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Literary Review
POETRY
Connoisseurs’ choice
JYOTI NAIR BELLIAPPA
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This collection is a useful reminder of the literary heritage that belongs to both India and Pakistan.
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Celebrating the Best of Urdu Poetry; Selected by Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad, Translated with an introduction by Khushwant Singh, Penguin/Viking, Rs. 300.
Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad have succeeded in presenting the rich and resplendent world of Urdu poetry. Their selection reflects values both eternal and particular to the Urdu literary movement of the last three centuries: the notes of protest,
a search both metaphysical and mystical, the shock of Partition and the struggle to represent some of that pain in literature.
Ideal beauty
For some Urdu poets, the world of ‘reality’ was an illusory world of shadows. Earthly beauty invariably hinted at a more perfect ideal beauty. To cite an instance, by adoring the physical beauty of a mistress, the platonic lover initiated a movement up the spiritual ladder towards the ideal beauty of the soul ultimately leading to a beatific vision of God. Some of the pieces selected by Khushwant Singh and Kamna Prasad bring in this element of mysticism and translate the elusive realities of the inner world into a coherent and authentic vision of existence. Sheikh Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi who lived between 1747 and 1823 AD said, Khvaab thhaa ya khayaal thhaa kyaa thhaa/Hijr thhaa ya visaal thhaa - kyaa thhaa/Chamkee bijlee see par na samjhey hum/Husn thhaa ya Jamaal thhaa - kya thhaa.
The translation by Khushwant Singh retains the elusiveness of the original. Was it a dream or a memory of you, I do not know/Was it separation from you or union, I do not know /Was it lightning that flashed before me, I do not know/Was it your beauty or His splendour, I do not know.
Coleridge’s theory of ‘poetic imagination’ which creates a harmonious whole out of disparate experiences is seen in Ghalib’s verse: Mehrbaan hokey bulaao mujhe chaaho jis vaqt/Main gayaa vaqt naheen hoon ki phir aa bhee na sakoon. (
Have mercy and send for me, anytime you so desire/Time gone is forever gone, it’s true. I am not time, I can always return to you.)
The pieces chosen of Shair-e-masheeq, Dr. Mohammed Iqbal, and progressive poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz reflect the emergence of a new sensibility and are placed alongside poets like Firaq who not only spoke of the breakdown of social relationships but took into account the psychological and social challenges that had to be met.
Abdul Hameed Adam’s verse combined the freshness of daily experience with wry humour. Ameeron ko aizaaz-o-iqbaa ldo, Ghareebon ko firdaus par taal do. (Give the rich respect and glory as their prize, Fob off the poor with promises of paradise).
Composite culture
The nazms of Faiz and Aazaad Nazm of Kishwar Naheed present not only a sense of logical development but meet the philosophical and ideological challenges of the new generation. A glimpse of the secular and composite culture of the sub-continent unfolds in the pages of this book. While Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poetry is a testimony to history, symbolism in a modernist idiom weaves the themes of time and evanescence, hope and frustration, vacuity and loneliness, being and non-being in several of the other poems. Satire, almost always refreshing, is reflected in Akbar Illahabadi’s unique style: Paida hua vakeel to Iblees nei kahaa, Lo aaj hum bhee sahib-e aulaad ho gaye. (The day a lawyer was born Satan said with joy, Allah has made me today the father of a boy.)
Urdu poetry, in the capable hands of these anthologists, spans a period of over 200 years. This is a connoisseurs’ choice, and a useful reminder of the literary heritage that belongs to two of the nations that grew out of the events of 1947. The immense worth of poetry is best explained in Firaq Gorakhpuri’s words: Firaq, ai kaash, sun-ne waalon ke seenon mein dil hota,/Haqeeqat hoti hai ashaar mein, baaten nahin hotin. (How Firaq wishes that those who hear poetry heard it from their hearts/Because poetry deals with Truth and not with the subject of futile conversation.)
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