Meer Taqi Meer, the eighteenth century Udru poet, is called the imam (leader) of Urdu poetry. He was highly regarded by his contemporaries and even the later poets, including Ghalib, acknowledged Meer’s poetic genius. Meer belonged to the Delhi school of Urdu ghazals. The greatest strength of his poetry is its simplicity and elegant style. The language he used is not intricate or grand but simple and easily understood. It is this simplicity which makes a deep impact on the readers. Meer also used Persian imagery and idiom in his poetry to enhance its beauty.

Though Meer tried his hand at various poetic forms, his fame is mainly due to his ghazals which deal with love, especially unrequited love. He has written some of the best Urdu poems on love. His masnavi Mu’amlat-e-Ishq is counted among the greatest love poems in Urdu literature. His personal life influenced the poetry he wrote and the pathos and melancholy in his poetry are due to the tragedies he suffered throughout his life.

Meer wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian. His collection of Urdu poems, Kulliat-e-Meer, has six volumes which have 13,585 couplets. Kulliat-e-Farsi is the collection of his poems in Persian language. Meer also wrote his autobiography in Persian called Zikr-e-Meer.

This book offers a selection of the best ghazals of Meer Taqi Meer, translated into English by Kuldip Salil. To help you enjoy the richness and flavor of Urdu Language, the original Urdu ghazals are transliterated and presented both in Roman and Devanagari scripts.