This is my first Ghazal. They are meant to be an Ode or Love Poem with Middle Eastern origins.

Rumi (1207 - 1273) has been so widely translated that he is actually, based on widespread popularity, the most read/recited poet in the United States, according to poet, Coleman Barks, who has dedicated decades translating Rumi's work, as well as deriving works of his own poetry based on Rumi's influence.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.

The Bear refers to Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and Polaris is the North Star.

A Ghazal is a poem that is made up like an odd numbered chain of couplets, where each couplet is an independent poem. It should be natural to put a comma at the end of the first line. The Ghazal has a refrain of one to three words that repeat, and an inline rhyme that precedes the refrain. Lines 1 and 2, then every second line, has this refrain and inline rhyme, and the last couplet should refer to the author's pen-name... The rhyming scheme is AA bA cA dA eA etc. (Shadowpoetry.com)
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I've only seen one other Ghazal poem on FanStory, and ironically, it seems that Sandra and I were working on them simultaneously, as hers is posted in the NaPoWriMo challenge today. You'll find hers here, along with notes on the style:

Be Patient With Your Partner by Sandra du Plessis
http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=803278
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(An excerpt from Poets.org)

Traditionally invoking melancholy, love, longing, and metaphysical questions, ghazals are often sung by Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani musicians. The form has roots in seventh-century Arabia, and gained prominence in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century thanks to such Persian poets as Rumi and Hafiz. In the eighteenth-century, the ghazal was used by poets writing in Urdu, a mix of the medieval languages of Northern India, including Persian. Among these poets, Ghalib is the recognized master.

Other languages that adopted the ghazal include Hindi, Pashto, Turkish, and Hebrew. The German poet and philosopher Goethe experimented with the form, as did the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca.

Indian musicians such as Ravi Shankar and Begum Akhtar popularized the ghazal in the English-speaking world during the 1960s. However, it was the poet Agha Shahid Ali who introduced it, in its classical form, to Americans. Ali compared each ghazal couplet to "a stone from a necklace," which should continue to "shine in that vivid isolation." Ali's ghazal "Even the Rain" is excerpted here:

What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?
But he has bought grief's lottery, bought even the rain.

"our glosses / wanting in this world - "Can you remember?"
Anyone! when we thought / the poets taught - even the
rain?

After we died -That was it! God left us in the dark.
And as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.

Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.
For mixers, my love, you'd poured - what? even the rain.
Numerous scholars and poets have attempted to translate ghazals from their original language to English. The task is daunting, as keeping the literal meaning of each poem while respecting the rhyme, refrain, and length of lines is difficult, if not impossible. Aijaz Ahmad's Ghazals of Ghalib; Versions from the Urdu, provides a fascinating look at how various poets, including Adrienne Rich, William Stafford, William Hunt, David Ray, and W.S. Merwin, worked with a literal translation of Ghalib's Urdu ghazals to render their own versions in English. Elizabeth T. Gray's The Green Sea of Heaven, which offers fifty ghazals by Hafiz, provides a reliable literal translation of the Persian master, at the expense of form.

Interesting Link on the origin of the Ghazal:

http://www.ghazalpage.net/prose/notes/short_history_of_the_ghazal.html


(An excerpt from Poemhunter.com)

You And I (A Ghazal Of Rumi) - Poem by Ravi Kopra

Joyous, blissful moment, sitting on the porch, you and I
two forms, two faces, yet one soul together, you and I

The groves' gift, the birds' songs give us the water of ever
lasting life, when we come to the garden together, you and I

The stars of the night sky witness us
we show them the moon together, you and I

You and I united as one in the ecstasy and delight
cast aside absurd stories and nonsense, you and I

The parrots of the sky eat sugar when we're
in the veranda, laughing together, you and I

How amazing we're here this moment in this corner
yet we're also together in IrÃ??q and KhorÃ??sÃ??n, you and I

We're in one form on the earth and in another in the
everlasting land of honey - the paradise, you and I


Note: This translation is based on the following translation
by Ibrahim Gamard and Ravan Farhadi at
http: //www.dar-al-masnavi.org/gh-2214.html

***
That moment (is) joyous and blessed when we are sitting
(together) in the veranda, you and I; with two forms and faces,
(yet) with one soul, you and I.

The gifts of the orchard and the speech of the birds will offer (us)
the Water of (Eternal) Life (at) the moment when we come into
the garden, you and I.

The stars of the (night) sky will come as our observers, (and) we
will reveal the moon itself to them, you and I.

You and I, devoid of 'you' and 'I' due to extreme joy and
delight, will be united (in friendship): (we will be) happy and
without concern about absurd stories and distracting nonsense
you and I.

All the parrots of the sky will be (happily) chewing sugar in a
place where we will laugh in such a way, you and I.

This is (even) more astonishing: that you and I (are) in one corner
here, (yet) in this moment we are both in `IrÃ??q and KhorÃ??sÃ??n, you
and I.

(We have) one form on this earth and another form on that
(world) in everlasting Paradise and the (Home) Land of Sugar,
You and I.

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