Appreciating the Beauty of the Structure of the Ghazal

When I first started reading the ghazal packets, I had some difficulty in navigating my way through understanding the autonomous couplets.  Our second class that defined and elaborated on the structure of the ghazal really helped me understand much more about its origins and its strict structure involving the components of the sher, radif and kaafiya.  When I went back to read the packets after this class, I started to pay closer attention to the ghazal that was in the English alphabet, but still in the Urdu language.  After I would read and try to interpret the English translation, I started to identify the structural components of the ghazal by highlighting the ones we went over in class in different colors.  It wasn’t until this moment that I truly started to appreciate the skill and true artistry of Mir, Ghalib and Faiz.  Although poetry is not my favorite form of literature, I definitely picked up on the universal truths that were communicated in the individual couplets, all while conforming to the structural components of the ghazal.  I highly respect Mir, Ghalib and Faiz’s artistry and skill, because it is certainly not easy to convey relatable, universal truths about feelings about love, heartbreak, solitude and confinement while fulfilling the tight constraints of the ghazal’s structure. 


While looking up more information of the structure of the ghazal, I found a website that outlines the format and structural components and also gives tips on how to write one for yourself:

www.shayeri.net/writing/ghazal.html

First Introduction to the Ghazals

What I found most captivating about the ghazals was the accessibility of the concepts. As Professor Dasgupta stated in her comment on one of Mir's ghazal concerning humility and gratitude to God, ghazals often deal with the predicament of man. That thread seeming to connect many of the ghazals makes them so applicable to all cultures and times. The fact that they can stand alone in couplets and be remembered and quoted simply like a song chorus but still convey a unique idea makes them even more appealing. The subtle truths of the ghazals are striking and understated and I believe that is what makes them so beautiful. I  really liked Ghalib's words when he writes, "The world exists only in name, Illusory-All material things". The particular ghazal in its entirety provides an existentialist question, a theme I have always found captivating in literature throughout history and the ghazal's depiction of it was both captivating and beautiful. I very much enjoyed reading the ghazals and was so surprised by their beauty, accessibilty, and impressive and undeniable universal applicability.

The Ghazals

I thoroughly enjoy reading and writing poetry, but, prior to reading and learning about the ghazal, I had essentially no experience with foreign forms or poetic customs. I expected to be completely confused by the ghazals and assumed that I'd have difficulty connecting to or appreciating them. While it's absolutely true that they don't have the same immediacy as more modern, english poetry, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading the ghazals. There were references and images I didn't grasp, but I quickly noticed that the careful diction and concisely beautiful imagery seemed to have drawn me in.

At first, I found myself underlining favorite couplets, not yet able to see how the couplets related to each other for many of the poems. Eventually, though, I picked up on what seems to be a sort of spiritual unification. Couplets might not seem to relate to each other at all in some poems, but the ghazal writers seem to have a humble dedication to expressing aspects of their human experiences. Though many of them are intensely emotional, often recounting painful stories of unrequited love, and others are peaceful observations of natural beauty, the religious presence in the ghazals seems to communicate that all of these experiences are sort of spiritually unified. It may be a stretch, but this was the impression that really struck me. Even at times in which the ghazal writers express profound uncertainty, even in direct regard to God and religion itself, there seems to be in conjunction with that a kind of humble acceptance of all the experiences and emotions life offers. The mushairas in which the ghazals are read and collectively experienced reinforces this impression for me. The public nature of the ghazal and the way the audience in the mushaira responds to the poet reflects a sort of communal sharing and acceptance of aspects of the human condition we all understand. One might even call it a celebration.

Favorite poem

The poem from the Adrienne Rich packet on page 71 was one of my favorites.  The final couplet:

 "All those joinings! and yet we fought so hard to be unique.  

Neither alone, nor in anyone's arms, will we end up sleeping."

