Ghazal
The Ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A Ghazal traditionally deals with just one subject: love,
specifically an illicit and unattainable love.
It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation, and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century Arabic verse. The Ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover whose beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often either the beloved does not return the poet's love or returns it without sincerity, or else the societal circumstances do not allow it.
A traditional Ghazal consists of five to fifteen couplets, typically seven. (For this contest 20 lines are required, 10 couplets) A refrain (a repeated word or phrase) appears at the end of both lines of the first couplet and at the end of the second line in each succeeding couplet. In addition, one or more words before the refrain are rhymes or partial rhymes.
The lines should be of approximately the same length and meter. There is no enjambment between couplets. The poet may use the final couplet as a signature couplet, using his or her name in first, second or third person, and giving a more direct declaration of thought or feeling to the reader.
A Ghazal in English which observes the traditional restrictions of the form:
by Agha Shahid Ali
Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight?
Whom else from rapture�s road will you expel tonight?
Those �Fabrics of Cashmere--� �to make Me beautiful--�
�Trinket�-- to gem� �Me to adorn� How� tell�-- tonight?
I beg for haven: Prisons, let open your gates�
A refugee from Belief seeks a cell tonight.
God�s vintage loneliness has turned to vinegar�
All the archangels� their wings frozen� fell tonight.
Lord, cried out the idols, Don�t let us be broken
Only we can convert the infidel tonight.
Mughal ceilings, let your mirrored convexities
multiply me at once under your spell tonight.
He�s freed some fire from ice in pity for Heaven.
He�s left open� for God� the doors of Hell tonight.
In the heart�s veined temple, all statues have been smashed
No priest in saffron�s left to toll its knell tonight .
God, limit these punishments, there�s still Judgment Day�
I�m a mere sinner, I�m no infidel tonight.
Executioners near the woman at the window.
Damn you, Elijah, I�ll bless Jezebel tonight.
The hunt is over, and I hear the Call to Prayer
fade into that of the wounded gazelle tonight.
My rivals for your love� you've invited them all?
This is mere insult, this is no farewell tonight.
And I, Shahid, only am escaped to tell thee�
God sobs in my arms. Call me Ishmael tonight.