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Temple Lamp: Verses on Banaras
The poem 'Chirag-e-Dair' or Temple Lamp is an eloquent and vibrant Persian masnavi by Mirza Ghalib. While we quote liberally from his Urdu poetry, we know little of his writings in Persian, and while we read of his love for the city of Delhi, we discover in temple Lamp, his rapture over the spiritual and sensual city of Banaras.
Chiragh-e-dair is being translated directly from Persian into English in its entirety for the first time, with a critical Introduction by Maaz Bin Bilal. It is Mirza Ghalib's pean to Kashi, which he calls Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India.
Chiragh-e-dair is being translated directly from Persian into English in its entirety for the first time, with a critical Introduction by Maaz Bin Bilal. It is Mirza Ghalib's pean to Kashi, which he calls Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India.
- GenresPoetry
200 pages, Paperback
Published August 11, 2022
1 person is currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib
108 books394 followersMirza Ghalib (Urdu: مرزا غالب) born Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (Urdu/Persian: مرزا اسد اللہ بیگ خان) was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule. He used as his pen-name Ghalib (Urdu/Persian: غالب, ġhālib means dominant) and Asad (Urdu/Persian: اسد, Asad means lion. His honour title was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula.
During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and finally deposed by the British following the defeat of the Indian Revolt of 1857, events that he wrote of. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. In South Asia, he is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
Mirza Ghalib is also known as the last great poet of the Mughal Era.
During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and finally deposed by the British following the defeat of the Indian Revolt of 1857, events that he wrote of. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. In South Asia, he is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
Mirza Ghalib is also known as the last great poet of the Mughal Era.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 15, 2023
buwad dar’ ars-e-bāl afshānī-e-nāz
khazānash sandal-e-peshānī-e-nāz
autumn, when it shakes its wings in pride,
becomes on kashi’s forehead a sandalwood mark.
bah-taslim-e-hawa-e-āñ-chaman-zār
zemauj-e-gul-bahārāñ bastah zunnār
bowing in respect to the very air of this garden,
the spring breeze wears a janéu made of flowers.
(108) verses is a perfect choice, the no. of beads on a rosary. i read the complete masnavi first, then the introduction, then the masnavi again. might try a hindi translation of this next. and i actually very recently attended an upanayana and visited benares. unfortunately i picked up this book after both…
khazānash sandal-e-peshānī-e-nāz
autumn, when it shakes its wings in pride,
becomes on kashi’s forehead a sandalwood mark.
bah-taslim-e-hawa-e-āñ-chaman-zār
zemauj-e-gul-bahārāñ bastah zunnār
bowing in respect to the very air of this garden,
the spring breeze wears a janéu made of flowers.
(108) verses is a perfect choice, the no. of beads on a rosary. i read the complete masnavi first, then the introduction, then the masnavi again. might try a hindi translation of this next. and i actually very recently attended an upanayana and visited benares. unfortunately i picked up this book after both…
September 17, 2022
Wonderful translation. Maaz also provides biographical and creative context for this masnavi which makes the reading all the more joyful and informative. I loved learning about more eccentricities of Ghalib’s character. For example, the writer shares that Ghalib, probably falsely, claimed to have studied as a child under the tutelage of an Iranian tutor in Agra, Abdus Samad, who was in all likelihood a mere figment of Ghalib’s imagination
As a reader only familiar with Ghalib’s Urdu work and his ghazals, this book and translation opened a new world of his poetry for me.
As a reader only familiar with Ghalib’s Urdu work and his ghazals, this book and translation opened a new world of his poetry for me.
