
indifferent,
prophesizes
object
as readers, have no idea
the
convinced
should
be
we,
poet
although
why
in a tragic switch, he declares
of that. Then,
that by the time we do notice
to exist. One of the complexities
of this ghazal
him, he will have ceased
in its shifts in tonality not only from sher to sher, but also from
inheres
Here
that
to misra:
misra
one
cannot
to lead in its journey

tion of fulfillment.
The
I live because
from
determine
where
the earthiness
the poet's
language
of desire to the possible
is going
sublima
how to vanish
sun's ray teaches a dewdrop
the grace of your attention
you have not bestowed
me
upon
on
to a
that melts
analogy
dewdrop
object of desire is here presented
that
the
lover is
the first ray of the sun into nothingness,
suggesting
a
now.
not
with
desired
has
him
until
the
alive only because
gaze
graced
The
with
classical
The
imagery
social
sophisticated
of dew,
setting
the sunrise,
allows
that
and
the gaze
and
for wit
is cast, again, in a
as well
as
irony,
poignancy.
for life is no more
Leisure
The warmth
than the flash
of a glance, O, ignorant!
of the flame
is one dance
of festivity
the concluding
shers of this ghazal return
toward lifetimes,
gestured
as the now
to
transience.
and
of
The
humor
ideas
irony vanish
uncannily
is no more
than the blink of
the ignorant that existence
solemn tone warns
Having
an
eyelid;
gathering
of people
is no more
than
the single
dance
of a
flame.
Asad, what can cure the grief of existence,

except
to burn before extinguishing
The candle is obliged
dying?
at dawn
can
invokes a medical
In the maqta [last two lines] Ghalib
metaphor: Who
a
cure the
curious
The poet then makes
observation
grief of existence?
nature of candles. As readers, we are led to ask: What
about the dynamic
are the
psychic
which
the poet
116
and emotional
colors
in his work,
his times,
and himself
to
refers?
Transition
99
Ghazal
J5l ja ^35
Llwj ly>3^.0
J3\ ja ^5*
lyij 5Jj
15L..^ ~3
^
ol 05^5
^
?\ js\ jS 5J <_>! Arriving

l^\ 0^ -J^> 'vSbb> Granted
your
yesterday,
and
speaking
not
but,
<_jL> Departing,
?JLuJL3S côL? 5J c-i^ ^^j
15c^?Li 055- L5 Marvelous!
\*? ^
5Ui ?J jb
ji' j? ^$*
c_y>^
?-S^S
â
V^?i 65 \5^
?S XL? s ?b ?-^5
J5l jo ^$5
Yes,
say, "We shall meet

if the
day
lose,
you
not
on
was
if he had
of my
some
day
judgment
day"
is some other day!
not died
until
some
other
some
other
day?
jij ^^
^jiy C=M,
<_* 4â
Oj?3 ^?^
right,
angered
day?
home
until
<_?ol c-ftj,_-?. J55 ^3 Since when were you so upright about borrowing
Jl v5JU \3jS You could have let the angel of death harass you
you were
day
of leaving
other
and
with me,
and,
yes,
returning?
some
L?L?j03*
All
will
other
still young
remain
that design
day
tombstone
your
of judgment
sky! Arif
the full moon
could
>e?j Why
perhaps,
day
other
until
today
some
you
would
jW oJi ou ^3 You were

bj .0 o^
grave
As
ancient
you
^y? ^ 5^ ?j^. L*3^5 What
the scar before
bear
forever
other
some
until
before
J3I j? ji?
vijU ^^1 Up o?*?-^
some
again
stay alone
j^ l5bJL>o^> My forehead will