The first line is bringing out a truth amongst humanity that is in its own way an oxymoron.  We all have in common the desire to be different, which makes us not so different in the end.  I know I am not a pro at this and what I'm saying is probably blatant to the rest of the class, I just felt this poem was aimed at our age group in particular (college student).  

On a different note, in the same poem (first line second couplet), I felt the phrase "appearance behind the reality" should be the other way around, and I guess I'm looking for some input on why the author had put it the way she did.  My interpretation is that she is saying we are forced to be fake just for appearance, and that since we allow this, it becomes reality.  So is this line referring to conformity or is there more to it then that?

The Timeless Heart of the Ghazals

From the start, it seemed obvious that reading the ghazals would be a uniquely challenging endeavor.  In order to truly understand the intentions and deeper meanings that the authors would have to convey, I would have to learn to submerge myself into a world entirely unlike the one which I am familiar with.  The art of the Ghazal was born, and in many ways still inhabits, a domain that is seemingly entirely alien to my own, it was my challenge to overcome this barrier.
At first, it seemed impossible.  The design and structure of the Ghazal is intrinsically different from the poetic styles that I am use to.  It was difficult to overcome my natural inclination to search for overarching connections between couplets, for example.
In the end, however, the poets themselves were my greatest allies.  For although they may build their works with references to events and experiences centuries away from my own, the fundamental core of their works exhibit a timeless quality.  The revolutionary nature of Faiz, for example, can be appreciated regardless of the readers time period.  Although the structure may differ wildly from what I'm use to, the heart and soul of the Ghazal is all too familiar.

The Ghazals to my meager imagination

Well I feel like I will be echoing some other people I have already read on this blog by saying I still have trouble connecting to the Ghazals.  To be completely honest I’ve never liked poetry, and this particular kind is probably the hardest to understand for an American who doesn’t study poetry.  As much as I dislike it, and as much as I manage to get hopelessly lost in a simple five stanza poem, I have been able to connect somewhat to Rich.  As I mentioned briefly in class Rich manages to write in such a way that her strong imagery can’t help but remind me of certain instances in my own life.  These instances help me to better understand her meaning in the poems, or so I think, because half of the time I have no idea what is going on, or what I think I know contradicts the other thoughts I have a stanza or two later.  Does anybody really really get it?   If so I would love some help in understanding it. J

Interpreting Crocodiles and Sunlight in Ghalib

I love poetry. I grew up with an angsty devotion to Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and I've traveled to poetry festivals, sitting in churches, cross-legged in the grass, or in a packed auditorium, to hear contemporary poets bare their souls. But, ghazals are completely alien to me. Between my initial ignorance of their historical background and translation difficulties, my first reading of the daunting, hefty packets was cloudy at best.

But, I do know that I love the more traditional ghazals when everyone is drunk on the beloved, threatening death induced by unrequited love, and living in a world of burning tapers and scented locks where the heart is the hub of the universe. One of my favorites is a piece by Ghalib that begins "It takes an age for a sigh to bear fruit,/ Who lives long enough to vanquish your locks?/ A hundred crocodiles lie coiled in the web of every wave,/ See what happens to the droplet ere it becomes a pearl." I love the diction- crocodiles, pearl,  dew-drop, twinkling, glamour, glimmer, spark, taper, burn. Even as Asad speaks about the futile nature of pursuing a woman who is slow to reciprocate his love in a lifespan that is already so brief (I think), the poem is filled with images of light. "The reflection of the sun heralds the dew-drop's doom,/ I too await your kindly glance." She is the Sun, the burning, life-bearing, center of his world. He is a minuscule, vulnerable droplet. Simultaneously, this ephemeral moment- how long dew survives before the Sun dries the earth, mirrors the impatience of desire and the briefness of life.

I'd love to know if anyone else had an entirely different interpretation of this poem!