August 31, 2024
मिर्जा गालिब की बनारस यात्रा मशहूर है। उन्होंने फारसी में, जो उनकी प्रिय काव्यभाषा थी, एक मसनवी चिराग-ऐ-दैर नाम से लिखी। मूल फारसी से हिंदी अनुवाद दिल्ली यूनिवर्सिटी के उर्दू के पूर्व अध्यक्ष जनाब सादिक ने की है।
यूं तो बनारस सदियों से एक पुण्य नगरी है और उसकी स्तुति में बहुत कुछ लिखा गया है लेकिन गालिब की मसनवी इस परंपरा में होते हुए भी अनोखी है। गालिब दिल्ली से लखनऊ - बांदा - इलाहाबाद होते हुए बनारस पंहुचे थे और थके हुए थे। बनारस की खुली हवा में उन्हें राहत मिली। अपनी मसनवी में उन्होंने खुले दिल से बनारस की आब-ओ-हवा, यहां के आध्यात्मिक माहौल, गंगा के निर्मल बहाव और बनारस की स्त्रियों के अनुपम सौंदर्य का उल्लेख किया है। इसे जन्नत-उल-फिरदौस बतलाया है। फारसी में बनारस पर लिखी संभवतः यह पहली मसनवी है।
गालिब ने फारसी में कुल ग्यारह मसनवियां लिखीं। यह उनमें तीसरी है जिसमें कुल 108 शेर हैं। एक ऐसे समय में जब हिंदू और इस्लाम धर्मों के बीच की दूरी बढ़ रही है, गालिब की यह मसनवी हमें सिखाती है कि यह दूरी कितनी बहुत पहले पट चुकी थी।
यूं तो बनारस सदियों से एक पुण्य नगरी है और उसकी स्तुति में बहुत कुछ लिखा गया है लेकिन गालिब की मसनवी इस परंपरा में होते हुए भी अनोखी है। गालिब दिल्ली से लखनऊ - बांदा - इलाहाबाद होते हुए बनारस पंहुचे थे और थके हुए थे। बनारस की खुली हवा में उन्हें राहत मिली। अपनी मसनवी में उन्होंने खुले दिल से बनारस की आब-ओ-हवा, यहां के आध्यात्मिक माहौल, गंगा के निर्मल बहाव और बनारस की स्त्रियों के अनुपम सौंदर्य का उल्लेख किया है। इसे जन्नत-उल-फिरदौस बतलाया है। फारसी में बनारस पर लिखी संभवतः यह पहली मसनवी है।
गालिब ने फारसी में कुल ग्यारह मसनवियां लिखीं। यह उनमें तीसरी है जिसमें कुल 108 शेर हैं। एक ऐसे समय में जब हिंदू और इस्लाम धर्मों के बीच की दूरी बढ़ रही है, गालिब की यह मसनवी हमें सिखाती है कि यह दूरी कितनी बहुत पहले पट चुकी थी।
January 9, 2023
Sometime in the late 1820s, Mirza Ghalib left Delhi on a trip to Calcutta to follow up on the pension he was receiving from the British. En route, he stopped for several months at Banaras, and that duration seems to have been sufficient to make him fall in love with the city. He ended up writing a masnavi, a long poem in Persian in praise of Banaras. This poem, Chiragh-e-Dair, translated as Temple Lamp, appears for the first time in its entirety in its English translation in this book.
Maaz Bin Bilal begins Temple Lamp with a long and detailed introduction to the book; this includes an introduction to Ghalib and his poetry, to Persian poetry in India, themes and poetics in Temple Lamp, etc. It’s a useful and very interesting note to the book.
The book itself is beautiful. I knew that Ghalib wrote extensively in Persian and that he regarded his Persian poetry as better than his (much more widely renowned, today) Urdu poetry, but I’d never read any of his Persian verses before. Maaz Bin Bilal’s translation is lyrical: I can’t (given that I can recognize only a few scattered Persian words which have seeped through into Urdu) comment on how well he’s translated the poem, but his ability to create a beautifully poetic verse is admirable. Also, he provides helpful footnotes and parenthetical explanations that make Ghalib’s meaning clearer.
A lovely poem (what stunning imagery, what wonderfully evocative adjectives and metaphors for Banaras) and very well rendered in English.
Maaz Bin Bilal begins Temple Lamp with a long and detailed introduction to the book; this includes an introduction to Ghalib and his poetry, to Persian poetry in India, themes and poetics in Temple Lamp, etc. It’s a useful and very interesting note to the book.
