A Treasury Of Urdu Poetry (From Mir to Faiz) - Ghazals with English Renderings
Book Specification
Item Code: | NAE418 |
Author: | Kuldip Salil |
Publisher: | Rajpal and Sons |
Edition: | 2022 |
ISBN: | 9788170286912 |
Pages: | 319 |
Cover: | Hardcover |
Other Details | 9.0 inch X 6.0 inch |
Weight | 510 gm |
Book Description
Poetry has always been my first love and Urdu poetry has fascinated me the most. Urdu poetry casts a spell which poetry in no other language does. I remember when as a schoolboy I first read:
I was in a state of daze for good eight days. The sheer wit of it tragic tinge therein so well fused, I don’t find it, say in English poetry (excepting Shakespeare) which I have read and taught all my life and which I have been writing for some time now. If this is one’s experience with Bahadur Shah Zafar, who is not among the greatest of the Urdu poets, it is not difficult to imagine how one would respond to Ghalib, Meer, Faiz or Iqbal. I have virtually lived with them, enjoying them immensely, moved, comforted and uplifted by them. If Ghalib has a couplet for every situation in our daily lives, Iqbal can infuse life even in a dying man, and if Meer can teach you how to illuminate an abstract idea by illustrating if with images and allusions from ordinary life, Faiz moves you with his lyrical sweetness, rousing you at the same time to fight injustice and oppression. A part from these great names, some of the later poets like Parvin Shakir and Ahmed Faraz (both from Pakistan) are remarkable for their freshness, depth and awareness. And then there is a long list of good poets.
However, much as I have loved Urdu poetry, I had never thought of translating it into Preface English. The encouragement for it came from my publisher Shri Vishwa Nath Ji who is a connoisseur of poetry and a good poet himself. Also I had all along felt the need for an anthology of Urdu poetry in English translation for the benefit of readers who are not so well versed in Urdu. Preparing such an anthology I knew, was an uphill task, particularly because where poetry is concerned, I am bit of a perfectionist. And I cannot reconcile to the idea of a translation of ghazals and nazms which merely conveys the meaning of the original and is as such not much better than a prose rendering of them. Translation of poetry from one language to the other is extremely difficult, some would, say impossible. The challenge here is the challenge of being faithful to the original that is to be conveyed but its soul, its strength, its poignancy and sweetness, and if possible, its rhythm and resonance should also reach reader. As Sheffered Peach said, “Translation is not just translating ideas from one language to the other; a good translation is akin to the original, even better”. The challenge is that in the translation also, it must read like good poetry. And the challenge is particularly tough in the case of the ghazal. One of the ways I could think of meeting this challenge is to translate the verses in rhymed couplets provided the rhymes are not labored.
I started on the project with Ghalib and got so immersed in the poetry of the great man that the number of pieses translated went on increasing till it became a separate book ‘Diwan e Ghalib, a selection.’ For the present anthology, I have selected thirty four poets from Meer to Ahmed Faraz and Shaharyar. Needdless to say, some important names have remained unrepresented. This is because the number of good poets is so large that it is very difficult to include them all. Also, I have had to make a rigorous selection of verses even within a single ghazals so that only the best reaches the readers.
Besides Vishwa Nath Ji, I thank Dr. Khalid Ashraf of the Urdu Department, kirori mal college, Delhi University for his invaluable help in preparing the anthology. He has read through and corrected the manuscript and made valuable suggestions.
Thanks are also due to Mr.Khushwant Singh for his encouraging words. When I sent to him three or four of my pieces for opinion, he wrote “you have done a superb job of ‘Abhi to main jawan hoon’. I tried my hand at it and published the first half in my column. It was not half as good as yours. Majaz and Sahir are also well done”. I thank Mr.Mithuraaj Dhusiya, shri O.P. sapra and Shri Rahul Gupta for their help in preparing the manuscript. Also to be thanked are my daughters, Ritu Dewan and Sarika Jha for being readily available for consultation and correction and for running miscellaneous errands. Last but not the least; I thank my wife for bearing with me when I was annoyingly busy with the translations.