Lost in the Ghazals

When I first was given the ghazals to read, I knew from the beginning it was going to be a challenge, and challenged I was.  Reading the ghazals proved to be harder then I even imagined them being.  For the most part, the stories trying to be told through the poems were lost in the translation.  I feel that because each couplet, some of the time began a new part of the story, I wasn’t fully able to put the pieces together, and had I read them in the original language, the wording would have been different and probably would have been a smother transition.  For this reason, the easiest and the ones I enjoyed reading the most were the Adrienne Rich ghazals.  She truly takes a modern day approach to her writing while still keeping the tradition ghazal form.  Being that these were the easiest to read they were the poems I appreciated the most.  You could feel the emotion through her choice of words and the way she described the scenes she was trying to portray.  While I did enjoy the writings by Faiz because of the purpose and cause he wrote for, some of the words used in the translation made it feel too formal, and the story was hard to keep up with in certain places.  I felt though, that by him writing for a reason and as a political activist, it made his writing have more passion and emotion then some of the other two traditional writers Mir and Ghalib

Bridging the Gap

I still feel disconnected from most of the Ghalib, Mir, and Faiz ghazals, but I really like some of Adrienne Rich's works. I've found that alternating my readings between the two different styles has greatly contributed to my understanding of the form, and it has helped me notice the subtle differences in style and thought contributed in each. I feel like Rich's work is complimentary to the ghazal in that it keeps the form alive and changing. She is spreading the form to people who may not ever come across a ghazal, and for those who are studying it (like us), she helps to bridge the gap.

On "Ghazals of Ghalib"

The packet "Ghazals of Ghalib" breaks down the process of interpretation and understanding in to its most basic steps. Beginning with a lengthy introduction about Ghalib himself as well as how to best read his poetry, the piece goes on to take different ghazals individually and transcribe the literal translation before going through particular vocabulary and interpretation before giving examples of how modern poets have interpreted that particular ghazal using their own writing style.

What I enjoyed most about reading this piece was how familiar I found it. What I mean is that it's not often you find scholarly work dedicated to breaking down poetry in such a clear and easy to understand format, and it reminded me a lot of the way I go about interpreting poetry and trying to get meaning out of it. Now I'm not saying that I go around seeking out poetry that's in another language and translate it, but as far as breaking down each couplet individually and trying to discern a "general explanation", that's definitely something I find myself doing often. I've also tried reinterpreting older works in my own style like the authors in the packet do, which is always an interesting exercise to try.

Overall I found "Ghazals of Ghalib" to be accessible, informative and concise. I wish I was able to find works like this more frequently--most critical interpretation is so bogged down in references and rhetoric that it can be difficult to discern meaning from it. What "Ghazals of Ghalib does best is present unfamiliar poetry in a way that both enriches your understanding of the centuries old ghalib tradition and makes it more applicable to today.

Lost in translation

I found myself feeling frustrated as I was reading the Ghazals. The elements that characterize them were completely lost in translation. The repetitive radif and rhyming of the kaafiya add so much personality to the poems. The words being repeated stress the subject of the Ghazal while the kaafiya adds to the flow of the poem.  I was disappointed that the translations did not carry these elements over into English at all. The musicality of the Ghazals was missing, which took away from the emotion and personal connection I felt as a reader. Although I could not understand the original language that they were written in, the Ghazals written in their original language looked so much more beautiful than their English translations. I could clearly identify the structure of the Ghazal and appreciate the artistic talent it took to create a poem of this kind. ​I also found the extensive symbolism, especially in Faiz’s work, to be frustrating. To pick apart the symbolism and understand the Ghazal’s true meaning and historical significance was tedious. I understand that this is an extremely personal opinion because there are some people that appreciate symbolism as a sign of genius. Being more interested in the historical aspect of the poetry, I was searching more for the traces of historical influence on the individual Ghazals as opposed to their artistic qualities. The symbolism hid the obvious subject of each Ghazal, which very well may have been the goal of the writer.

