Ghazals: Translations of Classic Urdu Poetry

by Mir Taqi Mir, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (Translator)

The finest ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir, the most accomplished of Urdu poets.

The prolific Mir Taqi Mir (1723–1810), widely regarded as the most accomplished poet in Urdu, composed his ghazals ―a poetic form of rhyming couplets―in a distinctive Indian style arising from the Persian ghazal tradition. Here, the lover and beloved live in a world of the outsider is the hero, prosperity is poverty, and death would be preferable to the indifference of the beloved. Ghazals offers a comprehensive collection of Mir’s finest work, translated by a renowned expert on Urdu poetry.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2022

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

[Silpa Soni · Rating 2 out of 5]

The essence of ghazals got lost in the translation. Not worth a read.

[armghan ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

poetry in translation always leaves something to be desired. but Mir shines throug

[༻✮zoha · Rating 4 out of 5]

would metaphorically pull my teeth out to read/understand/listen to these ghazals in urdu\
Mir is so depressed and desperate and his writing shows it well

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mir Taqi Mir was an Urdu poet born in Agra, India whose poems were based on the Persian ghazal tradition. Living from 1723 to 1810, Mir was thus roughly a contemporary of William Blake, Byron, and Coleridge. Ghazals are a poetic form of five to 15 rhyming couplets (rhyming in Urdu, that is) that typically deal with melancholy aspects of love. As with Shakespeare’s sonnets, most of Mir’s ghazals are clearly directed toward a woman, while some are directed at males, underage boys. With Mir, poor boys serve as a physical counterpart to the idealized female epitome.

Here is ghazal 97 in its entirety:

Yesterday some friends took me into a flower garden.
I didn’t find fragrance similar to hers in the rose or in the jasmine.

The sweet tongue of the beloved slays me.
How I wish that tongue were in my mouth.

Like a whirlpool I went round and round in this ocean.
My life in my native land was spent in vertiginous wandering.

If I went to my grave with this charred and smoldering heart of mine
a blazing fire would consume my shroud.

You’re what makes me live, but oh, your tight-fitting dress is a cruelty.
I can see that your body has the soft and delicate style of the soul.

I fear it might cause your body to go numb—you are much too delicate—
this close-fitting dress of yours that clings so tightly to your body.

Mir, it would be a catastrophe if she looked me full in the face—
she who turned a world upside down with just a wink of her eye.

After being rejected once again by his female beloved, Mir seeks out boys for physical release. However, this practice seems to be an eccentricity of Mir’s rather than an accepted cultural solution to a romantic impasse, since he reports being socially rejected for seeking out boys. “What deadly grievous sin did I commit in giving my heart away to the boys? / Why is everyone in the city, young or old, gossiping about it?” (Ghazal 112). (As the late translator Shamsur Rahman Faruqi notes in his introduction, sexual ambiguity also extended to ghazal conventions, too, since—for a couple of centuries—the beloved was addressed as male rather than female.)

Faruqi’s notes and introduction to Mir and his poetry are excellent for providing background and clarifying some of the subtler nuances of Mir’s allusions and Indian poetic practices.

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[Rebecca Herz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This most beautiful collection spoke to me deeply as a poet and human. The rich tradition of Ghazal will carry you to new worlds and test your craft as a poet.

[Vinay Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading a few of the pieces in this book, others felt a very literal translation from Urdu, which doesn't do the original justice perhaps. A ghazal has a soul, I could feel that in some of these. It makes me wish I knew Urdu so I could read it in its original form.