The Essential Mir
Description
jaane kaa nahii.n shor suKHan kaa mire hargiz
taa hashr jahaa.n mei.n miraa diivaan rahegaa
(The roar of my verses will never fade out, never
My diivaan will stay till the doomsday to savour)
One of the main poets of the Delhi School of Ghazal, who was instrumental in shaping the Urdu language, Mir Taqi Mir lived a life of misty luminosities and subdued radiances. While the man himself is a myth - even his autobiography conceals more than it reveals - his legacy has survived for over three centuries, in a style he founded and a world view he propounded.
This one-of-a-kind collection presents two hundred of Mir's best verses, meticulously selected and translated by the author, along with critical commentary to help modern readers appreciate the context. The couplets assert humanity as Mir's first principle, man as his primary concern and poetry as his foundational creed. With an introduction that tells us little-known details about the poet's life, The Essential Mir will cajole, persuade, impart pleasure and offer company to both general and informed readers.
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Anisur Rahman is a bilingual poet in English and Urdu, translator and literary critic. Formerly a Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi, and Senior Advisor at Rekhta Foundation, the world's largest website on Urdu language, literature, and culture, he has worked and published in the areas of comparative, translation, postcolonial, and Urdu studies. He has to his credit six books authored by him, five edited/co-edited volumes, and two collections of Urdu poetry in English translation. His most recent publications include Earthenware: Sixty Poems (Rubric Publishing, 2018), In Translation: Positions and Paradigms (Orient Blackswan, 2019), Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi: The Wonderful World of Urdu Ghazals (HarperCollins, 2019) and Socioliterary Cultures in South Asia (Niyogi Books, 2019). Rahman has been a Shastri Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2002) and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA (2007).
