Ghalib was the pen name of Mirza Asadullah Khan (1797 – 1869 CE), who was the court poet in Delhi of the last Mughal emperor. His military family was of Turkish origin, but he wrote in Persian and in Urdu. He has been called the last of the classical Indian poets and first of the modern ones.

Let the ascetics sing of the garden of Paradise —
We who dwell in the true ecstasy can forget their vase-tamed bouquet.

In our hall of mirrors, the map of the one Face appears
As the sun’s splendor would spangle a world made of dew.

Hidden in this image is also its end,
As peasants’ lives harbor revolt and unthreshed corn sparks with fire.

Hidden in my silence are a thousand abandoned longings:
My words the darkened oil lamp on a stranger’s unspeaking grave.

Ghalib, the road of change is before you always:
The only line stitching this world’s scattered parts.

Translation Jane Hirshfield