Author: Sarvat Rahman
Translator(s): Sarvat Rahman
Publisher: Ghalib Institute
Year: 2003
Language: multilingual
Pages: 859
ISBN/UPC (if available): N/A
Description
This work is a complete translation in RHYMED VERSE, of the whole of the published Diwan including the ghazals, qasidas, masnavis, qitas and quatrains. The aim is to make available the whole of the published Diwan of Ghalib to readers unable to read it in the original Urdu.
Mirza Asad-Ullah-Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) is by common consent acknowledged, along with Mir, as the greatest of Urdu poets. Both belonged to Delhi, and loved their then resplendent capital. Ghalib was born in Agra, of Turkish stock, his pedigree going back to the legendary kings of ancient Persia. At the early age of 13, he was married, and came soon after, around 1812, to live with his wife’s family in Delhi.
Like Mozart, he was a precocious genius, and began to write ghazals when he was but 9 years old. When he was 12, his poems were considered good enough to be presented to the aged Mir, then living in exile in Lucknow. The famous predecessor prophesized a great future for the child, if well directed.
Many erudite studies of Ghalib and of various aspects of his work have been published in Urdu as well as more recently, in English, in the subcontinent and abroad. The earliest was in Urdu by Altaf Husain Hali, who met Ghalib, then in his old age. Ghalib’s ghazals have been translated, in part, into various languages, sometimes as whole ghazals. These translations were rarely in rhyme, it being considered impractical, and even impossible, to make a rhymed translation of all or even a small number of ghazals.
For easy reference, the ghazals and other poems have been numbered serially as also the verses of each piece. For those readers who understand Urdu but cannot read it, a phonetic transcription of the Urdu text into Roman script is provided together with a key.
Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Portrait of Ghalib
Key to Roman Transcription of Urdu
Ghazals
Qasidas (Panegyrics)
Masnavi (In praise of the Mango)
Qitas (Fragments)
Quatrains (Ruba’I’yat)
Addendum I (Zamima-e-Diwan-e-Ghalib)
Addendum II (From the Nuskha-e-Hamidia
List of Ghazals in the published Diwan (First lines in English & Roman)
List of Ghazals in Addendum I (Z.D.G.)
List of Ghazals in Addendum II (N.H)