The Lightning Should Have Fallen on Ghalib: Selected Poems of Ghalib

Rating:
Summary: Introducing a great poet to western audience - Great Job
Review: Ghalib is probably the most beloved poet in the Indian sub-continent. His poetic stature towers over other giants of poetry, such as Zauq, Mir, and Iqbal. People of Pakistan and India can be heard reciting Ghalib's couplets all the time. Unfortunately, this great philosophical and romantic poet has not received the recognition that he deserves. Perhaps it is due to the poor translations of earlier attempts that suffer from flowery language. Many of the earlier translators have tried to take the original Urdu couplets (Urdu is the language Ghalib wrote in extensively, besides Persian)and make the English versions rhyme. This is an impossibility because Urdu is such a dense, complex, and at the same time, very subtle language. The meter of the couplets can be too short, leading an attempt to make the English version rhyme fall flat on its face.

Robert Bly and Sunil Dutta's versions do not suffer from the previous attempts of forcing rhymes on the English versions. Fortunately they have done a great job by shunning flowery language that suffocated the early translations. This book contains thirty of the most-loved and probably Ghalib's best ghazals (poems). The translations have turned out great. The authors have attempted to stay closer to the literal meaning of the original text from Urdu rather than to force their interpretations. Hopefully such beautiful translations would bring Ghalib into the literary landscape of English reading people like sunshine

Rating:
Summary: "THE HEART IS AN ENTHUSIASTIC PURCHASER OF HUMILIATION"
Review: Ghalib's playful poetry in Urdu is fascinating, such as the line in the caption of this review, a fact most Indians are privy to. But having his quirky, self-effacing romantic gems in English is a delight of a different order altogether. The translation is thankfully quite interesting in and of itself which lends this book an amusing, page-turning quality.

Couple of notes:

(1) Get the Ecco Press version if you can find it, the paper quality is less annoying. The Amazon site (this page) advertises a publication from "Rupa Co." which has crummy pages that I regret buying.

(2) Also, the Ecco Press version of the book contains interesting translation notes from Sunil Dutta, which are fun to read. Robert Bly is listed as the editor, and while he hogs the credit, he simply performed the role of revising and redecorating Dutta's copious translation notes.

Either way, I highly recommend this thin volume for people who appreciate poetry in general or "shayari" in particular. I'd gladly pay for more than 30 samples of Ghalib's prolific work.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding translation, great book. Best of Ghalib's poems
Review: This is indeed the best translation of Ghalib available in English language. I have read versions in English by Aijaz Ahmad, Kanda, Sasha Newborn and several others and there is simply no comparison. Bly and Dutta's work is far-far superior to what is available in the market. Since Urdu is my mother tongue and I have read Ghalib's original work, I can evaluate this book at a different level than others who can not read Ghalib's original poetry in Urdu.

I am quite a bit surprised at other reviewers who have given this book one star and at their vituperation. Sounds as if they were reading some political book and became upset at something!!! I am really surprised that the reviewer from Irvine believes that the verses stray from their literal meanings and the interpretations are incorrect. I would love to hear from him and find out how he arrived at this absolutely insane conclusion. I have read Ghalib so many times in Urdu and Bly's versions, in my opinion, are much closer to the Urdu originals than other books. Of course, Urdu being the language it is and Ghalib being the best poet in Urdu, tons of meanings emerge from the original Urdu couplets. English is simply not capable of expressing the subtleties that exist in such a refined language as Urdu. The reviewer from Sunnyvale sounds like an illiterate buffoon, I wonder if he was reading the same book that I was! His bizarre definition of Ghazal "Ghazal is said to be a cry of a gazelle who is being cornered by a hunter and knows it is going to die" also exposes his lack of understanding of what this poetic form is.

Anyway, translations are done for the benefit of people who don't know the original language. Given this fact, people who know the original Urdu would never be satisfied with the translations. I am in the same boat. I don't think that anyone can capture the feelings, color, and beauty of Ghalib's poetry in a translation. Still, Bly and Dutta's work outshines any other effort and The Lightning Should Have Fallen on Ghalib is an outstanding introduction to Mirza Ghalib.