Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English

by Agha Shahid Ali (Editor), Sarah Suleri Goodyear

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.

Genres: Poetry, Art, Anthologies

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Agha Shahid Ali (आगा शाहीद अली) was an American poet of Kashmiri ancestry and upbringing.

His poetry collections include A Walk Through the Yellow Pages, The Half-Inch Himalayas, A Nostalgist's Map of America, The Country Without a Post Office, Rooms Are Never Finished (finalist for the National Book Award, 2001). His last book was Call Me Ishmael Tonight, a collection of English ghazals. His poems are featured in American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006) and many other anthologies.

Ali was also a translator of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (The Rebel's Silhouette; Selected Poems) and editor (Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English). He was widely credited for helping to popularize the ghazal form in America.

Ali taught at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as creative writing programs at University of Utah, Warren Wilson College and New York University. He died peacefully, in his sleep, of brain cancer in December, 2001. He was laid to rest in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent guide to Ghazals, and way to understand the difficulty of capturing this form in English.
It is not "just" couplets with a repeated ending, a mid-line rhyme -- a necklace of disparate pearls held together by a common thread, but a way to speak to universal truths, ending with a reference to the author.

[Zuhair]

Got this to help with lyric-writing. An anthology of ghazals--sometimes as delineated by Agha Shahid Ali in the introduction--written in English. A ghazal is made up of autonomous couplets each complete in themselves, often evoking a mood 'melancholic and amorous.' Ali's introduction about the art form is informative, passionate and reflexive. I particularly appreciated the mention of the participatory element of ghazal performance and song which often invokes in the audience 'Vaah-Vaah-ing and Subhan-Allah-ing.' The ghazals that follow the introduction will resonate to readers to various degrees.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is interesting in that it shows you how much can be done with the ghazal. Some of the poems are very good, but some, for me, show up the weaknesses a ghazal is prone to, mostly in being forced.
There are a number of ghazals from William Matthews whereas two would have been enough. He's a terrific poet but here he became tedious.
If you're interested in writing ghazals, this is great to have since it shows what works and what doesn't.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only the best resource and anthology on this Urdu poetic form, it's one of the very few. The late Agha Shahid Ali worked to bring this form into the English Language and American poetry. Plus, he's also working to correct misconceptions about the form that have lingered since the 1960s/70s.

[Benjamin Kass · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like ghazals. I don't like quite a few of these. Some of them wore me down so that I couldn't turn to the next page.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole, this is a cool anthology. Several poets here interpret the ghazal liberally, creating a poem that more mimics a formal structure of repetition than a poem that employs repetition as a form of meditation. In this interpretation these poems invest in a narrative alien to the ghazal in its native context. I point this out not to say it is a bad thing. It is entertaining to see in a single anthology of contemporary poetry the changes, trends, modulations, and developments of a form for all intents and purposes new to English. Here, this form untangles and coalesces instantly; whereas, these changes and modulations that ultimately develop in any form normally play out over subsequent generations of poets.

[slp · Rating 3 out of 5]

although I agree with Ali's introductory claims that American & English-language poets have "gotten it wrong", I disagree with his avenue toward getting it right——we should absolutely be more aware of the formal restraints of the ghazal, but I think we should be more familiar with the history, brilliant examples, performative context, and spirit of the ghazal. we just should be, in general. then, maybe, we can consider writing some of our own, and resisting/expanding the form.

the poetry in the anthology is inconsistent, with a few bright examples and many poems that seem to labor against formal restraints they don't understand the purposes of. a useful read, if not always inspiring.

[Qiana]

I've just reread/explored this book. I like it less than my initial contact with the book only because the contents contradict the title. But I really love the ghazal form and I adore Shahid Ali. Therefore, I'm willing to push on...

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these are really great and some of them are not, and some of them (despite the subtitle) like to play with the form. An interesting read, though.

[Amethyst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I'd read the whole thing... Still, an enlightening read.