Ardour: Poems from the Daud

Matthew Rana

Ardour is a dialogue with Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s (c.1797–1869) Urdu Divan. Addressing a beloved in whose name it is also inscribed, Ardour is a cry of intimacy and separation resonant with the affective intensities of form. It is the latest instalment of Rana’s serial poem ‘The Daud’, an inquiry into Urdu poetry and the ghazal, ongoing since 2003.