ûoli ?_p 'O j? 05J I remain prostrate
?j^ ^
J3\ ja j>?
J3*o? J>?
now
alone,
L^j? Going
to cross
had
paths
Ip^
J5l j? ^3$ U>

osW ^5 x
Our
^5Up^
you
other
day
fought with
Nayyar
jjl jo ^35
j?$?- b 3 j,^
LtU -3 upLo^
ola
^?Jlfl-jjÂJ
J5I jo ^35
v>ti <_!**05^
^J\?
1503?J
\j\j$ *J> 0^
-^ y4
jji j? ,^35 He JS
c^
?jjS
You
could
have
stayed
some
other
day
In happiness
not have
Up b^5 Why
3?r 3i o^Vj
,-j^ cj jûoo-o-J
Ignorant
My
fate
are
a
or
ghazal is unique marsia,
elegy,
marsia has been associated with Karbala
Dabeer,
contemporaries
the martyrdom
of Ghalib
or sadness,
endured
who
the games
until
of children
the time nonetheless
has passed
dead, some other
the same, untimely
the ones who
is that I should
This
and watched
ask why
yearn
Ghalib
for death
until
is still
some
in Urdu
poetry. Traditionally,
and great poets such as Anis
wrote
poems
long narrative
living
other
day
the
and
con
of Hussain
the
and his family. Ghalib domesticates
son Arif. The poet
it
to
from
his
here
diverges
adoptive
elegy, addressing
the
form
the classical
person
naming
through
ghazal
specific
being
on the
is
Its burden
focused
addressed.
obsessively
(refrain)
youth of the
cerning
to which Ghalib's
returns
son, raising the issue of mortality
poetry
turns in this
of grief takes powerful
with
The
such delicacy.
language
a
to
the
with
reader
the
child.
Where
opening
might
reproach
ghazal,
on the
there is instead an emphasis
expect praise and conciliation,
physi
dead
is the beauty of
What
of the poet's mourning.
the reader perceives
even more
it
is
is
imbued
with
which
because
rage. This
grief,
powerful
more
makes
the impact of the poet's love
than if he had indulged
piercing
in lengthy descriptions
of Arif's virtues or beauties. This ghazal provides
cality
Goodyear
and Raza
Ghalib
and
the Art
of the Ghazal
day?
117
a new
for the elegiac by articulating
poetry with
language
in any way diminishing
the intensity of passion.
of loss without
the anger
Urdu
cross again some other

paths had to
day
now
alone,
stay alone until some other day
Our
Going
The
opening
sher addresses
its sorrow
sher pierces:
ity of grief. There
the lost son with
is almost
is no give
and
infantile
the necessity
of reproach. The
of the raw irritabil
in its expression
there is only a taking
take in death;
away.
scar before your tombstone will

My forehead will bear the
I remain prostrate before your grave until some other day
sher connects
with writing. The poet is at the grave

mourning
himself
the place of the dead, but he
before
stone, repeatedly
prostrating
cannot possibly be erased.
knows full well that the name on the tombstone
his
head
the stone, despite
the
And yet he will remain,
against
striking
action.
of
such
futility
The
second
Arriving
Granted
tone
and speaking
yesterday,
not forever but, perhaps,
in this sher is almost
today of leaving
some other
day
one
to be
of cajolery. The poet appears
a well-loved
"You came only yesterday,
and
guest and asking,
addressing
a
is
it
is
not
death
of
While
talk
overt,
subtext,
you
leaving?"
already today
The
here into the theme of departure.
but rather transmutes
image of
as host and Arif as the departing
in the next sher.
Ghalib
guest continues
The
Departing,
Marvelous!
you say, "We shall meet

As if the day of judgment
on
day"
judgment
is some other day!
of departure
from the previous
sher by
is ironic, acerbic, and throbbing
response
invoking judgment day. Ghalib's
nor
sense
in Ghalib's
is neither nostalgia
with pain. There
sentimentality
as
as
his love.
vital
of loss: his suffering remains
This
sher solemnities
What
the theme
was still young

Yes, you ancient
sky! Arif
would you lose, if he had not died until some
other
day?
and in the language

of the tradition of great complaint,
simplicity,
an
to the ancient
this verse addresses
age-old question
sky rather than to
God. The question here again is one of Fate.
With
118
Transition
99
You were
not
could
Why
the full moon
that design
remain
of my
home
until
some other
day?
in the entire ghazal to Arif's

the single reference
striking
to be aware here that the
is important
It
beauty:
metaphors
the lunar cal
of Urdu poetry draw heavily on Islamic traditions,
including
more
than
the
of light, but
endar. The phases of the moon
prospect
signify
an ethereal radiance
a
and
power that transcends mere aesthetic
hypnotic
This
sher makes
the full moon.
pleasure.
the mourner,
Ghalib,
were
Since when
You
could
have
In a remarkable
to the jocular, the poem

