To make the poetry of Mirza Ghalib accessible and understandable to those unversed in Urdu, former Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung has translated a collection of the 18th century poet’s work into English in a new book.

Published by Rekhta Books, ”Deewaan-e-Ghalib : Sariir-e-Khaama” was released on Friday evening here.

Jung said that it was his dream for 50 years to bring Ghalib’s work before an audience ”who have yearned to know him more”.

”It was a dream to bring the works of the master before an audience that heard his ghazals, loved the rhythm, but did not get the full import of the beauty, the mysticism, the richness, the iconoclasm of his work because of limitations in vocabulary,” Jung said.

The book has 235 ghazals and over 1,000 couplets by the legendary Urdu and Persian poet.

Sanjiv Saraf, founder-Rekhta Foundation, congratulated Jung for ”his passion for literature, his emotional depth and aesthetic sensibilities”.

He added that all the proceeds from the book will be donated to the Rekhta Foundation ”to support the mission of preservation and promotion of literature and language”. The launch event was also attended by poet and culture activist Ashok Vajpeyi, poet and author Khalid Mahmood, former MP and author Pavan K Varma, actor Kunal Nayyar, and dastango Mahmood Faaroqui.

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