Writer, translator Anisur Rehman traces the journey of ghazal in his book

Amritsar, February 7

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Anisur Rehman, a senior adviser to the Rekhta Foundation, writer and translator, who was formerly professor and head of English at Jamia Millia Islamia University, in an online session hosted by Majha House spoke on his latest compilation of ghazals in his book ‘Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi’.

Many respected American poets like Adrian Rich adopted this genre and it was so fascinating to others that many popular Australian poets like Judith Wright also wrote ghazals. The challenge was to limit the thought to only two lines — the couplet. But their initial efforts were technically not spot on, so they started learning the form of the ghazal, its rhythm, the kafiya, the madiha and so on. — Anisur Rehman, Senior adviser, Rekhta

Rehman, who has numerous books to his credit and is a bilingual poet, said his book traces the history and journey of ghazals down the years. The conversation was moderated by Dr Gurupdesh Singh, former professor of English, GNDU, Amritsar.

Talking about the popularity of the ghazal across borders ever since the genre was created in the 6th century, Dr Gurupdesh pointed out that the genre was popular not only in Arabia, Persia or Turkey, but in Europe as well.

Anisur explained: “Many respected American poets like Adrian Rich adopted this genre and it was so fascinating to others that many popular Australian poets like Judith Wright also wrote ghazals. The challenge was to limit the thought to only two lines — the couplet. But their initial efforts were technically not spot on, so they started learning the form of the ghazal, its rhythm, the kafiya, the madiha and so on.”

Ghazal, he added, has also served different purposes. “Urdu ghazal pulls you to itself because of its mellifluousness and rhythm. It is a fallacy that ghazals are only about the beauty of the beloved, waxing eloquent about the hair and the face. Urdu ghazals have been the vehicle of protest too and served many different purposes,” he said.

Talking about the genesis of the book Anisur said he was fortunate to learn four languages — Hindi, English, Urdu and Arabic. “I could read the ghazals in their original languages and thus started my affair with ghazals in different languages. This affair culminated in this book, which is a labour of love and has taken me years to complete,” Anirur elaborated.

He also spoke at length about how he translated the ghazals keeping the rhythm, the syllables and the kafiya, and how he chose 65 poets out of thousands, who have graced the ghazal since the 16th century to the present ones. “The secret was to find a key word in the original and to bring that key word or refrain into the translation, all the while maintaining the syllable pattern and rhyme and rhythm of the original. I had to see which poets are poets of ghazals or nazms. For this, I had to leave out popular poets such as Sahir and include Majrooh Sultanpuri.”