the
suddenly juxtaposes
as
the behavior of the supernatural,
though the
a debt collector. The intrusion of humor into a discourse
with
is itself
but this sher also expresses Ghalib's great
extraordinary,
concerns and
the workings
and frailties of man are his ultimate
Even in a moment
of his compassion.
of intense loss, the poet's
the object
solace lies not in metaphysics,
were
right, you
You could have
All
but
in the
grounding
the reader
This
of daily
reality.
angered with me, and, yes, you fought with Nayyar

the games of children until
stayed and watched
some other
poetry.
and returning?
some other
day
return
pragmatics
were
angel of death
Here,
departure.
you so upright about borrowing

let the angel of death harass you
of existence
of mourning
humanism:
laments Arif's
to witness
is allowed
is a scene
of household
day
a very unusual
spectacle in Urdu ghazal

where
Arif
is becoming
domesticity,
a character whom we have to
accept at
is fighting with Nayyar,

reader is catapulted
into a scene of intimacy
the conventions
of courtly love more typical of ?lghazal. The
annoyed and
face value. The
that lies beyond

of
very mention
concrete
is itself highly unusual. When

the sub
reality rather than metaphor
over
the fact that Arif did not stay, the reader
sequent misra expresses
regrets
a literal, not a
is
this
realizes
that
indeed
reference.
suddenly
figurative
or sadness,
In happiness
the time nonetheless
the same, untimely
death,
Why not have endured
The
resignation
of this sher moves
more
grief to reflect
beyond
personal
the relentless march
of time. While
Ghalib's
and
upon existence,
here is not defeatist, he appears
that will accept the darkness
along with
broadly
attitude
to be calling
the light.
are the ones who ask

Ignorant
why Ghalib
is that I should yearn for death until
My fate
Goodyear
and Raza
has passed
some other
day?
Ghalib
and
the Art
for a type of stoicism
is still living
some other
day
of the Ghazal
119
use of tenses, who

maqta of this elegy further complicates,
through the
is speaking
to whom.
In the first misra it is clear that Ghalib has overheard
The
someone's
the poet addresses

his
interlocutor,
inquiry. To this unknown
The
of this maqta is that it
the poet squarely back
reply.
beauty
places
within
the social fabric: he may be grieving
and wishing
for death, but he
can still overhear
what
as are his
poetry
and his
others
say about him. Ghalib's
life.
Ghazal
i>tAylj? cd?o-uayb
-J
<_5^35 ^L,
is as vivid
mourning
?\ jS ?-J ?S J5 Why
^j jJ? ?_3^, -o This
of tomorrow's
today in the promise
imbibing?
is an insult against
the generosity
of heaven's
thirst
parsimony
surely
quencher
j-L-o^3
s?S3 J5 ^5 JJ? o$S

ci j-o
ot* v1^ ^J^
jj ^
?U-* ci <=MI
3
ot* yUj ^-
Â?
^-dSb ?5t5 jU>
îD
?_>^pu^ la^ 03^
3j
<r^4%>0^5 ^^t ji^j ^ ^
U -J <_>^j ^b ?>b ^j
<=ri
cr^
lx?0v^j
cJL?sr ^J
d-^cr-
Sj\
^^ uU
l^
^x
oU^
s s>? 3 ?>^ <=j l>*aW* jU
The
from my
?3^ ?-i o~!r?e?&**-' 3$ o^

L>^>
y'**- o-r? c=^
0^-0
The
a sum
s-^? v^
<=i The
Lhri The
?->? cr? lP> cr- c?3?

