An Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Ahmad Faraz’s Ghazal “Heard that people gawk at her with awe, to be sure”

Abstract

Language of poetry has always been attributed to poetical devices when it comes to its beauty. In the recent studies, a new semantic model is developed that is named as Conceptual metaphor theory which aims to demonstrate how our thoughts are ingrained in metaphors and offers an extensive study of metaphors. This paper proposes to investigate conceptual metaphors in one of the renowned ghazals of Ahmad Faraz’s سنا ہے لوگ اسے آنکھ بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں (“Heard that people gawk at her with awe, to be sure”). Through qualitative analysis, this study by the application of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1999) conceptual metaphor theory model highlights how languages like Urdu possess Ghazals that are full of conceptual metaphors and can be studied under a broad metaphorical spectrum. This theory will help in understanding Urdu poetry's meaning from a new perspective rather than ornamental way of dealing with poetic language. This paper further enhances its focus on the extended conceptual metaphor used by Faraz in the text.  On the whole, the paper opens a wide range of research on Urdu poetry through the lens of Conceptual metaphor theory.