Some
general background on Mir [mīr
muḥammad taqī mīr] and his life: Ralph
Russell and Khurshidul Islam. Three
Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan. Chapter
6: 'Mir: the Man and his Age': [on this site]
A kind
of memoir by Mir: Zikr-i Mir: The
Autobiography of the Eighteenth Century Mughal Poet.
Translated and introduced by C. M. Naim. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1999. Available through the Hathi Trust.
An
example of *Mir's own handwriting*, as he
transcribes some verses. Source: ;hadii;s-e miir
, compiled and edited by maqbuul a;hmad laarii
(Lucknow: All-India Mir Academy, 1967), p. 295.
Mir
lived from 1723 to 1810. He left us six divans of Urdu
ghazals (as dated by SRF, Murty preface, 2017):
ONE:
The first (and largest) divan (663 ghazals) was
compiled and .
TWO:
The second divan (390 ghazals) was compiled and
edited around 1775/6; see {336,2}.
THREE:
The third divan (256 ghazals) was compiled and
edited in Lucknow between 1785 and 1798.
FOUR:
The fourth divan (221 ghazals) was compiled and
edited in Lucknow between 1785 and 1798.
FIVE:
The fifth divan (249 ghazals) was compiled and
edited in Lucknow from 1798 to 1803; see {1577,4}.
SIX:
The sixth divan (132 ghazals) was edited in last two
years of his life, 1809-1810; see {452,2}.
Some textual problems
and misunderstandings that have confronted his
editors: {6,2},
famous line misquoted; {12,2}, famous line
misquoted; {24,2};
{60}, problems
with h in alphabetization; {71,1}; {84}, problems with
h in alphabetization; {120,2},
interpretive concerns generate guesses; {124,2}, mire vs. tire
; {256,1}, famous
verse wrongly attributed to Mir; {290,10}, on ḳhvāb-lā ; {371,1}, on the fardiyāt ; {484,1}, a
defective(?) text; {501,1},
two ghazals, not one; {601,7},
an incorrect 'verse-set'; {602,10-11}, a
mistaken verse-set?; {605,1},
famous line misquoted; {617,1}, lines in
reversed order; {696,5},
yahīñ for yūñ
hī ; {698,11},
sar-e tez vs. sar-e
tīr ; {711},
problems with h in
alphabetization; {745,4},
ḳhūñ for ḳhve
; {757,1},
virtually same ghazal appears in two divans; {877,1}, dhañsaknā ; {885,1}, gender of halāk ; {909,4}, se vs. sī
; [{930,9}], a
wrong word is famous; {949,8},
the problem of raqʿah-vāreñ
; {1015,1}, famous
verse wrongly attributed to Mir; {1037,3}, pardah vs. parrah
; {1047,10},
wrongly reading mautâ as motī ; {1139,7}, jo kī or jogī
; {1177,7}, a
small defect in scansion?; {1200,1}, bāġh-o-ṣaḥrah ; {1201,6}, jhakkaṛ as
jhagṛā ; [{1223,3},
uljhe suljhe ]; {1256,5}, ġhārat vs. ʿimārat
; {1320,2}, famous
verse wrongly attributed to Mir; {1327,5}, chalā jātā thā versus other
possibilities; {1341,5}, sarvād or sarvāh
; {1480,3}, nā-paidā vs. nah
paidā ; {1502,2},
qarār gayā vs. qarār kiyā ; {1624,2},
a textual uncertainty; {1726,3}, sail vs. pīl
; {1768,3}, pahuñche vs. pahuñcheñ
; {1781,1}, apne vs. apnī
; {1791,3}, kih vs. kam
; {1903,8}, fitnah vs. fitne
Apocryphal verses
wrongly attributed to Mir: {256,1}*; {1015,1}**
Mir's
references in ghazal verses to other poets: {84,4}
On Mir's Persian
poetry: {1504,5}
Was Mir a Sayyid? See
{330,7}
Mir's religious
feelings: {344,5}
Mir has a set of
remarkable-- and remarkably fine-- ghazals with the refrain ʿishq
How do we recognize a
'verse-set'? On this question see: {309,15}; {602,11}.
Mir's longest ghazal:
{804}, with 32 verses; also pretty long is {377}, with
24 verses
A ghazal in a
remarkably short meter with remarkably long rhyming
elements: {381}
on aah vs. vaah: {48,7}
