Penguin Classics<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe transliterated passages are like manna for someone like myself – tantalised by, yet unable to read Persian – and thus ignorant of the full genius of Ghani Kashmiri.<\/p>\n
Well done ! <\/b>,
\nMore power to your pen, Mufti Mudassir Farooqi.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Archived post from August 2008:<\/i><\/p>\n
The 17th century poet Mulla Muhammad Tahir Ghani Kashmiri<\/b> {born 1630 A.D} lived during the reign of Aurangzeb<\/b> and died in the early years of the 18th century. Even during his lifetime his fame transcended the borders of India and he was acknowledged in Iran as one of the great masters of Persian poetry. In India he exerted a great influence on the development of Persian and Urdu poetry. The great poet Mirza Ghalib<\/b> translated more than 40 of his couplets into Urdu.<\/p>\n
Mahjoor<\/b> refers to him in his famous poem \u2018Arise, O\u2019 Gardener\u2019:<\/p>\n
Litt\u00e9rateurs of Iran will bow
\nTo you in reverence
\nif you create a poet with powers of
\nmagical narration like Ghani.<\/i><\/p>\n
Mirza Muhammed Ali Saib <\/b> {1601 – 1677}, a famous Persian poet, unable to understand the meaning of a famous verse – in which Ghani Kashmiri had intermingled Persian and Kashmiri words – travelled all the way from Iran to Kashmir to meet him.<\/p>\n
The verse, contained in “Diwan-e-Ghani<\/b>“, reads:<\/p>\n
Moi Miane Tu Shud Kraalpan
\nKardah Juda Kasai Sar Ze Tun<\/i><\/p>\n
Like the potter’s thread, your tresses made me dazed and senseless,
\nsevering the head (pot) from the body (lump of clay).<\/i><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
When the Iranian poet arrived the poet was not home yet the doors of his house were open. Iqbal refers to this incident thus in his “Payam-i-Mashriq<\/b>“:<\/p>\n
That nightingale of poetry, Ghani,
\nWho sang in Kashmir\u2019s paradisal land,
\nUsed, while at home, to shut up all the doors,
\nBut leave them open while away from home.
\nSomebody questioned him concerning this.
\n“O charming bard,” he said, “Why do you do
\nThis strange thing, which nobody understands
\nThe meaning of ?”
\nGhani, who had no wealth
\nExcept his gift of poetry, replied:
\n“What people see me doing is quite right.
\nThere is nothing of any value in my house
\nExcept myself. When I am in, the house
\nIs to be guarded like a treasure-house.
\nWhen I am out, it is an empty place,
\nWhich nobody would care to walk into.”<\/i><\/p>\n
I recall Dr. Ajaz Baba<\/b> explaining to me how Ghani Kashmiri’s influence inspired the visitor, Saib<\/b> of Tabriz<\/b>, to immortalise a chance encounter on the banks of the Jehlum by composing his own version of fusion poetry. The traveller concluded a Persian couplet with an Arabic phrase.<\/p>\n
Dast Aaluda Ba Gil, Ay Mahe Hamchu Aftaab
\nShud Mara Virdi Zuban, Ya Laytanee Kuntu Turab<\/i><\/p>\n
Mud Smears Your Hands, O Moon As Bright As The Sun
\nAnd My Tongue Recites, O Would That I Were Mud<\/i><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/images\/harvest_moon.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
An example of Ghani’s Urdu poetry :<\/p>\n
“Dil yun khayale zulf mein phirta hai n’ara zan
\nTaarik shab mein jaise koi pasban phire”<\/i><\/p>\n
Ironically, Ghani Kashmiri<\/b> is \u00a0almost forgotten in his native Kashmir today, while his writings are prescribed study material for scholars in Iran – where some learned scholars regard him as a greater poet in Persian than even Allama Iqbal<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn the sixties a library\/reading room was established at his birth place in Rajouri Kadal – and later a sports stadium was developed nearby – but the fall into decay of this reading room and stadium illustrates our apathy towards the great poet.<\/p>\n
This is how we treat our heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally, a world class effort by a resident Kashmiri author. The Captured Gazelle is a highly accomplished translation of the Persian poetry of Ghani Kashmiri published by Penguin Classics. The transliterated passages are like manna for someone like myself – tantalised by, yet unable to read Persian – and thus ignorant of the full genius […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-kashmir","category-poetry","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":497,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n