KARACHI: The Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi organised a lecture by distinguished scholar Dr Syed Nomanul Haq on understanding Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s poetry on the occasion of the poet’s 152nd death anniversary on Sunday.

Dr Haq began his talk by saying Ghalib’s verses are never without a twist or abstruseness (koi baat paich ke baghair nahin hoti). To support his argument he quoted the first two lines of the ghazal:

Jor se baaz aa’y, per baaz aein kiya
Kahtey hain hum tujh ko munh dikhlain kiya

[Renounce cruelty, but what for?

She says, ‘I’m embarrassed to show you my face’]

The confluence of reality and metaphor makes Ghalib unique, says scholar

The scholar said by using the auditory variants of aa’y and aaein the poet has lent multiplicity to the meaning of the couplet. While speaking on one of the oft-quoted verses of the same ghazal, he remarked, in a lighter vein, that a licence should be issued to study Ghalib — not everyone should be allowed to read him.

Shedding light on the uniqueness of the poet’s art, Dr Haq said Ghalib (Dec 27, 1797- Feb 15, 1869) imparts a universal touch to the realities of life — he travels from the real to the metaphysical. For example, things such as the sound of a burning piece of wood or dewdrop hanging off a thorn. It led him to quote the lines:

Hui hai maan-i-zauq-i-tamasha khana veerani
Kaf-i-sailaab baqi hai barang-i-panba rozan mein

[Though I wished to see the destruction of my home, I can’t

Like cotton balls, the flood’s foam has plugged holes in the walls]

The scholar said Ghalib uses Persian words and phrases with a great deal of liberty and does it befittingly. This is a feat achieved only by him because, though other poets have used Persian diction in their poetry, Ghalib brings them into the Urdu framework. In the Persian language the source or the basic form of verb (sona, jagna, aamadan etc) is not used as plural. But Ghalib is the only one, with the exception of Bedil, who’s done that nicely.

Returning to the fact that Ghalib moves from the real to the metaphysical and, in a way, placing his position in world literature Dr Haq claimed that for William Shakespeare the opposite is true — he moves from the metaphysical to the real. Shakespeare applies a cosmic rule to a particular aspect of life.

He backed up his claim by reading the following lines from Sonnet 93:

But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in my face sweet love should ever dwell;
Whate’er thy thoughts or thy heart’s workings be,
Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show.

Expanding on the interplay of reality and metaphor in his verses, he argued the confluence of reality and metaphor makes Ghalib a unique poet.

Dr Haq said Ghalib was never able to see his beloved because if the mehboob is a real entity that it’s impossible to visualise the beloved.

Main na muraad dil ki tassali ko kiya karun
Mana ke terey rukh se nigaah kaamyab hai

[What can I, the defeated, do to console my heart?

Even though you allowed me to look at your face]

After the talk, titled Ghalib Fahmi, the floor was opened for a question-answer session.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021