‘Like the whirlpool, still centre of a giddy circling,
the 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.
About the Author
Ranjit Hoskote is an acclaimed poet, translator, cultural theorist and curator. He is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Jonahwhale (2018), Hunchprose (2021) and Icelight (2023). His translation of a fourteenth-century Kashmiri woman mystic’s poetry, I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded (2011), was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award. Hoskote has received, among other honours, the S.H. Raza Award for Literature and the JLF-Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry. He serves on the editorial board of the Murty Classical Library of India, which is published by the Harvard University Press.
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