Ghalib: 1797-1869: Life and Letters - Paperback

by Ralph Russell (Editor), Ralph Russell (Translator), Khurshidul Islam (Editor)

This book is a fascinating portrait of one of the most popular Urdu and Persian poets, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869)
Very little of Ghalib has previously appeared in English, and that little has circulated almost entirely within India and Pakistan. This volume mainly consists of translations from the Memoir written by his friend and younger contemporary Hali not many years after Ghalib's death; and of his diary of the revolt of 1857.

Back Jacket

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869), noble, poet, and wit of Mughal Delhi in its twilight years before the revolt of 1857, is the most famous and popular of the Urdu poets that the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent has produced. His frankness, his humorous good nature, and his cheerfully avowed unorthodoxy with regard to the more irksome formalities of his Muslim religion, made him something of a legend even in his own lifetime. Collections of his numerous letters to his friends were published just before his death, and not many years later his friend and younger contemporary Hali wrote his Memoir of Ghalib, itself one of the classics of Urdu literature. The present volume consists in the main of translations from Hali's Memoir, Ghalib's Persian and Urdu letters, his diary of the revolt of 1857, and other materials. These materials are arranged to tell the story of his life.