The Homeland's an Ocean

‘Like the whirlpool still centre of a giddy circlingthe homeland’s an ocean that scatters us in all directions.’Mir Taqi Mir (1723–1810)Mir one of the greatest Urdu poets lived through extraordinarily turbulent times in a Delhi besieged by marauders and in exile elsewhere in North India. By the time he died aged eighty-seven he had witnessed a long era of violence and chaos. Yet through it all he crafted the most exquisite poetry shaping the Urdu language from the resources of Khari Boli Persian and Brajbhasha. A thoughtful selection of 150 of his asha’ar or couplets by Ranjit Hoskote The Homeland’s an Ocean reveals a far more political Mir than we know a many-sided poet of melancholia irreverent humour love and audacious social vision. Hoskote’s fresh contemporary translation brings Mir’s poetry back to a world that needs such a passionately urgent voice. Framed by the translator’s substantial introduction to Mir’s life and his literary linguistic and political contexts this book invites readers to look through a unique eighteenth-century lens at our current crises of homeland identity and belonging.