The Famous Ghalib: The Sound of My Moving Pen

Book excerpt: ‘Easily the best Urdu scholar in the West.’ Shamsur Rehman Farouqi ‘Marion Molteno has mined a substantial corpus of Russell’s writings to string together his most valuable insights into the genre of ghazal... to prepare the uninitiated reader for the final feast of Ghalib’s ghazals in English translation. And what a magnificent feast it is!’ M. Asaduddin, Jamia Millia Islamia The second edition of Ralph Russell’s critically acclaimed The Famous Ghalib has been put together according to guidance left by the author/translator before his death in 2008. This book introduces Ghalib to anyone who wants to find out why his poetry has inspired generations of Urdu speakers and many others besides. It explains the form of poetry in which Ghalib wrote, and how he used its symbolism to express his response both to the universal experiences of life and to the times that he himself lived through. With over 200 couplets in Ralph Russell’s translations, alongside the original Urdu – and also transcribed using both English and Hindi scripts, this is a must have for all poetry lovers. The translations are as concise as the original, matching Ghalib’s intensity with words chosen to convey precise meaning; and they do this in English which flows naturally and with unobtrusive poetic metre.