Motif of paper garment in Ghalib’s and his predecessors’ verses

Abstract

The article deals with matla‘ (first she‘r – two-line couplet – in a ghazal) of the first ghazal in the Divan by Mirza Asadulla-khan Ghalib (1792–1869) written in Urdu. One of the items usually commented there is the garment made of paper (kāġhażī peirahan). It used to be worn in ancient times by the complainers who appealed to the ruler. The range of complaints in the poetry of Ghalib as well as by other Urdu and Persian poets was wide, however, stable. “Wearing paper clothes”, the petitioner complained about the Almighty, the ill fate, a cruel girl, a lack of understanding of the petitioner’s poetry and the poor remuneration, and finally, about the poet himself, who “dressed” his poems in the paper. Тhese diverse situations form the elements of the literary motif as well as its context and are common in the Persian verses by the predecessors of Ghalib and also himself. Its analysis helps to understand all levels of meaning inherent in one of the most difficult-to-interpret texts by Ghalib.