Ghazal

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In poetry, the ghazal (Persian: غزل; Turkish gazel) is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain. Each line must share the same meter. Etymologically, the word literally refers to "the mortal cry of a gazelle". The animal is caled Ghizaal, from which the English word gazelles stems, or Kastori haran (where haran refers to deer) in Urdu. Ghazals are traditionally expressions of love, separation and loneliness, for which the gazelle is an appropriate image. A ghazal can thus be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 10th century Persian verse. It is derived from the Persian qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are more stringent than those of most poetic forms traditionally written in English. In its style and content it is a genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central theme of love and separation. It is considered by many to be one of the principal poetic forms the Persian civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world.

The ghazal spread into South Asia in the 12th century under the influence of the new Islamic Sultanate courts and Sufi mystics. Exotic to the region, as is indicated by the very sounds of the name itself when properly pronounced as ġazal, with its very un-Indian initial rolled g. Although the ghazal is most prominently a form of Urdu poetry, today, it has influenced the poetry of many languages.

Ghazals were written by the Persian mystics and poets Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (13th century) and Hafez (14th century), the Turkish poet Fuzuli (16th century), as well as Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), who both wrote Ghazals in Persian and Urdu. Through the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the ghazal became very popular in Germany in the 19th century, and the form was used extensively by Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) and August von Platen (1796–1835). The Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali was a proponent of the form, both in English and in other languages; he edited a volume of "real ghazals in English."

In some modernized ghazals the poet's name is hidden somewhere in the last verse, usually between the front and end of a word.

Contents

  • The second line of each couplet in a ghazal ends with the repetition of a refrain of one or a few words, known as a Radif, preceded by a rhyme (though in a less strict ghazal the rhyme does not need to precede the refrain immediately), known as a Qaafiyaa. In the first couplet, which introduces the theme, both lines end in the rhyme and refrain. I.e. AA BA CA etc
  • There can be no enjambment across the couplets in a strict ghazal; each couplet must be a complete sentence (or several sentences) in itself.
  • All the couplets, and each line of each couplet, must share the same meter.
  • Ghazal is simply the name of a form, and is not language-specific. Ghazals also exist, for example in the Pashto and Marathi languages.
  • Some Ghazals do not have any Radif. This is, however, rare. Such Ghazals are called "gair-muraddaf" Ghazal.
  • Although every Sher should be an independent poem in itself, it is possible for all the Shers to be on the same theme or even have continuity of thought. This is called a musalsal ghazal, or "continuous ghazal". The Ghazal "Chupke chupke raat din aasun bahaanaa yaad hai" is a famous example of this.
  • In modern Urdu poetry, there are lots of Ghazals which do not follow the restriction of same Beher on both the lines of Sher. But even in these Ghazals, Kaafiyaa and Radif are present.
  • The restriction of Maqta has become rather loose in modern times. The Maqta was used historically as a way for the poet to secure credit for his or her work and poets often make elegant use of their takhallus in the maqta. However, many modern Ghazals do not have a Maqta or, many Ghazals have a Maqta just for the sake of conforming to the structure or tradition. The name of the Shayar is sometimes placed unnaturally in the last Sher of the Ghazal.

The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject: Love. And not any kind of love, but specifically, an illicit, and unattainable love. The subcontinental ghazals have an influence of Islamic Mysticism and the subject of love can usually be interpreted for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. The love is always viewed as something that will complete the being, and if attained will ascend the ranks of wisdom, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazals' love does not have an explicit element of sexual desires in it, and hence the love is spiritual. Consequently, ghazals are not to be confused with poetry of seduction.

Persian historian Ehsan Yar-Shater notes that "As a rule, the beloved is not a woman, but a young man. In the early centuries of Islam, the raids into Central Asia produced many young slaves. Slaves were also bought or received as gifts. They were made to serve as pages at court or in the households of the affluent, or as soldiers and body-guards. Young men, slaves or not, also, served wine at banquets and receptions, and the more gifted among them could play music and maintain a cultivated conversation. It was love toward young pages, soldiers, or novices in trades and professions which was the subject of lyrical introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian poetry, and of the ghazal." (Yar-Shater, Ehsan. 1986. Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods, Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.973-974. 1986)

The ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover, whose beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often either the beloved does not return the poet's love or returns it without sincerity, or else the societal circumstances do not allow it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless; the lyrical impetus of the poem derives from this tension. Representations of the lover's powerlessness to resist his feelings often include lyrically exaggerated violence. The beloved's power to captivate the speaker may be represented in extended metaphors about the "arrows of her eyes", or by referring to the beloved as an assassin or a killer. Take for example the following couplets from Amir Khusro's Persian ghazal Nami danam chi manzil bood shab:

Nami danam chi manzil bood shab jaay ki man boodam;
 Baharsu raqs-e bismil bood shab jaay ki man boodam.
 Pari paikar nigaar-e sarw qadde laala rukhsare;
 Sarapa aafat-e dil bood shab jaay ki man boodam.

