Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, who wrote under the "Takhallus," or pen name, of Ghalib, is still the most influential poet in Urdu. "Ghalib" means "conqueror." In the Urdu/Persian tradition, a Takhallus is also a self-declaring epithet. At first he wrote under the name "Asad," but he consulted a "sher," a set of rhyming couplets in which he sought to typify his identity.
The couplets read:
"Asad prayed to idols, yet he was betrayed. Now my shers are glorious, by God’s mercy."
He commented, "Asad receives mercy, but by this title I am shamed."
Some Words About Ghalib
This shift gives a vital clue to the meaning of Ghalib’s enigmatic style. To worship idols under the illusion they are God may accrue mercy, but Ghalib writes with the sincerity of one who devoutly prays to idols as God, not as a pagan, but as one who embraces illusion in order to seek God. Sexual love, the pleasures of drink and the hazardous insecurity of gambling were thus illusions whose very contradiction embodied a desire for God. No other poet moves so swiftly from concrete life to mystical devotion than Ghalib. Ghalib was sincerely unconventional as a Muslim, though this creates a problem for the devout. His sincerity is embodied in his life and work.
An Early Genius
Ghalib was born to parents of Turkish aristocratic descent in 1796 in Agra. He lost his father and an uncle in early youth. He began to write early. At 13, a marriage was arranged with an upper middle class family. His wife was a devout Muslim, who bore him three or four children, all of whom died young. He then moved to Delhi, where his house still stands. Ghalib devoted his life to writing, and it was to poetry that he gave most attention. His historical work is a disappointment despite its live witness of the Mutiny, though this is not a settled judgement. His letters are remarkable for their colloquial ease and witty irony.
A Strained Dependence
All his life Ghalib depended successively on upkeep from friends, the Royal Durbar, the British Government and the Nawab of Rampur, with the stop-start consistency Doctor Johnson would have wryly understood. Ghalib was suspected of supporting the Mutiny (or First War of Independence) but reinstated his reputation. His admiration of the British literary tradition was as strong as his contempt for the brutal reality of British rule. He died on February 15, 1869.
The Unattainable
Tradition implied every poet should have a teacher. To be "be-ustad" was a disgrace. Ghalib either invented or expanded his contact with Abdulsamad, a Persian tutor from Iran. Like the modern European writers, Paul Celan and Samuel Beckett, Ghalib wrote in two languages, in his case, Persian and Urdu. Like them, he deliberately exploited the ambiguities between the contrasting diction of the two languages. Nonetheless, the two traditions share a similar rhetoric. The ghazal tradition was focused on anguished love for a distant, or unattainable woman.
The Lessons of Love
To this Ghalib added a wide palette of metaphysical enquiry, theological meditation, scenes from his practical life and an almost heretical humour. While the Persian tradition seems to have influenced the Provencal, the European strain of courtly love espoused valour, adultery and hence the secrecy of the "senhal," a pseudonym. The frustration of love lies in opportunity, whereas in the ghazal tradition, it lies in evident unattainability. The similarities contrast and do not converge.
References:
Ali, Agha Shahid, (2000). Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English. Chicago,Wesleyan Poetry Wesleyan Press.
Harcourt E. S, Hussain, Fakhir (Eds.), (1975). Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture by Abdul Halim Sharar, Paul Elek, London.
Ram, Malik, (1968). Mirza Ghalib, New Delhi: National Book Trust.
Siddiqi, Jameela: Mirza Ghalib: The Godless Lover.
Duncan McGibbon - By contributing writer, Bath (UK) Institute Convenor and Wells Festival Prize-Winner, Duncan McGibbon
