Urdu Poetry Images Biography
source:-Google.com.pk
Quddama in the 10th and 11th century; Persian poetry, which has the greatest influence on Urdu ghazal reinforced this theme. Held in supreme regard is the beloved and no expression could belittle the beloved. (However, see below how Ghalib got away with this.) The ghazal, carries a sense of nobility, idealism, sensuousness (not necessarily a sensual aura) wherein the lover is inseparable from the loved. It is more like the 16th and 17th century English lyrical poetry, wherein metaphors play a significant role. Take for example T. S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Love adduced in Urdu ghazal is always one-sided, unrequited love, idolizing and idealizing at the same time. Urdu ghazal poet is not merely creating a ghazal from its many blocks (she’rs), but representing the times he or she is living in. The vision of the poet as affected by the surroundings is very much reflected in the ghazal, a concept that is closer to Shelley’s concept wherein the poet is the “unacknowledged legislator of mankind.” Ghalib’s ghazals have also been compared to the devastating couplets of Alexander Pope A rather touchy situation for the Western reader of Urdu poetry arises in how the male gender is used for the beloved. Translations, including this book, are difficult to do using this scheme. (As a result, I have addressed the beloved as female). The roots of this convention go back to the ancient Persians and Greeks; the Persians with their homosexual preference found the young Turkish boys taken in as slaves very attractive. In the 18th and the 19th century, it was fashionable to have these young companions as confidants, and cupbearers (saqi) to a point where the royalty began to profess their love for them rather openly. As a result, the poetry, which at that time was mainly for the consumption of the royalty, began to express the sentiments of the love of the male for the male. (The Western gay movement finds its beginning in the late 20th century.) Soon it became fashionable to address the beloved as male and the tradition continues. Before Amir Khusro (1253-1325), the language of poetry was primarily the vernacular Brij Bhasha. Amir Khusro interspersed it with Persian as the first school of ghazal poets emerged in the Deccan during the 15th and 16th centuries. Early ghazal was somewhat free of structure and made rather simple and blunt expressions as we see in the works of the Qutub Shahi poets of the Deccan. Vali (1668-1744) contributed much to the structure of ghazal. When the works of Vali reached Delhi in 1720, the town was in an uproar and, within a decade, Urdu became a language of poetry. The works of many minor poets like Hatim, Naji, Mazmoon and Abru actually formed the groundwork that cemented the structure of Urdu poetry in the 18th century in Northern India, particularly Delhi. Urdu ghazal became heavily Persianized and led in the golden age of Urdu ghazal beginning with Mir Taqi Mir. The simplicity of emotions expressed in earlier ghazals went through a metamorphosis, leading to the works of Ghalib, perhaps the most difficult Urdu ghazal poet. This transition from the 15th to 18th century was due not only to the maturity of technique but to changes in the social order as well. For India, the 18th century was an age of transition. The last of the strong Mughal Emperors was Aurangzeb (1707), after whom there was dismemberment of the empire. The capital was invaded and destroyed by Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, followed by others. Finally, the British crept in with their deceptive plans. All of this changed the aura of the empire, which had stifled human thought. The uncertainties of the time caused many to raise questions and a revival of the arts and literature, a sort of renaissance period, ensued for India in the 18th century. Urdu poetry benefited most from this revolution of thoughts. The doubts and the uncertainties of the 18th century continued into the 19th century, and the mutiny of 1857 against the British left many indelible marks on the social and cultural scene of Northern India, all reflected melancholically by many poets, Ghalib included. Many new constructions of language ensued using old similes.
No comments:
Post a Comment