Here is another video from the television series on Mirza Ghalib (that you have seen other clips from in class). I couldn't find one with subtitles but that's a good thing. Listen to the sound of spoken Urdu and hear its cadences and richness.As you hear the sounds, here are the things to notice in the video:
1) The scene takes place on the street in the bazaar of 19th C Delhi 2) Right at the start of the video you can see a British officer ride past on his horse. The bazaar is a space for complex interactions and intersections 3) The faquir (we have met him before) is singing a ghazal by Mir Taqi Mir ( "Each and every leaf and plant.." pg. 113 in K. C Kanda) 4) Ghalib walks by and stops to listen to the song. 5) He asks the faquir about the author of the shers he is singing (00:53). The faquir tells him about Mir. 6) Ghalib composes a sher (now famous) praising Mir. 7) Ghalib adds a barb about Zauk the poet laureate of Bahadur Shah Zafar (the last Mughal king who was dethroned by the British after the events of 1857), with whom he famously did not get along.
The idea of "tradition" is important to ghazal writers, as each poet learned from a previous poet and added something of his or her own to it. You are reading Mir, Ghalib and Faiz -- each poet consciously followed in the footsteps of the one before. This is important to know because the modern ghazal in English also goes back to the Urdu tradition and builds on it and from it.
1) The scene takes place on the street in the bazaar of 19th C Delhi 2) Right at the start of the video you can see a British officer ride past on his horse. The bazaar is a space for complex interactions and intersections 3) The faquir (we have met him before) is singing a ghazal by Mir Taqi Mir ( "Each and every leaf and plant.." pg. 113 in K. C Kanda) 4) Ghalib walks by and stops to listen to the song. 5) He asks the faquir about the author of the shers he is singing (00:53). The faquir tells him about Mir. 6) Ghalib composes a sher (now famous) praising Mir. 7) Ghalib adds a barb about Zauk the poet laureate of Bahadur Shah Zafar (the last Mughal king who was dethroned by the British after the events of 1857), with whom he famously did not get along.
The idea of "tradition" is important to ghazal writers, as each poet learned from a previous poet and added something of his or her own to it. You are reading Mir, Ghalib and Faiz -- each poet consciously followed in the footsteps of the one before. This is important to know because the modern ghazal in English also goes back to the Urdu tradition and builds on it and from it.
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