otr? v!P 3-! l^^
?^
v-*1*
J5f dp- J$*?*
body?
us
before
reality
Ghalib,
of the veil,
lost in dreams,
the fragrance
is never
to be done
lives constantly
ismisread
dreams
veils
your many
the mirror
of the Lord
actuality
oneself
are within
of the hidden
decorum
clairvoyant
you
the art of observation
phosphorescence
even with
of the ravishing
the seclusion
deep
of pride,
unveiled
drop,
are as one
the beheld
of the Ocean's
total of wave,
embellishment
Inside
3s? J5^ o^ v'3^
its
of Otherness
as confirmation
appears
is itmerely
is a form
u^'jl
own
to the illusion
if ?he act of beholding,

the beholder,
and
one can measure
1 am astonished
how
by
uhrf No matter
-uSl ?-i j&j
to leave
in the instruments
are no hands
how
^5b
struggle
impermissible?
for me
can it be
of life speeds by, where
stopped?
on the reins, no feet in the
stirrups
horseman
There
<=-*ijric=H] <=ijL* <^-bl **' ?j?> Reticence

cH cr^
a soul
resides
o-o J3J ~S o^
j>4 Lh^J?^^ er-- J^
he
emanates
as revelation
is awake
from
the Lord's
Companion
Recognizing
120
voice
was
yesterday
to bow
refusal
does
why
if the divine
In proportion
?3lrJâ3 x>U, 3 03^ J*?l

J3J j^
??S ?-i ?jjL^ ^
^^ Ûj
?^3*
Listening,
what
disgraced,
arrogant
angel's
^3^3 Ji J5^ *** cUjlj^ ,_> What
^
o?* v1-^
so
today
Lui j am
equidistant
35 4^w ^
s â 05i c=^ jt?-^>3 ^S

^-
c^ ^
Why
^jAimS An
Ali
has become
the business
of my
truth
Transition
99
as Ghalib
of this ghazal may well feel a certain disequilibrium
leads
a
series
of
aesthetic
great
interroga
dignity through
metaphysical
tions beginning with the heavens and ending with the earth. To some extent,
Readers
them with
the poem represents a continuum

of ideas and images, although
the cautious
reader learns to be wary of Ghalib's dramatic changes of subjects and tropes.
these shers can be interpreted as either
Scholars have long debated whether
an assertion
or a disavowal
of the Sufi doctrine, which

locutions are frequently
Ghalib's
the universe.
However,
hard
tiply layered that it becomes
This
viewpoints.
ghazal opens with
warning
the wine
against
bearer
asserts
the unity of
and mul
so ironized
to
particular
philosophical
of a carpe diem, an injunction
an abstemiousness
that may appear to be an insult against
river. It would be erroneous
to cite this sher
of the heavenly
as an affirmation
of Ghalib's
away from belief

satanic. Whether
and toward
to link them
the bravado
religious
the nature
for the ghazal swerves

inclination,
of transgressions,
whether mortal or
with the body matters not when they

the soul commingles
to the flute and the
lyre.
artfully compared
The reader may be perplexed
by shers that first posit ideas of unity and
them with subsequent
then ironically puncture
images of simultaneous
fragil
are
is that the ghazal is

however,
ity. Equally
significant,
suddenly arrested by
shers of great proleptic power, such as the one that features the image of a
a course
its rider?
horse galloping
beyond the heart's horizons;
mythological
in control of neither the reins nor the stirrups and yet is
in harmony with his anarchic journey. It is here that Ghalib first
terms of astonishment
the seemingly
and assess
juxtaposes
contradictory
which
this
With
he
verbal
ment,
repeats throughout
ingenuity he trans
ghazal.
is mortal?is
who
somehow
awe of the
into a moment
forms modesty
of narcissism,
leaving the reader in
itmakes no
the same misra. Here,
of the Other within
veiling and unveiling
the Other occupies
the realm of the divine or the local.
in a dream, which
in his inimitable fashion that he iswaking
the reader's experience
of this poem. The concluding maqta
difference
whether
Ghalib
suggests
be
may
precisely
with its incomparable
it as God,
of friend?read
repetition of the appellation
curious
this
lover, companion?interweaves
ghazal back upon itself.
The matla opens the poem by demanding
the rather righteous
confir
mation
of Ali
over Ghalib's
nocturnal
delights.
in the promise
of tomorrow's
parsimony
imbibing?
today
is an insult against the generosity
of heaven's
thirst
surely
Why
This
quencher
against one another. Drawing
the poet warns his listeners against an overly frugal
use of alcohol,
is in fact an uncivil
that such abstemiousness
suggesting
on
wine
in
the
of
will
reflection
He who
bestow
the heavens. That
spirit
This
sher pits mortal

