Starting in the 1990s, Agha Shahid Ali began to insist on the formal restraints of what he called the “real” ghazal. The formal aspects of the ghazal were well known in English by the 1920s, however, with the free verse translations of ghazals in the 1960s, most Western writers thought of the ghazal as a way to describe a series of disconnected couplets. It remains popular as a sung form in parts of the world where the distinction between poetry (words for the spoken voice) and song lyrics (words for the sung voice, with specific melody) is not so distinct. The form has roots in Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, and Hebrew. The word ‘ghazal’ is pronounced “guzzle” in some languages and “gu-ZAHL” in others, though in both with a guttural “g” almost like the “ch” in “Bach.” Supposedly, the name comes from the sound a wounded gazelle makes as it dies. The ghazal is the oldest poetic form still in use.
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