I wonder what was the place where I was last night,
All around me were half-slaughtered victims of love, tossing about in agony.
There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form and tulip-like face,
Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers.

(translated by S.A.H. Abidi)

It is not possible to get a full understanding of ghazal poetry without at least being familiar with some concepts of Sufism. All the major historical ghazal poets were either avowed Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz), or were sympathizers of Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God, or the poet's spiritual master. It is the intense Divine Love of sufism that serves as a model for all the forms of love found in ghazal poetry.

Most ghazal scholars today recognize that some ghazal couplets are exclusively about Divine Love (ishq-e-haqiqi), others are about "metaphorical love" (ishq-e-majazi), but most of them can be interpreted in either context.

In Urdu Ghazal some important and respetable poets are Wali, Siraj, Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Zauq, Dard, Momin, Daagh, Iqbal, Jigar Moradabadi, and . Post-partition poets include Firaq Gorakhpuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri,Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sharyaar, Nasir Kazmi, Parveen Shakir, Qamar Jalalabadi, Qaisar ul Jafri, Ahmed Faraz, Abdul Ahad Saaz, Josh Maleehabadi, Akbar Ilahabadi, Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Asghar Gondvi Shakeel Badauni, Sahir Ludhiyanavi, Nida Fazli, Obaid Azam Azmi and Munawwar Rana.

The art of Classical Ghazal was first introduced by Begum Akhtar and later on, Ustad Mehdi Hassan.These two artists have brought the sensuality of the ghazal and the complexity of Indian raagas to the main masses, and before their introduction, the common masses did not understand the Indian Classical Music tradition of "Khaayal", "Thumri" and "Dadra." A common misconception of Classical artists are that Ghazals are categorized as "light classical" when indeed that is not the case. Classical Ghazals are far more difficult to render because of the expression of the "shers" or couplets of the ghazal. Begum Akhtar and Mehdi Hassan have been hailed as the main pioneers of Ghazal "Gayaki" or singing. Other emminent maestros include Pakistani Ghazal artists Farida Khanum and Ustad Ghulam Ali.

Because of the complexity of the words, only the upper class could truly understand the sweetness of the Ghazal. The common masses could not understand most of the lyrics and the traditional classical raagas they were rendered in was too difficult to understand. Ghazal has undergone some transformations which helps it to reach a huge audience around the world. The simplification of Ghazal in terms of the words and phrases helps the masses to enjoy it. Most of the Ghazals are now sung with various styles which are not limited to 'khaayyal', 'thumri', 'raaga', 'taala' and other classical music. However, these forms of Ghazal are snubbed by purists of the Indian Classical Tradition. Singers like Jagjit Singh (he was the first ghazal singer to incorporate the Western guitar in ghazals) Chandan Das, Hariharan, Pankaj Udhas and many others have been able to give ghazal a new shape by its incorporation in the field of modern music. Another young Canadian talent, Cassius Khan has also been hailed as the only classical Ghazal singer in the world who can accompany himself on the tabla. He is also capable of singing the recitational style of ghazal singing while playing the tabla, which is unique.

After nearly a century of "false starts" (that is, early exploratory instances by James Clarence Mangan, James Elroy Flecker, Adrienne Rich, Phyllis Webb., etc., many of which not adhering wholly or properly to the traditional principles of the style), the ghazal finally began to be recognized as a viable closed form in English-language poetry sometime in the early to mid 1990s. This came about largely as a result of serious, true-to-form examples being published by noted American poets John Hollander, W. S. Merwin and Elise Paschen, as well as by acclaimed Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali (d. 2001), who had been teaching and spreading word of the ghazal at various U.S. universities over the previous two decades. Ali, it is worth noting, had also published by this time a collection (The Rebel's Silhouette) of translations of the legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (b. 1911, d. 1984), and although the selected poems were presented in English in a free verse style, their romantic and revolutionary-Marxist sociopolitical impact was not entirely lost upon Western readers.