on Islamic
imagery,
spirit is Ali,
Goodyear
who
and Raza
and
immortal
isMuhammad's
Ghalib
and the Art
worlds
cousin
and
son-in-law,
and also
the saqi
of the Ghazal
121
providing
[wine bearer] of the river Kausar,
that serves the righteous.
the celestial domain
in
the heavenly
flow of wine
is
to
Ghalib's
here
sug
irony
is so boundless
that it cannot be confined
gest that such a spirit's generosity

to
of daily life. To
realms and thus spills over into the pleasures
heavenly
in a sense, to be honoring
imbibe here on earth is, therefore,
the heavens.
in the
The
linguistic
play is further intensified
by the temporal urgency
resonate with an
tomorrow
and
first misra, since the words
independent
today
are not
of the present and the hereafter.
vigor. They
merely
descriptions
Why
today
An
so
disgraced,
angel's
what
arrogant
was
yesterday
impermissible?
refusal to bow for me
to be less to the poet's own degradation

than
appears
on
statement of the Muslim
cultural situation. Drawing
the
again
general
so
of
and
wonders
Muslims
should
be
Ghalib
poles
why
today
yesterday,
an
to
in
to
times
when
earlier
God's
refusal
humiliated,
pay homage
angel's
reference
The
here
new
creation
bow
down
was
sufficient
to Adam,
to elicit
the Creator's
the circle
wrath.
of good
and
Satan
refused
evil
to
that
generating
through
thus suggests that God is a trifle care
gesture. The poet's arrogant demand
in the same psychic
less: he suffers rejection
space as Satan. The reader is
as
torn between
the
the
greater denier of Iblis or else
poet
acknowledging
as
Satan.
a soul
to leave its
Listening,
struggle
body
why does
before us?
If the divine voice resides in the instruments
This
sher employs
music
represented
"oneness" with
classical
tropes of mysticism,
as a means
of both escaping
which
have
the world
traditionally
and achieving
at such a union
the deity. The poem expresses wonderment

if the divine
lives
the reader of a paradox:
spirit actually
instruments
and the music
then, lies
they produce, where,
by reminding
within
earthly
the locus of divinity?
The
horseman
No
translation
only gesture.
ing the motion
can it be
of life speeds by, where
stopped?
on the reins, no feet in the
stirrups
are no hands
There
can do
sher, toward which we can
justice to this exquisite
its
like the wind
itself,
language and tonality captur
in a literal trans
of time, which
simply cannot be conveyed
Itmoves
that of the inevitability

of time
image is not merely
moves.
it
with
which
haste
and
the
grace
passing,
Ghalib's
image of the force of life derives from classical Persian poetry.
the epic hero, rides a beloved horse, Ruksh, known for its elegance
Rustum,
a
and beauty. Ghalib's
image of life thus represents
fleeting but arresting
lation. The
dominant
but also
122
Transition
99
no con
once transient and seductive. The horseman
clearly has
splendor, at
seems to be no coordination
between
the rider, the stirrups, the
trol. There
a
cosmic
their hectic ride through
and
the
horse.
dictates
reins,
Still,
harmony
time. The
a
that knows no bounds:
suggests
deluge of movement
of time itself. In the second misra, the
the boundaries
first misra
is spilling over
attention becomes
time
on the anonymous,
faceless rider whose
are
brought out in stark contrast to the inexo
focused
reader's
and fragility
very vulnerability
rable forces of life. A mysterious,
symbiotic relation between
of
allows this journey
der of life and the delicacy
humanity
evokes
Yet Ghalib
almost
appears
with
such ideas of disorder
thun
into irresolution.
calm.
Indeed,
he
the future.
about
nostalgic
remarkable
the chaotic
from my own reality

