Urdu Poetry: Ghalib and the Ghazal

The Helix Center for Interdisciplinary Investigation
of the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

Urdu Poetry: Ghalib and the Ghazal

Saturday, February 16th
3:00 - 4:30 PM

"Plaintiffs in Paper Robes: The First Ghazal of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib"
Frances Pritchett and Mustafa Menai will discuss the poetry of Ghalib and the ghazal form by looking at the first verse of the first ghazal of his divan. In Pritchett's words, "An Urdu ghazal consists of a series of miniature poems, each two lines long. But it's astonishing what can be done within the microcosm of these two lines. We can look at one ghazal, and even focus particularly on one single two-line verse, and see the whole genre in miniature. We're going to look at the first verse of the first ghazal of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869), one of the greatest poets in the tradition--and, we would argue, in the world."