Recognizing the growing interest, in 1996 Ali decided to compile and edit the world's first anthology of English-language ghazals. Finally published by Wesleyan University Press in 2000, Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English served as material proof that the ghazal had indeed finally arrived in the English-speaking Western world. Sadly, Ali did not live long enough to witness the book's full impact and further evolution of the Western ghazal, succumbing to brain cancer in December 2001.

Much of the ghazal's English-language evolution in the years subsequent to Ali's death can be seen in or traced to the work of R. W. Watkins and Gene Doty (also known as Gino Peregrini). Watkins, a rather controversial enfant terrible on the fringes of avant-garde Canadian poetry, launched Contemporary Ghazals, the world's first English-language poetry journal dedicated exclusively to the ghazal, in the spring of 2003. Four years before that, Doty introduced The Ghazal Page, a website dedicated to the verse form in English. Both have done much to advance the Western ghazal, publishing many new and seasoned practitioners alike, critical essays and articles, and translations or adaptations of classic Persian and Urdu ghazals.

Other notable English-language poets currently working in the ghazal form include Marcyn Del Clements, R. L. Kennedy, Teresa M. Pfeifer, Taylor Graham and Denver Butson. Also, vocalist and poet Paula Jeanine explores the ghazal musically in her project, American Ghazal.

  • Agha Shahid Ali, "The Country Without A Post Office", "Ghazal ('...exiles')"
  • Denver Butson, "Drowning Ghazals (1, 2 & 3)", "Four Drowning Ghazals"
  • Robert Bly, The Night Abraham Called to the Stars and My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy
  • Gabrielle Calvocoressi, "Backdrop"
  • Marcyn del Clements, "Night"
  • William Dennis, "Lunar Ruin", "Brim-Full Again",
  • Gene Doty (also known as Gino Peregrini), "Ghazal Spirit", "...silence"
  • Taylor Graham, "A Ghazal of Gardens", "Almost Every Day Now"
  • Thomas Hardy, "The Mother Mourns"
  • John Hollander, "Ghazal On Ghazals"
  • R. L. Kennedy, "Memphis Jazz"
  • Maxine Kumin, "On the Table"
  • W. S. Merwin, "The Causeway"
  • William Matthews, "Guzzle", "Drizzle"
  • Elise Paschen, "Sam's Ghazal"
  • Teresa M. Pfeifer, "In Open Meadow"
  • Spencer Reece, "Florida Ghazals"
  • Adrienne Rich, "Ghazals: Homage to Ghalib"
  • R. W. Watkins, "That Nice, Clean, Filthy Lucre", "Ghazal For Shahid"
  • Bill West, "Daybreak"
  • Bruce Williams, "End Without World"
  • John Edgar Wideman, "Lost Letter"
  • Robert Pinsky, "The Hall"

Some well-known ghazal singers are:

Many Indian and Pakistani film singers are also famous for singing ghazals. These include:

ghazal singers:

Pioneer of Ghazals singing in Telugu Dr Ghazal Srinivas www.ghazalsrinivas.com

Ustad Barkat Ali Khan Aijaz Hussain Hazravi

  • Agha Shahid Ali (ed.). Ravishing Disunities: Real Ghazals in English. ISBN 0-8195-6437-0.
  • Agha Shahid Ali. Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals. ISBN 0-393-05195-1.
  • Bailey, J. O. The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A handbook and Commentary. ISBN 0-8078-1135-1
  • Doty, Gene (ed./sitemaster). The Ghazal Page; various postings, 1999--2006.
  • Faiz, Faiz Ahmed. The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems. Translated by Agha Shahid Ali. University of Massachusetts Press, 1995.
  • Kanda, K.C., editor. Masterpieces of the Urdu Ghazal: From the 17th to the 20th Century. Sterling Pub Private Ltd., 1991.
  • Mufti, Aamir. "Towards a Lyric History of India." boundary 2, 31: 2, 2004
  • Reichhold, Jane (ed.). Lynx; various issues, 1996--2000.
  • Watkins, R. W. (ed.). Contemporary Ghazals; Nos. 1 and 2, 2003--2004.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal"
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