Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869), noble, poet, and wit of nineteenth-century Delhi, is the most famous and popular of the Urdu poets that the Indian subcontinent has produced. His life spans the years of the twilight of the Mughals, the revolt of 1857 and the terrible aftermath. This complete Ghalib anthology comprises poetry and prose translated from both Persian and Urdu, biographical details and provides a context within which modern-day, English-speaking readers can read and understand his poetry. Introduced and selected by Ralph Russell, an eminent Urdu scholar, this collection presents a representative selection of Ghalib’s writings set against a portrait of the man and the times in which he lived. Ralph Russell’s ‘Ghalib: A Self-Portrait’ gives a picture of his personality as it emerges in passages from his Persian and Urdu letters and prose, including his diary, and other materials, which are arranged to tell the story of his life. Percival Spear describes the Delhi of Ghalib’s day. New translations from Ghalib’s Urdu and Persian ghazals form a significant part of the volume and are being published for the first time. A note on translating Ghalib, a survey of his Urdu and Persian poetry, and a detailed explanatory index provided to guide readers complete the volume. The first-ever compendium of Ghalib’s oeuvre, The Oxford India Ghalib, is a collector’s item for aficionados of Urdu literature and especially of its poetry.
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