Mirza Asadu'llah Khan Ghalib was the brightest luminary of his time in the South Asian, Muslim literary community. A poet in Urdu and Persian, he was endowed with exquisite imagination, sparkling wit, and a charming presence. Ghalib was a brilliant conversationalist, skilled in the art of human relations. In the last twenty years of his life, the political conditions of northern India caused the death or dispersion of many of his best friends. He satisfied his gregarious urges by writing exquisite letters in Urdu, in a delightfully conversational style. By these means Ghalib kept in touch with his scattered friends. These letters were so novel in style that the first collection was published only a month after the poet's death. In this book, Daud Rahbar provides thoroughly annotated English versions of 170 Urdu letters. These letters exemplify the possibility of elevating human relations to an art form, and Rahbar's translation reproduces the delicate flavor of the original Urdu prose.Daud Rahbar is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University.
This annotated English translation of a considerable assortment of Ghalib's Urdu Letters is offered to readers of English with the translator's conviction that in these letters we have some exquisite specimens of Urdu conversationalism. In my childhood I enjoyed the privilege of being in the company of many elders of classic personalities. Their style of conversation echoed Ghalib's culture. The letters contained in this volume were written by a man to whom the social graces of a life of leisure came naturally. An English translation of the letters has to reproduce the leisurely effect of the original. Here crisp and racy English will not do. The translators' cultural inheritance was thus an advantage. The languor of language has to be preserved in the translation so that the reader can feel the luxury of leisure and lounging. In fact the translation was produced without haste to ensure the right taste.
Mirza Ghalib was born Asadu'llah Beg Khan on the seventh day of the month of Rajab in the year 1212 of the Muslim lunar calendar, that is, on December 27, 1797 A.D. He was nicknamed Mirza Nausha as a child and used this as his penname when he began his illustrious career as a poet and writer of prose, later adopting Ghalib as the name by which he would be known to his numerous friends and acquaintances in the world of letters and to his countless readers for generations to come.
Ghalib's paternal grandfather, Qaugan Beg, whose mother tongue was Turkish, migrated to India from Samarqand, settling first in Lahore and then in Dihll, earning a jagir as a reward for his military services, and living out a life of prosperity.2 Qaugan Beg's sons, 'Abdu'llah Beg Khan--Ghalib's father--and Nasrullah Beg Khan, both were born in DihlI and, like their father before them, pursued military careers when financial need obliged them to do so, as it did on the death of their progenitor and the concomitant loss of his jagir.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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