An introduction to Ghazal.

Before we go any further, let me say that I’m not an "expert" on Ghazal, as it happens I have a well cultivated distrust of experts in any field, self-appointed or otherwise. Eastern, as in anything from Turkey to Japan, verse of all types has been with me as long as I can remember, and through good fortune I’ve been able to live in many of the lands where they are as natural as breathing, not
something that is considered to be "literary" or above the comprehension and consequent enjoyment of everyone - albeit each country has its commonly acknowledged masters, and the vast majority of people who live in them know and cherish their works.

There are very few books about ghazal in English. What I hope to do is give you some idea of them, what some people have said about them, and remain as impartial as it’s possible for me to be. If I can stimulate your interest in them sufficiently for you to want to explore them further, and try writing them for yourself, then I’ll be happy and have achieved what I set out to do in this
brief introduction.

The quotations I have taken from others’ works are copyright by them, and you must leave the accreditation I have made to them in the body of the text if you copy these notes.

Good luck,

Neil

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The Ghazal

(pronounced "guzzle", though to be strictly correct it has a deep glotal "ghhh" found that is found in arabic languages.)

Qasida are a mono-rhymed lyric poems that evolved from the oral tradition of the Bedu, andaround the 8th and 9th centuries AD became established in the court poetry of Persia. From there they spread to other middle eastern countries, being written and translated into Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and Pushtu. They were long poems often exceding a hundred lines. Today Qasida are rare, and not often written.

From Qasida came Ghazal .. a shortened form, which gained formal constraints over the first couple of centuries of their growth in popularity in Persia and spread to other middle eastern cultures. From Muslims in India (who speak Urdu - an arabic based tongue) the Ghazal spread into Hindi (yep, you guessed, the main language of Hindu's in India) where they have even become incorporated into modern pop=songs and popular culture.

When they first evolved, Ghazal were poems that celebrated mystic love and wine, as did most poetry of that time. In the Persian (and arabic) tradition the device of using physical love and wine as symbols on the spiritual way is self evident: unfortunately, without that background, western culture with its everyday preoccupations of lust and alcohol has mostly misinterpreted the content
and intent of most Persian and Arabic poetry.

Some of the superb persian mystic poets who wrote Ghazal are Sa'di, Hafiz, and Rumi. It is reputed that the sonnet developed from the six couplet Ghazal which had been brought by the Moors into Spain.

Today, In their pure form Ghazal are mystic poems, keys to understanding and spirituality: though there are many variants now that concern themselves with other subjects - whether these will survive into the future only time will tell.

The form has now moved into English and other European languages, with the inevitable difficulties and arguments about what they are, or should be. A similar process to that which has and still does muddy the transliteration of Japanese poetic forms into European languages.


Let's look at the commonly agreed basics of the Ghazal in the West:

They are written in couplets, with lines of equal length (though there is no set length for them). There are rhyme schemes in the pure form of them, some simple, some more complex, and these I will outline later in this introduction to them.

Each couplet is a poem in itself without any obvious progression in theme, narrative, or "logic" between them, BUT there *is* a connection at the subliminal level, associations that occur in the mind and spirit.

(There is a similarity in the thought processes used in Ghazal and Japanese Renga: a process of leaps in subject matter, person, place and circumstance, between each couplet or "link".)

Each Ghazal has about five or six couplets.

As Thompson, a Canadian who has taken to Ghazal, said:"the poem has no palpable intention upon us. It breaks, has to be listened to as a song: its order is clandestine"

" The form itself is elusive, like trying to hammer down Zen with three inch spikes. "

" The trick, in my estimation, is to let each couplet stand as an object, perfected and twisted to itsown individual end... and then see what calls to it. What voice in the lonely night would answer such an image? What can you make from a piece of driftwood found on a deserted lake?
Let go. "

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For those of you who are interested: let's look at what is considered to be the essentials of aclassical Ghazal in the East <s>, and for this it's helpfull to know a few terms and definitions used in Persian and Arabic:

A Sher: is a poem of two lines, complete in itself. The line length is variable, but *not* inside any particular ghazal! (Hence, a ghazal is a collection of several Sher).

Beher : is the line length or measure of the Sher. BOTH lines in the Sher MUST be the same measure. In the classical tradition of Ghazal there are some 19 measures, but for most purposes we can stay with three simple definitions:

a) Short - about 10 syllables
b) Medium - about 14 syllables
c) Long - about 21/24 syllables


The Radif : is the refrain of the *identical* word or words used at the end of the second line of each Sher. In the east many well loved Ghazals are remembered by their refrain or Radif.

Qafia (or Kaafiyaa) : is a term used for the mid-line rhymes of the first Sher, and the carry over of this rhyme into the middle of each second line in the subsequent 4 Sher.

The Matla : is the first Sher in a Ghazal, and MUST have Radif in both its lines.  They contain the "key" to insights of the poem, and some Ghazal have more than one .. and they have names too, but that is for those of you who want to go into that aspect of them to find out for yourselves <s>

Maqta : a "pen-name" of the author. Since Arabic is a language that revels in puns and allusions, Maqta have been used to superb effect in some Sher's, and in particular in the Matla.

Put all that together and you arrive at the classical definition of Ghazal : a collection of Sher's (most often between 4 and six), which has at least one Matla, and a Maqta - all the Sher have the same Beher, Qafia and Radif. The *end-rhyme* scheme is as follows : aa ba ba ba ba.

Ghazals are not "titled" - they are remembered or refered to by either the Matla or the Radif.

As is often said, few commandments are set in stone <g>, and here are a few exceptions to the "rules" which have been used in the past:

In modern Urdu poetry, Ghazals of often written with different Beher in each of the two lines of the Sher. However, they do follow the rules of Radif and Kaafiyaa.

Some Ghazals don't have Radif, though this is very rare. They have a name : "gair-muraddaf" Ghazal.

Most modern Ghazal do not have Maqta - it's commonly supposed that the use of
Maqta was mainly in the oral tradition where there is no provision for a copyright notice from the author <s>.

There have been Ghazals written in which all the Sher are related in "theme" - but each Sher still stands alone as a poem in itself.

Ghazals have been written that are not strictly to do with mystical love, and have shifted to other themes - though most often lyrical, and mystical in intent.


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Are we mind boggled? <g> I have no intention of adding to the barrage of commentaries about what is or is not a Ghazal in english, and from what I have summarised above you can make up your own mind about what suits you best. Perhaps the best that can be said is that if we diverge seriously from the classicaly recognised Ghazal we should also invent a new name for them.

There is already an overlap of form and function between Renga (there are now "short forms" in use of 12 and 20 links) and Ghazal that are being written in English and other European languages - what are we going to retain from them to keep the two forms separate, is it necessary that we do, or will they eventually become one, who knows?

In the fullness of time I hope we will have some Ghazal of varying constructions available for you to read in TCU. If you have written any why not upload them for us all to read?


Neil