Meer Taqi Meer | |
Our life is but a bubble, nothing more | 21 |
All our efforts went unavailing, the medicine had no effect, at all | 23 |
The head that so proudly wears the crown today | 25 |
Every plant and every petal my condition knows | 27 |
All those stricken with love are dead | 29 |
If Meer continues so loudly to weep | 31 |
Like faqirs we came and gave our call | 33 |
Mohammad Rafi sauda | |
Showering flowers on others | 37 |
How can one avenge oneself for your curel action | 39 |
Khwaja Mir Dard | |
A few allegations I have earned against my name | 43 |
O heaven, what is it that we can hope from you get | 45 |
Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib | |
Thousands of desires, life-consuming and tough | 49 |
If ever she thinks of being to me a little kind | 51 |
This world for me is but a children’s playground | 53 |
It is heart after all, not brick and stone | 55 |
What shapes and forms must lie buried in dust | 57 |
It is ages now that we were by our friend visited | 59 |
We cried in love and opened up further, thus | 61 |
After losing the heart to somebody | 63 |
Ibrahim Mohammad Zauq | |
Out of sheer frustration, we’ll die now we know | 69 |
Life brought us hither, death comes and takes us away, let it be | 71 |
Momin Khan Momin | |
Whichever way the arrow-shooting eyes of my beloved are bound | 75 |
She is least affected by my grief | 77 |
Bahadur Shah Zafar | |
Neither am I a source of light to any eye, nor of comfort to any heart | 81 |
I feel so out of place in this desolate, world | 83 |
Daagh Dehlvi | |
Out of consideration and concession, I trusted you though | 87 |
She invites not and also has objection to coming | 89 |
Amir Meenai | |
It is needed difficult to protect your heart against that sharp shooter’s art | 97 |
Mohammad Iqbal | |
Let your shinning hair still brighter shine | 97 |
There are worlds beyond, the stars too | 99 |
The world would see when my heart speaks up like a blast | 101 |
The Anthem of Hindustan | 103 |
The New Temple | 107 |
Saqi | 111 |
Majaz Lukhnavi | |
The Vagabond | 115 |
To a Young Lady | 121 |
The whole world is intently listening | 123 |
Instructed by heaven to go slow | 125 |
Intensity of my love is not less in any way | 127 |
Josh Malihabadi | |
She declares after making me addicted to sorrow: | 131 |
If worrying is our destiny | 133 |
Your life is so moving | 135 |
Haffez Jallandhri | |
I am youthful still, still I am young | 139 |
There was nothing special in me | 145 |
Jigar Muradabadi | |
O what stages in love we are going through | 149 |
I remember neither the cruelties of the world nor my own fidelity | 151 |
This word ‘love’ is nothing more, nothing less, it may be said | 153 |
Tossed over by Saqi’s every single glance, I drank | 155 |
Firaq Gorakhpuri | |
Nobody loves anybody else forever though | 159 |
There is no wine that decreases not when it spills out | 161 |
I am getting tangled with the stars, unwittingly | 163 |
Let the silence of the evening break, for it’s very dark | 165 |
What we had thought was the world | 167 |
The evening too was dusky and darkling, and sad and somber the beautiful one | 169 |
Speak of those imperious eyes, O thou, this sad evening | 171 |
There is no madness in the head though | 173 |
Shakil Badauni | |
Let no the sorrow of love the common street hit | 177 |
Now even she seems to be love-lorn, | 179 |
Faiz Ahmed Faiz | |
Ask me not for love, O dear, like before | 183 |
If I were sure of it, my comrade, my friend | 185 |
Speak up | 189 |
Dogs | 191 |
Let me bow before you | 193 |
Loneliness | 197 |
Jaan Nisar Akhtar | |
The Last Meeting | 201 |
Some sorrow or the other is hidden in every heart | 207 |
Akhtar ul Imam | |
A Question | 211 |
To the uncaring life | 213 |
Sahir Ludhianvi | |
Taj Mahal | 219 |
The struggle and strains of life | 223 |
Whenever I find her attention wandering | 225 |
I pick up some buds of happiness | 227 |
Kaifi Azmi | |
Somnath | 231 |
A moment | 233 |
Remove bramble and dry grass, let the road be cleared | 235 |
Ali Sardar Jafri | |
The New Dawn | 239 |
My Journey | 243 |
Majrooh Sultanpuri | |
Even the wind changed its course and the destination became easy to reach | 249 |
When understanding came | 251 |
Nasir Qazmi | |
Carrying a clue to the days of yore | 255 |
He lit a candle, so to say, in the night of my heart | 257 |
Hari Chand Akhtar | |
As I step into my youth | 261 |
Makhmoor Dehlvi | |
Nobody can label her unfaithful just yet | 269 |
Abdul Hamid Adam | |
My cup is empty, yet, and I am lost in thought | 273 |
Often in the tavern, we forgot our place and zone | 275 |
Qateel Shifai | |
May my love show this miracle too | 279 |
The art of which you are so proud, I know that art too | 281 |
Ahmed Faraz | |
You may be cross with me | 285 |
Like withered flowers in the books | 287 |
This time,when the season changes | 289 |
Parveen Shakir | |
The face was mine his the eyes | 293 |
Why hide it, the people already know | 295 |
As it rained, the flowers had holes in their bodies made | 297 |
Shaharyar | |
Has nothing whatever happened in your city? | 301 |
Apart from you, I had somebody else too in my mind | 303 |
Basher Badar | |
Like a flower wrapped in sunlight and tied with a green ribbon | 307 |
Don’t be wandering in sunlight and tied with a green ribbon | 309 |
Nida Fazli | |
This world is a magical toy | 313 |
God is silent | 315 |
A declaration | 317 |
Karachi is home to a mother | 319 |