urdu poetry - ghazals
after posting the previous ghalib's ghazal it occured to me to write something about urdu poetry and ghazals. (also to help kill time on a lazy saturday afternoon)
urdu poetry - ie ghazal - is my favorite form of poetry. i could never really relate to english poetry, for some reason it has hardly ever evoked the same emotions in me like hindi or urdu poetry. by hindi poetry i mean the film/non-film songs from bollywood movies, but most of which is actually in urdu - there are very few pure hindi words in bollywood songs. and by urdu poetry i specifically mean ghazals written by urdu poets like mirza ghalib, mir taqi mir, sahir ludhiyanavi, gulzar, momin, sharyar etc. to name a few.
the real beauty of urdu ghazals can never be captured in a translated version. the same ghazal can have multiple interpretations at different levels. one has to know the language and the vocabulary to really appreciate the poets emotions and sentiments. i consider myself very lucky that because of my knowledge of hindi, i can understand urdu poetry, given the meanings of the words.
i think urdu is a very royal language, the way it sounds it really seems very poetic and royal. urdu is said to have developed in the army camps of the delhi sultanat and mughal empire, by interaction between persian and indian soldiers. its vocabulary consists mainly of persian and hindi words, and it can be written or understood through both the persian script and the hindi devanagari script.
a ghazal is poetic form (usually in urdu) consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and refrain. ghazals were written by persian mystics like rumi as well as famous urdu poets like ghalib and mir. most ghazals are on the sublect of love, not any kind of love, but specifically an uttainable love. so most ghazals deal mainly with "ishq" (love), "gham" (pain/sadness), and related themes like "hijr" (separation), "tanhaaii" (lonliness), "khwaaish" (desire/longing), "intezaar" (the wait), "visaal" (union with beloved) etc. so in other words most ghazals are kind of sad, but not depressing.
the love expressed in ghazals is always viewed as something that will complete the being, and if attained will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. traditional ghazals' love does not have an element of sexual desire in it, the love is seen as spiritual. the ghazal is usually written from the point of view of the lover who is unable to attain his beloved. the lover is aware and resigned to this fate, but continues loving nonetheless. it is not important to the lover that the beloved does not echo the same feelings towards him.
also i should mention here that most ghazal poets were either avowed sufis themselves, or were sympathizers of sufi ideas. most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the beloved being a metaphor for god, or the poet's spiritual master. it is the intense divine love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.
ps - some of the above has been taken from wikipedia.
urdu poetry - ie ghazal - is my favorite form of poetry. i could never really relate to english poetry, for some reason it has hardly ever evoked the same emotions in me like hindi or urdu poetry. by hindi poetry i mean the film/non-film songs from bollywood movies, but most of which is actually in urdu - there are very few pure hindi words in bollywood songs. and by urdu poetry i specifically mean ghazals written by urdu poets like mirza ghalib, mir taqi mir, sahir ludhiyanavi, gulzar, momin, sharyar etc. to name a few.
the real beauty of urdu ghazals can never be captured in a translated version. the same ghazal can have multiple interpretations at different levels. one has to know the language and the vocabulary to really appreciate the poets emotions and sentiments. i consider myself very lucky that because of my knowledge of hindi, i can understand urdu poetry, given the meanings of the words.
i think urdu is a very royal language, the way it sounds it really seems very poetic and royal. urdu is said to have developed in the army camps of the delhi sultanat and mughal empire, by interaction between persian and indian soldiers. its vocabulary consists mainly of persian and hindi words, and it can be written or understood through both the persian script and the hindi devanagari script.
a ghazal is poetic form (usually in urdu) consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and refrain. ghazals were written by persian mystics like rumi as well as famous urdu poets like ghalib and mir. most ghazals are on the sublect of love, not any kind of love, but specifically an uttainable love. so most ghazals deal mainly with "ishq" (love), "gham" (pain/sadness), and related themes like "hijr" (separation), "tanhaaii" (lonliness), "khwaaish" (desire/longing), "intezaar" (the wait), "visaal" (union with beloved) etc. so in other words most ghazals are kind of sad, but not depressing.
the love expressed in ghazals is always viewed as something that will complete the being, and if attained will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. traditional ghazals' love does not have an element of sexual desire in it, the love is seen as spiritual. the ghazal is usually written from the point of view of the lover who is unable to attain his beloved. the lover is aware and resigned to this fate, but continues loving nonetheless. it is not important to the lover that the beloved does not echo the same feelings towards him.
also i should mention here that most ghazal poets were either avowed sufis themselves, or were sympathizers of sufi ideas. most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the beloved being a metaphor for god, or the poet's spiritual master. it is the intense divine love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.
ps - some of the above has been taken from wikipedia.
posted by teks at 2:05 PM
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