KARACHI: The Arts Council of Pakistan organised on Monday evening an event to commemorate the death anniversary of the greatest Urdu poet Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, which falls on Feb 15.

Moderated by the council’s President Ahmed Shah, the programme had two prominent literary figures, poets Zehra Nigah and Khurshid Rizvi, to shed light on the life and work of the 19th century poet.

Ms Nigah said she’d been invited to speak on someone on whom two to three hundred books have been published, and the entire world, in every way, has accepted [his greatness].

She said: “What can I say about him? That he was a very good poet? It would mean nothing. What can I say about him except open his collection and read every word carefully? When I was young, I found Maulana Ghulam Rasul Mehr’s book [on Ghalib] in which he has given meanings of [difficult] words and phrases. Then I began to understand the poet a bit. But even now I can’t say that I have been able to fully understand him.

Arts Council commemorates death anniversary of 19th century legendary Urdu poet

“The thing is that sometimes a poet’s personal life has an effect on his art. What I have read about Ghalib is that his personal life was disorderly (be tarteeb). His wife belonged to a nawab family and he used to consume alcohol which was considered a big sin. This was why his clothes and cutlery etc would be kept separate. All of Ghalib’s chores would be taken care of by his servant Kallu. Perhaps this detachment from life had an effect on his poetry.”

Mr Rizvi said in order to understand any poet, instead of critiquing his work, one should read the poet’s work and try and find qualities in it.

He said: “I’m emotional (jazbati) about a few poets, especially about Ghalib. If I control my emotions, I’d rate Ghalib as high as Shakespeare and Goethe. And If I don’t control my emotions, I’d rate him higher than them.

“It is not possible to analyse how he became what he became as an artist. A genius can’t be analysed. When a genius comes in front us, after being fully developed, then we realise he’s an extraordinary person. Ghalib, in both Urdu and Persian prose and poetry, has a distinct style. Allama Iqbal, too, was a huge admirer of Ghalib. In his early days, Iqbal penned a poem published in the collection Baang-i-Dara one of whose lines I think is the best tribute to Ghalib:

Teri kisht-i-fikr se ugte hain aalam sabza waar

This means that the land of your [Ghalib’s] thoughts is so fertile that it creates new worlds.”

Mr Rizvi said Ghalib had this ability to tell a whole story in just two lines and one can’t claim if any aspect of the story is missed out. He gave the example of the following verse:

Qafas mein mujh se rudaad-i-chaman kahte na dar hamdum
Giri hai jis pe kal bijli wo mera aashiyan kyun ho?

[Friend, don’t be afraid in this cage to narrate what happened in the garden—
Why would it be my nest on which lightning has fallen?]

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2026