I wanted to hear one of the ghazals being performed so I searched youtube. I really liked this video that I found because of the man's voice. Even though I don't understand what he is singing, his voice echos the mood of the ghazals that we read. He sounds like he is in love, but also sad about something...

The Complex Love of Ghazals

My reading of the Ghazals has given me an emotional connection with writers who have lived hundreds of years before me.  For this to occur shows the timeless nature of the Ghazals and explains why it has gained such fame around the world today.  What most interested me about the Ghazals was that while they all explored themes of love, the Ghazals of each writer still tended to differ in their themes.  As a result, the theme of love which I once thought of as simple is shown to be surprisingly complex and far-reaching.  Love appears in the Ghazals as sexual desire, loneliness, religious devotion, God, and even slight nationalism.  In each poem, love is furthermore described not as solely a feeling, but also as a need to continue living, like food or water.  This nature of love is seen far less in Western poetry.  In my opinion, most of Western poetry portrays love as either simply a strong feeling that, while exciting for the poet, is allowed to leave unfulfilled without ruining the narrator's life, or as a power that can be used to unite many people under a certain cause.  The literal translation of one of Ghalib's Ghazals portrays the view of love as a necessity which all Ghazal writers possessed.  After leaving someone he loves, the narrator of this Ghazal states, "I am (like) an extinguished candle, no more becoming/befitting in an/ assembly of friends."  (Ghazals of Ghalib, pg. 16, 1970).           

Comparing the Ghazals

The Ghazals are interesting because even though they seem to have a set form, even as far as subject matter goes, those of Ghalib and Mir Taqi Mir actually seem quite different in mood. Whereas Ghalib's poems appear to be more joyful and at least hint at hope, Mir's poems are much more sorrowful and sometimes even self-loathing. I think this may have to do with the fact that even though both poets had fairly dismal lives, Ghalib did not internalize his troubles as much as Mir. Listening to a Mir Ghazal is the opposite of listening to one by Ghalib. Mir's is much more subdued and forlorn, lacking the celebratory mood of the one we watched in class.

Reading The Ghazals

The Ghazal is a verse form that I have not read or analyzed before--in fact, I had never even heard of it until this past week. This surprises me considering how prominent a form the Ghazal apparently is in India and how beautiful a form it is. Nevertheless, I'm at least a little familiar with the form now and have had an overwhelmingly positive experience reading different Ghazals and trying to discern what they mean.

What I consider to be the most special thing about these poems lies in its structure. The fact that each individual Ghazal can either be taken as a whole or examined one couplet at a time because each couplet is considered autonomous makes for not only interesting reading but also allows for the reader to take away what they want from each Ghazal. You can try and dissect the entire poem, or just take each couplet individually at their own value.

Both Gailib's and Faiz's Ghazals have their own style, and for me it came down to a matter of ease of reading. I had a harder time close reading entire poems of Ghalib, but that's not to sat that there weren't individual couplets I took something away from. I found that the poems by Faiz, on the other hand were easier to digest as a whole work and were more uniform in terms of style and theme. My favorite Ghazal in the reading was also by Faiz, "A Prison Daybreak". The combination of personification, brilliant description and a sense of hope  despite intense isolation ("Captives watching and waiting for their prince/Whose quiver holds the burning arrows of hope") make for a Ghazal that seems to accurately capture the experience of being in prison.

Reading the few Ghazals that I have has helped to give me a sense of what the tradition entails and how appreciated the medium is in India and the surrounding area. Having the opportunity to expand my knowledge of poetry with a form that is simple yet complicated and made up of couplets that can be considered works of art on their own was definitely a positive experience.

Visualizing the World of Ghalib's Ghazals

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.

Learning how to read the Ghazal

Reading Ghazals is more difficult than I imagined, as the form is so different than what I am used to when reading poetry.  Even though I know the Ghazal is made up of couplets I am still looking for meaning in the whole piece, not just the couplets.  I am slowly training myself to look at each couplet alone, find the meaning and then put it all together to see the result; compared to a more standard type of poem where the lines are meant to be read with another and can not stand alone. 