I am equidistant
to the illusion of Otherness
In proportion
here again
reality, which
Ghalib
and
he associates
with
the lover has no
attempts to locate
seems to become
existence
strange chimeric
at all; even desire and fidelity
him. The verse
that might welcome
This
the Other.
solid
point of the poet's identity

from him when
alienated
the shifting
even more
anchor
implies
do not
that
root
in a psychic habitat
deliberately
to the difference
employs the term haqiqat [reality], but also refers indirectly
between
ishq-e-haqiqi [love for heaven] and ishq-e-majazi [love for the earth].
to see that the poet's desire for the sacred and the
The reader is brought
him
is, in fact,
profane
he
indistinguishable:
is utterly
and
If the act of beholding,
the beholder,
one
can
measure
am
I
astonished
by how
Here
we
have
a clear
or the fundamental
reference
unity
alienated
the beheld
are as one
the art of observation
to the Sufist doctrine
and oneness
from both.
of all creation.
of Wahdat-ul-Wujood,
The first misra is an
the witness,
the act of witnessing,
proposition:
straightforward
ostensibly
are all
is being witnessed
situated
and that which
along the same
essentially
raises a perforating
continuum. The second misra however,
doubt, asking in
and quantify
the
how it is that the individual might
observe
wonderment
that surround the poet. Implicit in the mathematical
spectacles
is a celebration
of the exactitude
of beauty: instead
precision of this question
the poet privileges
the mysteries
of the bland unity of the visionary mystic,
enveloping
of earthly life, whether

here
query embedded
or
pains. The
they involve social patterns, pleasures,
Who
further raises the crucial issue of accountability:
creator or the created?

truly represents the universe, the
a century
W. B. Yeats was to ask a related question
"Among School Children":
Goodyear
and Raza
Ghalib
and
the Art
later in his poem
of the Ghazal
123
chestnut
blossomer
tree, great-rooted
or the bole?
the leaf, the blossom,
Are
you
O body swayed to music, O brightening
glance,
can we know the dancer from the dance?
How
verse
The
examines
forms
the disparate
the taut dynamism
vital interdependence
the integrity of the ocean, not to watch

it dissipate
into
of waves,
but rather to marvel
at
drops, and bubbles,
between
the very immense
and the very fragile. This
lies at the heart
of Ghalib's
vision
of reality, which
issues concerning
further implies that philosophic
and imper
permanence
manence
remains
is the sea, not
are, in the end, strangely redundant. What
the illusion of the sea and the breaking waves
that constitute
the being of
of water.
that body
can we
How
Reticence
No matter
tell the dancer
from
the dance?
is a form of pride, even with oneself

you are within your many
how unveiled
veils
crux of this sher

on a close
depends
reading of the word sharm-loosely
can
it
in
but that term reflects none of
shame
translated,
represent
English,
the cultural densities
and traditions
that accompany
the invocation
of this
The
as a
rather than a negative
courtesy culture employs sharm
positive
it can betoken
an
and, indeed,
dignity, distance,
intriguing mystery
it ismanifested
an indication
is
other.
It
not
the
therefore
of a lack
by
word.
value:
when
but
a statement
instead
by drawing
first misra,
attention
the other's
of secret wealth, which Ghalib

doubly emphasizes
to the
narcissism
of such interiority.
In the
potential
is imaged as a mode
self-effacement
of self-worship;
in the second
serve to draw acute attention

to
misra, veils themselves
only
is being veiled. The irony here is that structure or attitudes
that
and
the
appear to be intact are in a process of perpetual
poet
dismantling,
is the observer who can see it.
that which
The
embellishment
Inside
The
the seclusion
is never to be done
of the ravishing
of the veil, the mirror
lives constantly
or
of enchantment,
ethereal
whether
requires
earthly,
one
can
never
see
an
some ways,
in
end
this
labor;
sight. In
as a statement of both
to be read
simultaneously
metaphysi
construction
infinite
art and
sher demands
cal and corporeal

in which
to be the enigma
the impulse appears
desire,
of incompletion.
The deity adorns His creation but remains hidden
from
the created, never revealing His final word, while
the artifice of the human
other is again always in wait for its point of fulfillment. Neither
the observer
nor
124
the observed
can expect
the calm
of consummation.
Transition 99
The
deep decorum
The clairvoyant
of the hidden
is misread
lost in dreams,
dreams
as revelation
he
is awake
of the unknown with

