translating Ghalib
[Inside the heart, love carps it lacks space.]
[One life, a thousand wishes, each to die for slowly.]
[You stopped just short of the highest note.]
[What will my friends do when all their gambits fail?]
M. Shahid Alam’s poems and translations of Ghalib have appeared in Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Southern Review, and Salamander. Alam has been teaching economics at Northeastern University since 1988.
Photo by Noor Alam