Table Of ContentGhalib
Ghalib
Innovative Meanings and the Ingenious Mind
Gopi Chand Narang
Translated from Urdu by Surinder Deol
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First published in Urdu by Sahitya Akademi in 2013
First English revised and updated translation published by
Oxford University Press in 2017
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Jameeluddeen Aali
The famous author of Ghazlein, Dohe, Geet
An enlightened mind and a descendant of Loharu family
A guardian of Ghalib’s literary and cultural legacy
aaiina kiyon n duun k tamaasha kahein jise
aisa kahaan se laauun k tum sa kahein jise
Maybe I should give you a mirror
so that you can watch your own spectacle.
Where can I find another
whom people will consider as magnificent?
—Ghalib
ch daanad fahm-e kotah baal jaulaan-gaah-e shauqam ra
k oo raah-e digar raft ast o man jaaye digar daaram
The short-sighted can’t appreciate
the limits of my passion.
He has gone the other way
and I have chosen a different path.
—Naziri
Among the disciples of Maulana Fazl-e Haq, a great scholar and
luminary, there was someone who went to Mirza Ghalib and
inquired about the meaning of one of the couplets written by
Nasir Ali Sirhindi. He interpreted the couplet.
The person came back to Maulana and told him, ‘You always
praise the poetic ability of Mirza Ghalib. Today he interpreted a
couplet wrongly’. Then he read the couplet and summarized the
meaning provided by Ghalib.
Maulana asked, ‘What’s wrong with this interpretation?’
‘There is nothing wrong, but this is not the interpretation that
Nasir Ali intended.’
Maulana replied, ‘If Nasir Ali didn’t mean what Ghalib
understood, then he made a big mistake’.
—Hali
Contents
Preface: Speech Is Honoured a Hundred Times When It Appears on Your
Miraculous Lips
Acknowledgements
1. Hali’s Yadgar-e Ghalib
2. Bijnouri, Divan-e Ghalib, and Sacred Vedas
3. India’s Thought and Negative Dialectics
4. Buddhist Thought and Shunyata
5. The Sabke Hindi Tradition and Its Indigenous Roots
6. Bedil, Ghalib, Masnavi Irfan, and Indian Thought
7. Dead Leaves, a Romantic Interlude, and a Stricken Heart
8. The First Rendition: Innovative Meaning and the Dialectical Mind
9. The Second Rendition: Innovative Meaning and the Dialectical
Mind
10. The Published Divan: Innovative Meaning and the Dialectical
Mind
11. Dialectical Mode, Shunyata, and Poetics
12. Landmark Life Events, Masnavis, Prose, Wit and Humour, and the
Dialectical Mind
Bibliography
Index
About the Author and the Translator
Preface
Speech Is Honoured a Hundred Times When It Appears on Your
1
Miraculous Lips
G to a proverbial bowl of the legendary king Jamshed that
HALIB’S POETRY CAN BE COMPARED
reflected a whole universe when gazed at intently. His couplets hide an
astonishing world of layer upon layer of complex meaning. The biggest question
about Ghalib’s poetry is to discover the mysterious element that flares up like a
flame and continues to lighten up vistas of meaning so that an ordinary reader is
left breathless. The reader wants to assimilate the meaning while experiencing a
creative occurrence that is hard to decipher in words. What is the secret of this
poetic artistry and beautification that seems to be so flawless? What is the truth
and inquisitive power in this poetry that strengthens our confidence in human
ingenuity and inventiveness? It gives us the power to disengage ourselves from
day-to-day mundane routines and heightens our awareness of life’s beauty and
its myriad pleasures. The more we think about these textured mosaics like
magical thoughts, the more new doors of discovery open for us. It is true that
there is something here for a reader of every taste, temperament, and orientation.
There is a magnetic quality that draws the edges of our heart to itself, a
phenomenon described in the following couplet by Mir Taqi Mir (1723–1810):
ek do hon to sehr-e chashm kahuun
kaarkhaana hai vaan to jaduu ka
If it were one or two I would call it magic of the eyes;
there is a whole world of wizardry here.
Ghalib’s critics have closely analysed every nook and cranny of this universe
of magic, but in the world of beauty there are charms, there are enchantments,
there are attractions, and then there are coquettish moves that can be felt but
cannot be named. It is not commonly understood that Ghalib’s literary critique is
a ‘journey to the unknown’. What Ghalib said about his beloved, the one who
pirated his mental poise with her bewitching charm and beauty, applies to his
poetic artistry as well: balaa-e jaan hai Ghalib us ki har baat
ibaarat kya ishaarat kya ada kya
Ghalib, everything about her
is heart pulling.
The way she speaks.
The way she looks.
And the way she casts spell.
The speech, the looks, and the magical spell with the use of imagistic
innovative language are all part of the ‘unknown journey’, meaning there are
expositions of beauty that cannot be put into simple words. These can be felt at a
deeper level, but they cannot be named.
Ghalib, in a letter addressed to Chowdhary Abdul Ghafoor, wrote something
interesting about his enigmatic style. His thought was embodied in a Persian
composition:
agar ch shaa’iraan-e naghz guftaar
z yak jaam and dar bazm-e sukhan mast
vale ba baada-e ba’ze hariifaan
khumaar-e chashm-e saaqi niiz paivast
mashau munkir k dar asha’r-e iin qaom
varaa-e shaari cheeze digar hast
There is no dearth of poets
but not all poets are the same.
There are some who are drunk
with the commonplace wine.
There are those who mix in their drink
saqi’s beautiful glances.
But let us admit that there are those
who have something unique.
Their work can’t be described with a label
like poetry because it is limiting.
What is beyond poetry is indescribable—
deep beauty for which no words exist.
What is that thing which Ghalib calls ‘something unique’ (cheeze digar)? In the
case of Ghalib’s literary critique this ‘something unique or beyond poetry’ is all
that matters. This is the same thing which we called earlier ‘a journey of the
unknown’.
There is a hikaayat about an old woman who was searching for something at a road crossing where there
was light.
A passerby asked, ‘What are you searching, old Ma?’
Description:antics, classicists, progressives, and modernists, all have found evidence in his writings that appeared close to their viewpoints. This work studies the ingenious poetics of Ghalib by tracing the roots of his creative consciousness and enigmatic thought in Buddhist dialectical philosophy, in partic