The book itself is beautiful. I knew that Ghalib wrote extensively in Persian and that he regarded his Persian poetry as better than his (much more widely renowned, today) Urdu poetry, but I’d never read any of his Persian verses before. Maaz Bin Bilal’s translation is lyrical: I can’t (given that I can recognize only a few scattered Persian words which have seeped through into Urdu) comment on how well he’s translated the poem, but his ability to create a beautifully poetic verse is admirable. Also, he provides helpful footnotes and parenthetical explanations that make Ghalib’s meaning clearer.
A lovely poem (what stunning imagery, what wonderfully evocative adjectives and metaphors for Banaras) and very well rendered in English.
November 29, 2022
Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan aka Mirza Ghalib, happened to me quite early in my life. At the cusp of my pubescent years, transitioning from bleaky childhood to blossoming pinkishness, one fine morning I read the verses - "Ashiqui, sabr, talab, tamanna betab, dil ka kya rang karoon khoon-e-jigar hote tak. Mana ke taghaful na karoge lekin khaak hojayenge ham tumko khabar hote tak." And that's all it took for his undying madness to reach every cell in my body. I stuck to reading his poetic genius that involved mostly love poems. However, with Temple Lamp I discovered a different side to this bard. ©
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October 28, 2022
Good translation with an extremely informative introduction which places into context Ghalib's journey from Delhi to Calcutta and his stay in Benares during a break in this journey
October 9, 2022
Nothing I can say can do justice to the masterpiece that Ghalib has created. As if a speck of sand detached itself from the shores of Delhi and made its way to Varanasi, it misses the shore it came from, leaving it alone to its misery, only to arrive at a place of immense beauty and tranquillity, the speck speaks of beauty unseen yet keeps looking behind in regret and while also looking ahead in anticipation.
November 14, 2022
"It is to view the city of Banaras also through a Persian cultural inheritance, from the perspective of arguably the best poet of the 19th century, from perspective of a Hindustani Muslim, that one must read Ghalib's Chiragh-e-Dair, his Temple Lamp."
- Maaz Bin Bilal
By now you already have an idea that the book is about what Ghalib wrote about the Spiritual Capital of India - Banaras. About how he found physical and spiritual healing here after a going through a series of episodes with bad health, how if the sun had not shone over the walls and gates of this city, it would not have been this bright and radiant and powerful. Temple Lamp by Mirza Ghalib translated by Maaz Bin Bilal compromises of 108 verses translated from Persian into English.
Back in the the age when Ghalib's writing didn't suffice for his sustainability and being heavily in Debt, he moved out from Delhi, to first Ilahabad and then to the pious city which Ghalib describes as the Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India. Moving on from my disagreements with this term (there is a big difference, by definition itself, between our Dharma and Islam) I'd want to put this Maaz has done an exceptional work with the translations here. I am sure the great poet Ghalib did believe that this city is of moksha, where the dead are eternally alive, every being here is pure life and soul. Reading the original verse in farsi and then the English translation was such an experience (apart from not knowing that this mansavi actually exists, like most of you folks). Ghalib's verses and this translation from Persian could not have described the indic magic of this place where every season is of heaven any better.
I would not be able to do justice in this review as I read this around 10 days back (in a go), I had a lot of things on my mind back then, but nevertheless, I was refreshed to experience Chiragh-e-Dair in English and I would recommend each one of you to check it out if the subject interests you.
- Maaz Bin Bilal
By now you already have an idea that the book is about what Ghalib wrote about the Spiritual Capital of India - Banaras. About how he found physical and spiritual healing here after a going through a series of episodes with bad health, how if the sun had not shone over the walls and gates of this city, it would not have been this bright and radiant and powerful. Temple Lamp by Mirza Ghalib translated by Maaz Bin Bilal compromises of 108 verses translated from Persian into English.
Back in the the age when Ghalib's writing didn't suffice for his sustainability and being heavily in Debt, he moved out from Delhi, to first Ilahabad and then to the pious city which Ghalib describes as the Kaaba-e-Hindostan or the Mecca of India. Moving on from my disagreements with this term (there is a big difference, by definition itself, between our Dharma and Islam) I'd want to put this Maaz has done an exceptional work with the translations here. I am sure the great poet Ghalib did believe that this city is of moksha, where the dead are eternally alive, every being here is pure life and soul. Reading the original verse in farsi and then the English translation was such an experience (apart from not knowing that this mansavi actually exists, like most of you folks). Ghalib's verses and this translation from Persian could not have described the indic magic of this place where every season is of heaven any better.
