Hamid Olimjon’s “G‘azal”
According to the textbook, Hamid Olimjon’s poetry drank from the creative spring of the Uzbek classical writers; his “G‘azal” proves this. This love ghazal is dedicated to praise of the beloved: the lover wants to reach his beloved and win her attention. He dreams of being a beauty mark on her cheek, a drop of honey on her lip, a nightingale on her branch, the wind that opens the bud at dawn; he imagines her fragrance intoxicating the world; if he cannot be a flower in her garden, he is ready to be a wall of her palace. He is ready for blame and slander and the jealousy of rivals. In the last couplet he says that, wandering deserts and valleys to reach union, he will not shrink from giving his life on her path – just like the lovers of classical literature. In Eastern literature the ghazal is written in a particular metre of aruz: this ghazal is in hazaj musammani solim, that is, the foot “mafoiylun” is repeated four times in each line (V – – –). The textbook says that Hamid Olimjon’s poems in general stand out for their own style and many poetic devices.
In pairs, write a one-sentence meaning for each couplet of the ghazal, then pick out the lover’s 3 wishes.