The themes are also harder to understand, again because they are expressed in these short couplets.  Most of the Ghazals are about love but even in that field there are countless variations explored by the authors.  Mir Taqi Mir writes more of unfulfilled love, mirroring his life of loss and his Ghazals have a slightly darker side to them.  Ghalib’s Ghazals are more about real love and passion, which makes them easier to understand as they fit the more standard idea of love in other forms of poetry and verse. 

 The easiest for me to understand and relate to have been Adrienne Rich’s, as they are the most modern and use examples and ideas I am more familiar with.  These Ghazals feel more specific than the older ones which seemed to look at the general ideas of love instead of focusing on specific incidents. This may just be because I do not have the frame of reference from that time period but either way Rich’s work is much easier to understand.  She does not follow the exact format of the Ghazal yet I still feel they are true Ghazals as I read them couplet by couplet like I would an older Ghazal and they had that same loose meaning that was tied together by thinking of the couplets as different pages in the same story.  I am still struggling to understand the older Ghazals but now that I know how to read them they no longer seem so alien to me. 

On experiencing the ghazals

To me, the ghazals are both an enjoyable experience and a form of literature that intrigues me with its contradictions. I tend to gravitate toward the emotional and gritty when it comes to poetry, and since ghazals often deal with some aspect of love and the lack or loss of it, it's a type of poetry that when introduced to it, I immediately felt attracted to. Apart from the emotions discussed in ghazals, I also found the imagery to be quite appealing, almost with undertones of fantasy that mirror my writing style. I'd never come across a form of poetry that, by focusing on certain themes, happened to echo my own style; the ghazals I've read so far largely come across as highly passionate and charged with feeling and emotion--aspects that I'm attracted to--so I was extremely happy to discover them.

Another part of the ghazals that really interested me was the contradictions between the personal and the private: the fact that although many of these poems discussed intimate or personal issues that may have been better left unsaid, the ghazals appear to be more or less reserved for live performances rather than being read aloud, which creates an interesting contrast. How much is the poet willing to bare to the world regarding his experiences and emotions? Or do they disguise their exposure somewhat by making their poetic phrases more general?

Perhaps the most interesting part of the ghazal in my opinion is the takhallus, in which the poet refers to himself/herself in the third person in the poet. From my exposure to Western literature, this is really rare, and when reading ghazals I tend to perceive the takhallus as a kind of message from the poet to himself or herself, or perhaps a kind of higher self evaluating the poet's experiences (often in a lamenting or admonishing manner, depending on the situation). Because I haven't had the chance to experience this very often, part of me interprets this as the poet having split personalities or speaking from different narratives.

“The Quintessence of Dust” or Man in Mir’s Measure

“How favored is man at whose behest, / The sky is made to measure the earth”; so begins the matla of one of Mir’s ghazals.*  The next few couplets elaborate the privilege of being human on earth where everything - the “chain of day and night”, “the sun, moon and clouds” –  is dwarfed to the service and interest of man. One sher even ventures that the upkeep of provisions must come at a cost: “What pain and toil it must have cost,  / To provide him things of varied hue”. The ghazal builds up the bounty and generosity within which human life exists only to contrast it with the attitude with which it is received: “But strange is man in word and deed / Self-willed, self-loving, full of self-conceit”.  The lack of humility, the inability to bow in gratitude to God or nature is the point of sharp criticism that this ghazal offers about the predicament of man. The maqta ends not on a note of admonishment as one might have come to expect but on a note of surprise, how did the quintessence of dust come to acquire so much privilege in God’s creation? “Mir! a handful of dust, my God! / How did he attain such heights”. This ghazal is a meditation on service and the self-importance of those that take their resources and their place in creation for granted. 

*This translation is by K.C.  Kanda  pg. 107 / (1998)