I would not be able to do justice in this review as I read this around 10 days back (in a go), I had a lot of things on my mind back then, but nevertheless, I was refreshed to experience Chiragh-e-Dair in English and I would recommend each one of you to check it out if the subject interests you.
July 2, 2024
Since I lack the necessary qualifications to evaluate or rate Mirza Ghalib's work, I am going to address the translation, and a few other features of Temple Lamp (Chiragh-e-Dair).
There is only one masnavi in the book, and it begins on page 83. Throughout the course of the preceding 82 pages, translator Maaz Bin Bilal gives a thorough, extremely thorough description of Ghalib's life, the reasons for his composition of Chiragh-e-Dair, its significance, the importance of Ghalib's works, and so forth. To be honest, a vital prelude to such a "massive" piece of art.
Kashi, also known as Banaras, Benaras, or Varanasi, is the subject of Chiragh-e-Dair. Ghalib has called the location the "Kaaba of Hindustan," which is not only praiseworthy but also a positive example of peak secularism. As a poetry enthusiast, the 108 verses of the masnavi captivated me; each verse discussed a distinct facet of life and human behaviour, yet they were all geared towards understanding the purpose of existence.
Bilal did a fantastic job translating Temple Lamp, which has a melancholic, meditative quality. He included more than sufficient and useful footnotes on the majority of the pages.
Out of the 6 verses that I've bookmarked, my favorite is:
Can't recommend this work enough. I hope to read more of Ghalib's translated works, but it'd be good if Bilal does it for us non-Urdu speakers/readers!
There is only one masnavi in the book, and it begins on page 83. Throughout the course of the preceding 82 pages, translator Maaz Bin Bilal gives a thorough, extremely thorough description of Ghalib's life, the reasons for his composition of Chiragh-e-Dair, its significance, the importance of Ghalib's works, and so forth. To be honest, a vital prelude to such a "massive" piece of art.
Kashi, also known as Banaras, Benaras, or Varanasi, is the subject of Chiragh-e-Dair. Ghalib has called the location the "Kaaba of Hindustan," which is not only praiseworthy but also a positive example of peak secularism. As a poetry enthusiast, the 108 verses of the masnavi captivated me; each verse discussed a distinct facet of life and human behaviour, yet they were all geared towards understanding the purpose of existence.
Bilal did a fantastic job translating Temple Lamp, which has a melancholic, meditative quality. He included more than sufficient and useful footnotes on the majority of the pages.
Out of the 6 verses that I've bookmarked, my favorite is:
This (city) is the land
of carefree beauty and spring,
all countries speak of it,
find it nonpareil.
Can't recommend this work enough. I hope to read more of Ghalib's translated works, but it'd be good if Bilal does it for us non-Urdu speakers/readers!
September 11, 2022
All verses are magnetic...
N when you read translation after ..फ़ारसी.... Its like falling in love again...
When I started reading I
thought I am gonna complete it
ASAP... But this could not happen because as I said.. Verses are magnetic... So most of the verses I repeated again n again...No words, just applause..
N when you read translation after ..फ़ारसी.... Its like falling in love again...
When I started reading I
thought I am gonna complete it
ASAP... But this could not happen because as I said.. Verses are magnetic... So most of the verses I repeated again n again...No words, just applause..
May 1, 2023
Since I am in love with Kashi, receiving this book made me elated. Seems like I will have to learn Persian to actually enjoy it. The translation seems decent but not deeply gratifying.
But always nice to read lovely things about your beloved.
But always nice to read lovely things about your beloved.
January 6, 2023
I wish that idol of Benaras would accept Ghalib.
I would say i am your slave,and they’d respond proudly, Yes.
I would say i am your slave,and they’d respond proudly, Yes.
July 18, 2023
The last part was good but as for the poem, I want to engage and feel what the author was feeling. I didn't feel the connection here.
January 2, 2024
Great work of Ghalib.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews