The Hidden Garden: Mir Taqi Mir

by Mir Taqi Mir, Gopi Chand Narang (Translator)

Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810), known as the God of Urdu Poesy (Khuda-e Sukhan), is widely admired for his poetic genius. He was the first major poet to demonstrate the hidden beauty and grandeur of the Urdu language, a great gift of India’s cultural fusion.
From the raw Braj vernacular in Agra to the sophistication of Indianized Persian in Delhi and the mellow sweetness of Awadhi in Lucknow, Mir covered the whole spectrum. Mir took the half-baked Rekhta of the mid-eighteenth century to new heights, and with this, he reached the pinnacle of literary Urdu’s poetic and creative journey. Besides a comprehensive literary analysis of Mir’s unusual mellowness and natural flow, the book contains a substantial selection of his most memorable ghazals. This book will be read and re-read by lovers of poetry and Urdu for the beauty of Mir’s verse.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Meer Muhammad Taqi Meer (Urdu: مِیر تقی مِیرؔ‎—Mīr Taqī Mīr), whose takhallus (pen name) was Mir (Urdu: مِیرؔ‎—Mīr) (sometimes also spelt Meer Taqi Meer), was the leading Urdu poet of the 18th century, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself. He was one of the principal poets of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal and remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry often remembered as Khudā-e Sukhan (God of Poetry).

Reviews

[Teenu Vijayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 for the book, 0.25 for me for reading something out of my comfort zone ☺️


The Hidden Garden that explores Mir Taqi Mir's life has been one such book for me. I am clearly not well versed with the nuance’s of Urdu to completely let the words written engulf me but still I could sense the sheer amount of intensity brimming through them.

“begaana sa lage hai chaman ab khizaan mein haae
aisi gaai bahaar magar asshna n thi”
translation :
The garden looks strange, this time of autumn, alas! spring left in a way as if it never belonged here

words like these, the sense of melancholy, the missing of places you haven’t been to. The life that could have been. The first part of book takes us through his childhood and upbringing and the struggles he endured, it sometimes feels so surreal that people actually went through so much to find their calling. There is story about hi looking at moon when he alone and then this habit someone made his life so miserable that he had to get treatment for this “illness”.
The ghazals and couplets in this book is like a revelation about this life :his sufferings, his pain, the deep passion and fire that burnt within him that pushed him to the stature he holds now. His writing is personal, every verse is a testament to this fact.

people who enjoy ghazals and poetry and can understand Urdu would definitely be able to enjoy it more, i plan to revisit this one, when i feel i need to go over those couplets/verses and can find solace through his words.
This is definitely not an easy work to translate as the words might seem flat in English. But still for someone like me who wanted to explore Urdu translation’s this was a good starting point.

[Deepan Maitra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5)

In the introduction of the book that greets us like a huge archway, it has been written that Mir Taqi Mir was acutely imaginative. From a tender age, he had the habit of gazing at the moon. When Mir had started living alone, he used to spend time looking at the solitary moon in the dead of the night, and had begun to perceive a feminine figure there, looking down towards him from her heavenly abode. With time, this moon-clad figure grew almost entrancing, feeding Mir with the necessary fodder which constructed his sensual poetry. 

Mir is a exceptional figure in Urdu poetry. His artistic insanity finds refuge in his verses. His pain, suffering and agony burrows inside his poems, peering at us with glazing eyes. His beloved is omnipresent, almost like the breezing wind. She sways him, urges him, and ignites his artistic sparks. His splendour is feisty, sweeping in and out with embers of fearless longing. 

“The Hidden Garden” houses poems which look as much inward as much as they scan the outwards. In here, Mir is lonely and grieving. He describes his poetic talent as something which he us having trouble to contain within himself. There is a fire that burns within himself, which he is seldom able to tame. His grief solidifies with thoughts of pain, helplessness and of course more love. Mir’s poetry begin and end with love. There is love everywhere, in the suffering and in the vibrating ecstasy. Mir wants to prove that love is here, there and everywhere. It plays about in the heart, carving idols of fancy, peace and turmoil. He says “Heart is a strange city of thoughts, Looted and devastated by the beautiful”. According to Mir, his poetry is almost like a living creature that resides with him. Its this creature that he knows the best, and it’s this creature which grants his musings a glaze of artistic lustre. 

The translation of the Urdu is decent but not too magnificent. Urdu language is as sensory as it can be, and it utterly captures the readers as if in a trance. This translation hardly matches up to this level of poetic beauty. The English used seems to be too literal, with an increasing amount of briskness and chopped off words. 

‘The Hidden Garden’ can turn out to be a wonderful entry into the garden of Urdu poetry, where you will chance upon bright roses in full bloom. It’s close to life, extremely love-stricken and of course, largely personal. 

Thanks Penguin India for the copy.

[Ashok Krishna · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be true to the reader in me, this book isn't worth the paper it is printed on. I was so eager to indulge in the poetry of Mir, but the translation leaves a lot to be desired. The translator seems to have focused more on the letter than on the spirit of the poetry. Except in some stanzas the spark is missing from the rest of the book.

Also, the second part feels quite dry, boring and repetitive. It may interest if you're academically interested in Mir's poems and are looking for a detailed analysis. But if you're a simple reader, looking to relish the beauty of his poems, then this book isn't for you. At least it didn't feel right for me. 😞

[Chittajit Mitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hidden Garden : Mir Taqi Mir was originally written by literary critic and scholar Gopi Chand Narang in Urdu & has been translated into English by Surinder Deol and published by Penguin India. As the title of the book suggests, the author wanted to rediscover the brilliance of Mir Taqi Mir for the general public & bring out the fine details of his work which has been neglected for a very long time.
For me Urdu has always been a language which flows, what I mean by that is whenever I have read anything in Urdu I have felt that it carries a very smooth motion. Growing up in UP one can easily identify how much it is an intricate part of the Hindustani boli, hence to read the work of Mir when Urdu was actually developing makes it immensely interesting. While Urdu masters like Ghalib, Akbar Allahabadi, Firaq, etc. are some of the most talked about artists even in contemporary times, Mir Taqi Mir though extremely talented hasn’t gotten his due yet. And this is exactly the reason why I love and encourage reading translated works as it helps others to come in touch with literature that they generally won’t ever come across.
The book has been divided into two parts, the first is about the life of Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810), how he came to be the widely acclaimed poet of his time and still remains so, which earned him the title Khuda-e Sukhan which means god of Urdu poesy. The second part is based on Usloobiyaat-e Meer where the author goes deeper into the creations of Mir and critically compares it with other poets and how his work has been underplayed by always being appreciated for its ‘simplicity’.
After reading this book & then looking at its beautiful cover, I don’t think Mir’s creations can described in any other way. His work truly is a Hidden Garden, full of fragrance, love & care. The following lines perfectly sums up how his work is, “n rakho kaan nazm-e shaa’iraan-e haal par itne/ chalo tuk Mir ko sun-ne k moti se pirota hai” (Don’t pay too much attention / to poets of the day. / Let us go and listen to Mir. / He does not use words. / He beads pearls in his poetry). How he describes beauty & love through his poems in Urdu is truly something to look forward in this book though I would’ve loved to see the couplets written in Devnagri than in English and the translation of it could’ve been less lyrical and more poetical. Will surely recommend it to everyone who is yet to be introduced to the Hidden Garden of Mir.

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hidden Garden: Mir Taqui Mir by Gopi Chand Narang, translated from the Urdu by Surinder Deol

Time and again I have let mad poets break into my heart and make a place there. The places they have created for me within their verses have been so profoundly beautiful that I have been astonished that I could comprehend such beauty. This volume of poems did that for me. There is a hidden garden of my own, one that I was able to find within the pages of this book.

I have always found it diffictto critique poetry. It's not that I don't comprehend it, I do understand it. It's just that the language to write about poetry always eludes me. How does one write about something so beautiful, without seeming to gush? But here I am, with a poetry collection. Again.

Within the pages of this book I have been able to find hope, love, despair, madness, solitude. I've found poems that made me realise how great it is to be alive (a feeling that comes rarely, but how powerful it is when it hits).

I held hostage a friend who reads Urdu and asked him if he would read these aloud to me. The charm and musicality of the language have always enthralled me.

There is, however, a thing about the translation of the Urdu poems that did not sit well with me. A better reader might find my opinion invalid, but I will offer my experience of reading these poems. I found the translation clunky. Sometimes, too literal. When it came to the ghazals, the brevity of the couplets had been abandoned for free verse interpretations. There is a great beauty to the poems, yes. But the translation feels very stiff. Almost as if the translation or the translator know what beauty they have seen and do not want to share.

When I'm older and, hopefully, wiser, I will read it again and be able to find some more depth and beauty. But for now, this is my opinion of the collection and translation.

[Read.Dream.Repeat.Blogger · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Coming face to face with Mir Taqi Mir once again, after all these years, brings back many memories. Of reading him the first time in college to listening to bus phrases from my mother and grandfather.

This book not only brings back his memory, but it brings it back with meaning. Raw, real, lifelike, deep. And very, very intimate. His words fill you up. But it is the translations that I find tricky, and sometimes problematic.

I could enjoy the book only because of a basic knowledge of Urdu words and a familiarity with Mir's technique. The cultural and historical context gives a depth to the reading experience, an opportunity to come closer to his story, beyond his words. However, I'm not so sure how or if someone completely unfamiliar with the language will be able to enjoy the book, because most of the translated verses lose their essence. In trying to create a mirror image of the poetry in English, the feeling is lost and the depth, often ignored. While it captures his agony and ecstacy well, well enough for us to paint a picture of who he was in flesh and blood, who he was in the eyes of his contemporaries and in the eyes of the society he lived with, and how he became the Mir the world knows him as, today..the translations, that stand at the core of this book, feel too dry, too distant, and far away from the intimacy that Mir originally writes and confesses in.

[Pankaj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tad disappointing, perhaps because I expected better from someone of Narang sahib's stature. The book is repetitive and the same aspects of Mir's life are brought up several times. Narang sahib's collaborator Surinder Deol is not up to the mark with translating Mir's verse and offers a somewhat insipid translation most times.

Personally, I enjoyed Sanjiv Saraf's handling of Mir's poetry in his Nava-e-Sarosh more.

[Rooh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is beautifully written.