the inviolability
seeks to maintain
In this sher, Ghalib
It may be a
it with any supernatural
out necessarily
strength.
endowing
to revelation
but its
force that remains hidden
and will not be available
like the solace implied by the mysteries
secrecy is in a way a solace, much
of the soul. The second misra invites the reader into an exquisite metaphor
of a no-man's
resents
and dreaming?the
poet rep
waking,
in dreams and then delicately
rede
first as being engulfed
a dream.
as that of one who
is awake within
location
land between
himself
fines
sleeping,
his psychic
Within
this liminal
is both able to observe

that which remains
state, Ghalib
to express his reconciliation
the darkness
that he per
with
him.
around
and
hidden
ceives
Ghalib,
of the Lord
the fragrance
Ali
Recognizing
emanates
from
Companion
a business
has become
the Lord's
truth
of my
in order to make
of God
that
the presence
the
of
the
and
adoration
One
the
Sufi
appearance
Beyond
multiple.
can
emanated
also be located in the fragrance
the divine Friend
Unitary,
This
beautiful
maqta
invokes
cousin Hazrat Ali, whom Muhammad

jestingly named
by the Prophet's
with
In
the
second
of
covered
Bu-Turab
misra, the
dust/one
dust].
[father
with the idea of truth by claiming
his tenuous negotiations
poet establishes
to Hazrat Ali, "father of dust."
to God through his devotion
his connection
nor
a
is neither monolithic
Platonic
ideal but can be real
Truth therefore
ized
in
as
something
of one.
memory
of the Prophet
the prohibition
invoked with
evanescent
In the Islamic
as
the
literary
and his family proliferate
of visual representations
trace
of
perfume,
and cultural
or
even
the
invocations
traditions,
the centuries. Despite
throughout
of such figures,
they have been
in both folklore and
and affection
intimacy
extraordinary
ideas of divine order are grounded
high poetry. Ghalib's
is the world of all of us, the place where in the end we find
in the world
which
our happiness,
or not
at all! (Wordsworth).?
Goodyear
and Raza
Ghalib
and
the Art
of the Ghazal
125

Ghalib and The Art of The Ghazal

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Ghalib and The Art of The Ghazal

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Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard

and the Art

his nom de plume alternated

the War of 1857 was to bring

of Urdu ghazal poetry. The ghazal is

then, the exilic mode

Not being scholars

Instead, from the interiority

and the occasional

aside from the open

that the lines

one that shares in the

Goodyear and Raza Ghalib and the Art of the Ghazal

ju3 Xil*- c-j ^^uo

?-j 3J j? <_*^?Jj ?^ ?.j Ll^- J55 Who

,-j ?_j>? L5 ^^^o

IU J3I ?JL jyo ^??b

<_>5J ^Ic- J5?- j3^5 ?iuj US' 15J? What

the sea change

the labor within

that you will

the time you become

sun's ray teaches

?>U Sy> y;?-5J (=M1^yS juil IS"^?uo ?x

^^i^ o^o J?j ?> gx-?

for life is no more

in the space of seven shers a range of aes

beloved or the Almighty

(although, knowing Ghalib,

in this sher a great manipulation

the sea change

while desire is consuming

take over body

I agree that you will not remain indifferent,

to lead in its journey

for life is no more

than the flash

Asad, what can cure the grief of existence,

?\ js\ jS 5J <_>! Arriving

say, "We shall meet

the full moon

jW oJi ou ^3 You were

^y? ^ 5^ ?j^. L*3^5 What

the scar before

vijU ^^1 Up o?*?-^

j^ l5bJL>o^> My forehead will

J5l j? ^3$ U>

the time nonetheless

the same, untimely

the ones who

cross again some other

the lost son with

scar before your tombstone will

with writing. The poet is at the grave

in this sher is almost

you say, "We shall meet

was still young

and in the language

the full moon

in the entire ghazal to Arif's

the full moon.

to the jocular, the poem

angered with me, and, yes, you fought with Nayyar

s s>? 3 ?>^ <=j l>aW jU

J5f dp- J$?

<=-ijric=H] <=ijL <^-bl **' ?j?> Reticence