Urdu Poetry for Beginners
Red Diamond
I was wondering if some kind souls in this newsgroup could point me in
the right direction. I want to learn about Urdu poetry and its history
(and hopefully I will pick up a little bit of the language too)...
Does your group have a FAQ online? What are the best resources for a
complete beginner? What have the phases of Urdu poetry been over the
centuries? What stylistic and linguistic changes have taken place?
I am very keen to learn!
Warmest thanks in anticipation,
Red Diamond
Sarwar Alam Raz
dosto: aadaab!
:Red Diamond: kaa yeh Khat iss kaa taqaaza kar rahaa hai k
asHaab.e.ilm in ko javaab deN aur jo madad ho sake kareN. maiN ma'zoor
hooN k mere paas ko'ee ma'loomaat iss silsile kee naheeN hai. lekin
alup meiN aise log zaroor hoN ge jo madad kar sakeN. Ravindra, Rajiv,
Vasmi, Zafar saaheban?
Sarwar Raz :Sarwar:
Vasmi Abidi
Yes, there is a FAQ. The last one was posted on 10/6/02.
It's got some good links.
There are several books available in English. Search for "urdu poetry" on
amazon.com for example.
The most popular poetic form in Urdu Shairee is the "Ghazal".
look for "nikaat.e.sukhan #1" in this newsgroup's archives. That article
offers an introduction to Ghazals. post #11 in that thread is an English
translation of the original (urdu) article.
The master poet of urdu Ghazals was Ghalib (19th century Indian poet).
Translations of Ghalib's ghazal's can be found online, as well as in
books. For example, there is a book called "The Famous Ghalib" by Ralph
Russel, which has a fine selections of couplets from Ghalib in Urdu,
Hindi, plus English translations.
Three samples:
(1) havas ko hai nishaat e kaar kyaa kyaa
no ho marna to jeene ka mazaa kyaa
What urges to achieve, desire has brought us!
And but for death where would be all life's joys?
(2) Gham agarche jaaN gusal hai, pe kahaaN bacheN, ki dil hai
Gham e ishq gar na hota Gham e rozgaar hota
Grief wastes our life away, and yet - how shall we flee the heart
within us?
Had we not known the grief of love, we would have known the grief
of living
(3) zikr us parivash ka, aur phir bayaaN apnaa
ban gayaa raqeeb aaKhir tha jo raazdaaN apnaa
It was her beauty I described, and my words that described it
And he is now my rival who was once my confidant.
The english-language versions of Ghalib range from transliterations to
creative interpretations by other renowned poets. e.g. there is a
collection by Robert Bly.
definitely read Ghalib, you can't go wrong with him.
Among 20th century poets, Faiz is excellent. Fortunately, there're
English translations of Faiz's poetry available as well - books, as well
as online.
An interesting site is urdustudies.com. It's got many fine articles about
Urdu in English, and also translations of Urdu poetry.
And, of course, this newsgroup - ALUP - is a good resource to ask
questions, or post comments, or Urdu poetry.
regards,
Vasmi
Red Diamond
through the resources you have specified and try to learn something
about this beautiful topic.
Hopefully I will eventually feel that I am well versed enough to
contribute something of value to your group.
One very small remaining query - what are the special phonetic rules
employed by, for example, capital letters?
For your information, my relevant linguistic background: I speak
Gujarati fluently, and can therefore understand the gist of some of
the posts here (but I'm hopelessly lost in the detail!). I guess that
in order to enjoy Urdu poetry fully I will have to attend at least
some elementary Urdu classes...
Thanks again for your help.
Red Diamond
Vasmi Abidi
Red Diamond wrote:
> One very small remaining query - what are the special phonetic rules
> employed by, for example, capital letters?
>
The transliteration scheme used by many here is the one described in
www.urdupoetry.com/itrans.html, with small variations.
Generally capital letters denote 'hard' (or guttural) sounds. e.g
khaal (skin) vs Khayaal (thought) or Khoon (blood)
dar (door) vs Dar (fear).
Vasmi
UVR
>
> For your information, my relevant linguistic background: I speak
> Gujarati fluently, and can therefore understand the gist of some of
> the posts here (but I'm hopelessly lost in the detail!). I guess that
> in order to enjoy Urdu poetry fully I will have to attend at least
> some elementary Urdu classes...
Attending elementary Urdu classes is a great idea. Depending on
where you are physically located, you may find such courses being
offered by the community college or university that serves your
place of residence. Infact, (if you are in the US and are not
averse to divulging your physical location), someone on this news-
group may be able to suggest avenues for relevant courses in your
state or metropolitan area. For instance, *I* could suggest places
in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can learn to read/write
Urdu.
Note, however, that taking such Urdu classes is *neither* necessary
*nor* sufficient to understand or appreciate Urdu poetry. Urdu
poetry is unique in that respect -- it is available to readers in
a variety of scripts, including the Urdu-Persian script, Devanagari
(Hindi/Marathi script) and even Roman (English) script. All you
need, therefore, feed your initial taste for Urdu poetry is
(a) interest in Urdu poetry, which you already have :-)
(b) an aptitude for unravelling similes, metaphors and other such
poetic devices, which BTW you would need for appreciating ANY
poetry, even Shakespeare :-P
So ... what I'm saying is, *definitely* learn elementary Urdu, but
don't learn it because it will help you appreciate Urdu poetry.
-UVR.
Red Diamond
> where you are physically located, you may find such courses being
> offered by the community college or university that serves your
> place of residence. Infact, (if you are in the US and are not
> averse to divulging your physical location), someone on this news-
> group may be able to suggest avenues for relevant courses in your
> state or metropolitan area. For instance, *I* could suggest places
> in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can learn to read/write
> Urdu.
Unfortunately I'm not in the US - I am a third year mathematics
student at the University of Cambridge, UK. When at home I am based in
South London. Are there any Londoners on this group who might be able
to help? I am sure that there will be a plethora of available courses
around.
I guess that the first thing for me to do is to learn the basic
grammatical structure, and some elementary vocab - I will try to
concentrate only on "spoken" Urdu for the time being - perhaps reading
and writing will come later when I have more time and background
knowledge.
Thanks again to everyone on this group for your kind help.
Red Diamond
shahid...@gmail.com
vijaydee...@gmail.com
Frances Pritchett's 'Nets of Awarness' is an eminently readable book.
Though it is a passionate defense of the Urdu poetical tradition, it dwells extensively on how Urdu poetry works and it's various developments. Written for a non expert, it is one of the best thing you can get your hands on with respect to the later part of your post.
You may view a preview here
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=prPcmeY7SS8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
An excellent resource for reading Urdu poetry online is the Delhi based website- https://rekhta.org
You can read poetry here in roman transliteration, and word meaning appear below the words by simply clicking on them.
I believe they source the meanings from Platts,which is perhaps the most highly regarded Urdu to English dictionary.
Best Wishes
Vijay
P.S I think you might find rektha's Beginners section and t20 series particularly https://rekhta.org/.
