Mirza Ghalib

“What if we demolish the ego, dig under the ruins, as Rumi tells us to, andinstead of finding the divine Friend, we find just the ground we’re standing on? Ghalib and Robert Bly face this stark possibility with their fine, blended gaze.”

Mirza Ghalib is regarded as one of the greatest Urdu Poets. Mirza Asadullah Begh Khan Ghalib was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Ghalib’s poetry is distinguished by its intense feelings, wistfulness and a strong romantic mood which produce a charming effect on readers.

‘Diwan-i-Ghalibin’, 10 volumes is the collection of poetical works of Ghalib. It has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages . In 1850, he was appointed poet Laureate by the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II. As a writer and poet, Ghalib believed in using simple words. He laid the foundation of Urdu prose and that is why he is called the father of the modern Urdu Prose.

Ghalib (1797-1869) is undoubtedly one of the greatest Indian poets. Playful yet complex, simple and yet erudite, Ghalib’s poetry mixes metaphors, ignores the rules of grammar, shuns ornamentation and takes recourse to linguistic innovations to ponder over issues of life, death, love and God. The present translation of two hundred couplets from the Urdu Diwan seeks to combine the music of Galib’s poetry with a probing into his thoughts.