The Noble Science of the Ghazal: The Urdu Poetry of Mirza Ghalib

The volume introduces Urdu ghazals to readers, particularly the works of the famous poet, Mirza Ghalib. It examines the Divan-e-Ghalib that contains the verses of Ghalib in a new perspective, providing a concentrated analysis of central words, motifs and image clusters taken together in an anthropological approach. Providing the English translation of the ghazals alone, it points out that the motifs, as used by Ghalib, are important not in themselves but in the relationships among them. It studies Ghalib’s exploration of the connections that reflect the complex tensions of human life. Discussing his popular ghazals, it takes up their themes like the figure of the beloved and the triad central to his ghazals—the lane, the house of the beloved and the desert.