Selected Poems and Letters PDF
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Ghalib TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS Editorial Board Wm. Theodore de Bary, Chair Paul Anderer Donald Keene George A. Saliba Haruo Shirane Burton Watson Wei Shang GHALIB Selected Poems and Letters Edited and translated by Frances W. Pritchett and Owen T. A. Cornwall COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the Pushkin Fund in the publication of this book. Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2017 Frances W. Pritchett and Owen T. A. Cornwall All rights reserved EISBN 978-0-231- 54400-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan, 1797-1869, author. | Pritchett, Frances W., 1947-editor, translator. | Cornwall, Owen T. A., editor, translator. | Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan, 1797-1869. Works. Selections. | Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan, 1797-1869. Works. Selections. English. Title: Ghalib : selections from his Urdu poetry and prose / edited and translated by Frances W. Pritchett and Owen T.A. Cornwall. Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2017. | Series: Translations from the Asian classics | English translation and Urdu text. | Includes bibliographical references, appendices, glossary, and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016028955 (print) | LCCN 2016048551 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231182065 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231182065 (electronic) Classification: LCC PK2198.G4 A2 2017 (print) | LCC PK2198.G4 (ebook) | DDC 891.4/3913—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028955 A Columbia University Press E-book. CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup- [email protected]. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Ghalib’s Life and Times PART ONE: GHAZALS PART TWO: GHAZAL VERSES PART THREE: OTHER GENRES 1. Poems Qaṣīdas (Odes) An ode in praise of the Prophet (1821) An ode in praise of a sleek betel nut (1826) An ode in praise of the king (1852) Rubāʿīs (Quatrains) A quatrain on childhood and old age (1816) A quatrain on “speaking the difficult” (1821) A quatrain on fireworks and passion (1833) 2. Letters To Tafta (1858), about the terrible losses of 1857 To Mihr (1859), about Ghalib’s appearance To Mihr (1860), about the long-ago cruel dancing girl To Mihr (1860), about being a sugar fly, not a honey fly To Ala’i (1861), about the poet’s life as a captive 3. Prose Preface to a Romance (1866) Notes Appendix 1. Ghalib’s Comments on His Own Verses Appendix 2. Ghalib Concordance, with Standard Divan Numbers Glossary of Technical Terms and Proper Names Bibliography Index Urdu Text Acknowledgments Ghalib loved and cherished his friends, and we want to offer a toast to ours. We owe to Shamsur Rahman Faruqi a larger debt than we can describe. We thank Aftab Ahmad, Allison Busch, Arthur Dudney, Satyanarayana Hegde, Pasha M. Khan, C. M. Naim, Sean Pue, Dalpat Rajpurohit, and Zahra Sabri for their advice, help, and moral support; we also offer a libation to the memory of Aditya Behl. We thank Sheldon Pollock for encouraging us to undertake this project. Finally, Jennifer Crewe and the staff of Columbia University Press have been a pleasure to work with, and we are greatly in their debt. Introduction Ghalib’s Life and Times At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Mughal empire, once in control of almost the entire Indian subcontinent, was hanging by a thread. The repeated invasions by Iranians, Afghans, and Marathas in the course of the eighteenth century had left the Mughal emperors in possession of little beyond the imperial Red Fort in Delhi and their title. In 1803, the British East India Company officers with their Indian sepoy army captured Delhi and consolidated their hold on North India. From then on, the Mughal emperors were British pensioners. The traditional date of Ghalib’s birth is 1797, in Agra, into a family of Turkish descent and military background.1 Ghalib’s father died when the boy was only five, and the family was supported by an uncle, Nasrullah Beg Khan. This uncle, having surrendered the Agra fort to the British in 1803, joined the East India Company army. When he died in 1806, Ghalib was entitled to a significant portion of his British pension, but another, better-connected relative diverted much of it. For decades Ghalib petitioned the indifferent British bureaucracy for his rightful share, even making an arduous but
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