Reading Notes W9: Poetry by Ghalib, Part B

Now go and live in a place

In this poem the speaker tells someone to live in a place where no on lives. In this place where no one is, there will be no one to understand their words. They can freely build a home without a wall guarding it since there would be no neighbors around to potentially vandalize their property. If they become sick, no one would be around to take care of them. If they die, no one would be there to mourn their death. To me, this poem sounds like someone giving someone else an ultimatum. It sounds like they've reached their breaking point and are threatening to separate from this person. It's as though the speaker felt unappreciated by the person they're speaking to and admitted that there are perks to being alone, but at the end of the day that person would just die alone. To relate this to Ghalib's life, this poem might be an expression of his doubts and regrets. After the death of his wife, he might have thought life would have been easier if he had just never fallen in love. His wife would have been a stranger and her death would have meant nothing to him, saving him from all of his grief.

Be merciful and send for me

Ghalib wants to be the one to marry the woman he fell in love with. He says that she can see him at any time. He's aware that there's competition to be with her. According to the note at the bottom of the page, she might be a courtesan, which would explain the idea that she might have other suitors. He questions why he bothers complaining about the thought of someone else being with her instead of himself. He refuses to act so weak and doesn't believe that all hope is lost. He tells himself that he can't just give up on her because he's made a vow that the two of them will be together again.

Where's the foothold

This poem took me two reads to come up with something. The speaker asks their God where their other desires are. This individual is aware of the endless possibilities that the world contains, yet they haven't found anything as desirable as the thing they wanted first. Everything else that they want stems from the first thing that they wanted. I believe that this speaker is in love with someone and can't get over them. They know there are countless other people they can fall in love with, but every time they look at someone else they end up thinking about their first love. They wish their God would just grant them the ability to move on and find someone else. To place this poem into the context of Ghalib's life, he can't move on after the death of his wife. He cries to God about the fact that no other woman can replace his late wife.

I've made my home next door to you (Secular and Sacred versions)

I approached this poem in a way that made me laugh. I was frantically going back and forth between the secular version of the poem and the sacred version trying to notice the differences in each and every line of the poem. I read both poems simultaneously as opposed to one after the other. The difference in both poems is who Ghalib is addressing. He speaks the exact same words in both poems and they work equally effective when referring to his wife and God. "I've work to do with her" as opposed to "I've work to do with Him" are examples of the slight differences in both versions (593). In this poem, Ghalib seems to be reflecting on the earlier days of his life when he first met the love of his life. He builts his home next to her/Him in hopes that they'd be able to start making conversation that way and get to know each other but she never seemed to notice him. His lover and God both ask him how he can tell what's in someone else's heart. He know he has work to do with her lover and with God, but he is determined. He says that both his lover and God are both labelled as tormentors by the world. He won't lose his love for the woman he loves nor for God despite all of this. He tells himself that he shouldn't press the subject since his feeling have become apparent both in the eyes of his lover and God.

Couplets

Ghalib is told that forcing his love upon someone doesn't accomplish anything since it won't simply spread like fire and it won't easily die out either. He can't make someone fall in love with, and his love won't simply go away either should he decide he wants to love someone else. He expresses his hopes that the courtesan he loves can be faithful to him even though, as a courtesan, she might not understand what faithfulness really is. He questions God as to why punishments are given for sins committed, yet people are not rewarded for the sins that they've craved but successfully resisted. He admits to God that his situation isn't necessarily love, but madness. He tells God that God is the one who drove him mad. He tells God about how communities have already converged upon a common faith, making his efforts to share his monotheistic message useless. He says it's hard to make everything look easy and it's not easy for humans to be human. He acknowledges other poets' talent, but claims that he's seen as a talented poet as well. He has doubts about his lover, he feels like she's sleeping with someone else and it's haunting his dreams. He says he's gotten over love countless times, but his heart is an enemy of this idea and it ultimately keeps bringing him back in. Remembering images of what she looks like is painful to him. He asks God about how he can feel so strongly about another human if God is supposed to be the only thing that truly exists. Ghalib says everyone felt he would self-destruct, but he never did.


Ghalib. The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. E, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 587-601