THE ART OF TRANSLATION

It is a pity that many people will have to appreciate Ghalib only in translation. All lovers of
poetry will sympathize with Robert Frost who said that ‘poetry is what is lost in translation’. The
French say that translation is treason. The Japanese go further and say a translation is like the
underside of a carpet – the threads are all there, but the exquisite beauty of the design is
absent. Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu poetry form an organic continuum and there are
metaphors, allusions, conceits and tropes that are common to poetry in these languages. It
would require too much elucidation and effort to explain the depths and heights of Ghalib’s
poetry. Hence, I shall offer just a few simple samples from Ghalib rendered into English.