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Ghalib

The only surviving photograph Ghalib (circa 1860-1869)

ASADULLAH KHAN GHALIB known by his pen name, Ghalib, is the famous romantic and mystical poet of the Mughal Empire in India. He was born in Agra in 1797 in a time of political transition. His lifetime saw the rise of the British colonial empire in India and the concomitant decline of the great Mughal Empire, which had been reaved by internal dissent, succession battles, and waves of invasion from Persia, Afghanistan, and the Marathans of the south and which was finally eliminated after the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. Ghalib was the proud descendant of a Turkish military family that traced its lineage back to Tur, the son of Faridun, the legendary Persian king whose rule began with his defeat of the demon king Zahhak (as related in the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of the Kings). His poems are characterized by great wit, puns, and a mystical, erotic imagery so passionate as to veer at times into the surreal. He is the acknowledged world master of the ghazal. The ghazal form is the most important short poetic form in Arabic, Persian and Urdu poetry, as the sonnet is in English. It is characterized by an initial couplet with a rhyme-repeated phrased combination, followed by a rhyme-repetition in the second line of each succeeding couplet, and a “signature” in which the poet addresses himself in the final line of the poem.

Contributor Bios for Issue 12 Winter 2018

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Amy Sawyer, Bilal Shaw, Brian Kamsoke, Brian Satrom, C. Kubasta, Clarisse Francillon, Darren Demaree, David Bowen, David Macey, Devon Balwit, Divya Rajan, Donna Pucciani, Eric Shonkwiler, Erinn Seifert, Evan Baden, Ghalib, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Hedy Habra, Ian Haight, J. Kates, James Brunton, Jesse DeLong, Jesse Tangen-Mills, José Daniel García, Julian Cola, Karl-Heinz Ott, Kevin J.B. O'Connor, Leonard Kress, Liz Egan, M.A. Istvan Jr., Malcolm Cumming, Martial, Martyna Buliżańska, Matthew Guenette, Michelle Bailat-Jones, Mollie Boutell, Nicholas Manning, Nick Conrad, Pamela Miller, Peter Burzyński, Peter Woltemade, Robert Cowan, Robert Joe Stout, Robert Nazarene, Rush Rankin, Ruth Awad, Sergio Ballouk, Stephen Gibson, Tatiana Neshumova, Todd Osborne, Tony Barnstone

Issue 12 Winter 2018 RUTH AWAD is an award-winning Lebanese-American poet whose debut poetry collection, Set to Music a Wildfire, won the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press. She is the recipient of a 2016 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her work has appeared in New Republic, The Missouri Review Poem of the Week, Sixth […]

Filed Under: Contributor Bios Posted On: January 1, 2018

Give Me Lunacy at Least by Ghalib
(Translated from Urdu by Tony Barnstone and Bilal Shaw)

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Bilal Shaw, Ghalib, Tony Barnstone

Love, I can’t own you, but give me lunacy, at least. Let my last lunacy be your legacy, at least. Don’t cut all ties with me. Let me hate you and you hate me, at least. What shame in me being with you? If not in public, see me privately, at least. Go ahead, believe […]

Filed Under: Translation Posted On: January 1, 2018

The Tulip by Ghalib
(Translated from Urdu by Tony Barnstone and Bilal Shaw)

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Bilal Shaw, Ghalib, Tony Barnstone

In the inner workings of the tulip, a red scar burns hot. The farmer’s blood sears him; he’s relieved when lightning burns the crop. Here’s the thing: until the bud blooms it feels secure. Despite its collected heart, the flower’s dream is torn apart. I’m too weak to bear this impatient grief —a straw in […]

Filed Under: Translation Posted On: January 1, 2018

Wasteland by Ghalib
(Translated from Urdu by Tony Barnstone and Bilal Shaw)

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Bilal Shaw, Ghalib, Tony Barnstone

Again I recall her tear-glazed gaze. My heart and liver call out, thirsting for my lover. Doomsday had not yet paused for breath when I recalled the time you left. Oh, Desire, your simplicity makes me recall my lover’s witching glance. Excuse my longings, O thirsty heart. When I call out, I recall my lover. […]

Filed Under: Translation Posted On: January 1, 2018

MAYDAY Magazine: Issue 12 Winter 2018

January 1, 2018 Contributed By: Amy Sawyer, Bilal Shaw, Brian Kamsoke, Brian Satrom, C. Kubasta, Clarisse Francillon, Darren Demaree, David Bowen, David Macey, Devon Balwit, Divya Rajan, Donna Pucciani, Eric Shonkwiler, Erinn Seifert, Evan Baden, Ghalib, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Hedy Habra, Ian Haight, J. Kates, James Brunton, Jesse DeLong, Jesse Tangen-Mills, José Daniel García, Julian Cola, Karl-Heinz Ott, Kevin J.B. O'Connor, Leonard Kress, Liz Egan, M.A. Istvan Jr., Malcolm Cumming, Martial, Martyna Buliżańska, Matthew Guenette, Michelle Bailat-Jones, Mollie Boutell, Nicholas Manning, Nick Conrad, Pamela Miller, Peter Burzyński, Peter Woltemade, Robert Cowan, Robert Joe Stout, Robert Nazarene, Rush Rankin, Ruth Awad, Sergio Ballouk, Stephen Gibson, Tatiana Neshumova, Todd Osborne, Tony Barnstone

MAYDAY Magazine: Issue 12 Winter 2018

INTERVIEWS Eric Shonkwiler interviewed by David Bowen Power & Light Juan Gelacio interviewed by Robert Joe Stout Invisible on Paper ESSAYS Leonard Kress What Kind of Parent Lets a Thirteen-Year-Old Cancel Her Bat Mitzvah? Erinn Seifert Changing FICTION Mollie Boutell Intimates Malcolm Cumming Mere Anarchy Liz Egan Sgt. Lawson Brian Kamsoke Useful Things POETRY Ruth […]

Filed Under: Issues Posted On: January 1, 2018

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