Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir is widely regarded as the most accomplished poet in the Urdu language. Selected Ghazals and Other Poems offers a comprehensive collection of ghazals and masnavis. The Urdu text, presented here in the Nastaliq script, accompanies new translations of Mir's poems, some appearing in English for the first time.

The finest ghazals of Mir Taqi Mir, the most accomplished of Urdu poets. The prolific Mir Taqi Mir (1723–1810), widely regarded as the most accomplished poet in Urdu, composed his ghazals—a poetic form of rhyming couplets—in a distinctive Indian style arising from the Persian ghazal tradition. Here, the lover and beloved live in a world of extremes: the outsider is the hero, prosperity is poverty, and death would be preferable to the indifference of the beloved. Ghazals offers a comprehensive collection of Mir’s finest work, translated by a renowned expert on Urdu poetry.

Zikr-i Mir is a rare, autobiographical narrative in Persian and its author, Mir Muhammad Taqi 'Mir', is one of the finest ghazal poets in Urdu.

A star-studded anthology infuses English poetry with the rigor and wit of a foreign form. In recent years, the ghazal (pronounced "ghuzzle"), a traditional Arabic form of poetry, has become popular among contemporary English language poets. But like the haiku before it, the ghazal has been widely misunderstood and thus most English ghazals have been far from the mark in both letter and spirit. This anthology brings together ghazals by a rich gathering of 107 poets including Diane Ackerman, John Hollander, W. S. Merwin, William Matthews, Paul Muldoon, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and many others. As this dazzling collection shows, the intricate and self-reflexive ghazal brings the writer a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Agha Shahid Ali's lively introduction gives a brief history of the ghazal and instructions on how to compose one in English. An elegant afterword by Sarah Suleri Goodyear elucidates the larger issues of cultural translation and authenticity inherent in writing in a "borrowed" form.

As an Iranian American poet, Roger Sedarat fuses Western and Eastern traditions to reinvent the classical Persian form of the ghazal. For its humor as well as its spirituality, the poems in this collection can perhaps best be described as “Wallace Stevens meets Rumi.” Perhaps most striking is the poet’s use of the ancient ghazal form in the tradition of the classical masters like Hafez and Rumi to politically challenge the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continual crackdown on protesters. Not since the late Agha Shahid Ali has a poet translated the letter as well as the spirit of this form into English, using musicality and inventive rhyme to extend the reach of the ghazal in a new language and tradition.

THE BOOK OF MIR Selected Poems of Mir Taqi Mir Translation and Introduction Paul Smith Mir Taqi Mir (1723 - 1810) was the leading Urdu poet of the eighteenth century and one of the pioneers of Urdu. He was one of the principal poets of the Delhi school of the Urdu ghazal. He was born in Agra and left for Delhi after the death of his father whose emphasis on the importance of love and the value of compassion remained with him, imbuing his poetry. At Delhi he finished his education and joined a group of nobles as a court-poet. At 17 he had a mental break-down and suffered from bouts of madness all his life. After the sack of Delhi he eventually moved to the court in Lucknow where he stayed for the remainder of his life. Like many Urdu poets Mir's literary reputation is from his ghazals. After moving to Lucknow his daughter died, then his son and wife. This, with other earlier setbacks, lends a strong pathos and melancholy to much of his writing. Like Obeyd Zakani and others before him Mir practiced the Malamati or 'Blameworthy' aspect of Sufism. He was a prolific poet, his complete works or Kulliyat consisting of 6 Divans, containing 13,585 couplets comprising all kinds of poetic forms: ghazals, masnavis, qit'as, ruba'is, etc He also composed in Persian a Divan, a unique autobiography and a book on Urdu Poets and a book of spiritual advice for his son. This is the largest selection in English of most forms of his poetry with correct form and meaning kept, published for the first time. Introduction: Mir's Life & Times & Poetry, Selected Bibliography, On the Various Poetic Forms Mir used. Large Format Paperback... 7" x 10" 214 pages COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. " Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "I was very impressed with the beauty of these books." Dr. R.K. Barz. Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Lalla Ded, Mahsati, Iqbal, Baba Farid and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, children's books, biographies and a dozen screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com