Page 18 - Pakistan Link - January 20, 2023

P18 - PAKISTAN LINK - JANUARY 20, 2023 COMMENTRY
n By Dr Ahmed S. Khan Book & Author once the most facile and the most
Chicago, IL exacting. The most facile because

store of readymade images, sym-
yed Ahmad Shah aka Ahmad it provides the poet with a lavish
Faraz (January 12, 1931 – Au- Ahmad Faraz: The Wind bols, metaphors and other imagina-
S gust 25, 2008) was one of the tive paraphernalia perfected by the
Edward College, Peshawar, and Pe- Whistles in the Wilderness great masters in Urdu and Persian to
great Urdu poets of the modern era.
choose from and to pass as his own.
He was born in Kohat, and studied at
shawar University; and while pursu- And it is most exacting for the same
reason because it demands from the
ing his bachelor’s degree he published poet an unusual degree of intensity
Tanha Tanha, his first poetry collec- of feeling combined with ingenuity
tion. He started his professional ca- of expression to establish his own
reer as a script writer for Radio Paki- distinctive identity. Faraz’s ghazals
stan and later served as Urdu lecturer and related love poems were, and are,
at Peshawar University. distinguished for both these qualities.
Ahmad Faraz was influenced This brought him almost immediate
by the poetry of Mirza Ghalib, Faiz popular acclaim, particularly among
Ahmed Faiz and Ali Sardar Jaffri. His the youth who felt in this part of
literary journey had gone through a his writings the pulse of their own
modulating sequence of trials and heartbeat. However, Faraz was too
tribulations — from his first poetic sensitive a poet to be oblivious to the
expression while in grade nine (after demands of the more urgent social
getting disappointed at receiving a realities around him, the heartbreak
“Kashmira” for his Eid suit) and suffering, the threats and blan-
dishments, the anger and frustra-
Jab kay sab kay waas’tay laa’eay tion, the hopes and despairs, that a
haiN kap’ray sale say tyrannical social order inflicts on its
Laa’ey HaiN maray lee’ay Qai’dee victims. For a perceptive mind these
kaa Kam’bel jail say exterior factors enter into and color
Everyone got elegant clothes even the most intimate subjective
from the sale experience. And this is the stuff that
And what I got, a prisoner’s Faraz’s later poetry is made of as rep-
blanket from the jail resented in this volume. He protests
against injustice as passionately as he
— to becoming a master of his professes his love, although the voice
craft and producing his signature at times becomes [a] little too stri-
ghazal: dent, and the expression a little too
Ranjish’he sa’he Dil he rhetorical. Nevertheless, it is genuine
Dukhaa’Nay kay lee’ay Aa poetry. The classical poetic idiom that
Aa pher say muj’hay chorR kay ible cruelty of our time, the misery the people, in whatever form, under him. But even lqbal first attracted Faraz employs, laden with symbols
Jaa’nay kay lee’ay Aa of the seemingly good life, and the whatever political guise or expedien- attention for his Persian rather than peculiar to our eastern feudal tradi-
Even with sorrow, come, if to vanity of leadership. He is direct and cy. He wrestles with his own sin and his Urdu verse, and for its ideological tion, and multi-layered meanings of
break my heart again forthright in his portrayals. His dic- guilt and transcends it by denounc- content rather than aesthetic appeal. apparently simple words, peculiar to
Even to abandon, come, if to tion is contemporary and does not ing the first as well as the last crime One reason for this indifference is ob- our poetic usage present the transla-
torment me again employ sugar-coated cliches of the against the people: ‘my conscience vious enough. Compared to Sanskrit, tor into another language with almost
Ahmad Faraz’s poetry resonates bygone days. His poems make us never forgave Cain,’ he says. Faraz is Arabic or Persian, Urdu is a much insuperable difficulties, particularly if
well with the Urdu speaking world. conscious of our humanity and of its also pan-humanist in another way — younger language. It matured only the language happens to be as far re-
Young and old can relate to his pas- inherent dignity.” in addition to the prophetic. He spans during the last two or three centuries moved from Oriental poetic tradition
sionate, romantic, and progressive theological enterprise and specula- and it cannot, therefore, boast of their as English is. The translator of this
poetry. Fourteen of his poetry col- Referring to the task of translat- tion by his simple and all-inclusive opulence of tradition. Another rea- volume has wrestled bravely and as-
lections have been published; some ing Ahmed Faraz’s work, the trans- formulation in the poem ‘I Am Alive’: son is that by the time Urdu, particu- siduously with these problems, and I
of the well-known titles include Pas lator states: “In this translation of ‘Word — the beginning of the truth, larly its poetry, attained a fully devel- hope it proves a useful addition to the
Andaaz Mausam, Sab Awazain Meri Faraz’s poetry an attempt has been A talking flame of intuition, God of oped school of its own, its homeland library of English translations from
haiN, Khuwab Gul Pareshaan haiN, made to preserve the spirit of the all.’ For Faraz, the poem is the word was over-run by factors of the British Urdu. - Faiz Ahmed Faiz, London,
Janan and Ghazal Bahana KarooN. original. No effort was made to in- in the act of creating a new world. East India Company. They sought to August 29, 1983”
During the 1980s, faced with curbs terpret. The translation is a literal and Speech is [an] act. Word is move- assert their cultural overlordship in
on his freedom of expression, he faithful rendering, and it has avoided ment. The true people’s poet ‘carries the field of their subjects’ language The following selected transla-
spent six years of self-exile in the UK, the temptation to use better and more the sword, and the flag and the horn’ and literature by stamping these with tions show the high-fidelity rendition
Canada, and USA. lucid alternative expressions espe- (from his poem ‘Word and Order’). their familiar Victorian patterns. And of Ahmad Faraz’s poetic expressions
M.H.K. Qureshi has translated cially where the original images and He uses the sword to cut through the familiarity naturally bred contempt. by the translator.
some of Ahmad Faraz’s poetry into metaphors were derived from the re- crap, the flag to rally the people, the This, however, is past history, and it
English under the title The Wind ligion of Islam and from the Muslim horn to proclaim a new order. His vi- is time that this communication gap In praise of the Prophet [pbuh]
Whistles in the Wilderness. Com- tradition in the Indian sub-continent. sion goes beyond his own country to is bridged. Firstly, Urdu today is a O my prophet you are the illumination
menting on Ahmed Faraz’s poetry, The rhythmic patterns of the original include ‘Beirut’ (the massacre there), fully developed language, and its lit- I think of you as of the morning light;
M.H.K. Qureshi in the Introduction have also not been disturbed. The aim ‘Norman Mayer’ (the ritual assas- erary idiom is familiar to millions in You do not need my eulogies
observes: “In his abhorrence of perse- has been not just to translate a poet’s sination of an American terrorist in almost all parts of Pakistan and In- Nor my praise can do justice to your
cution, misery and injustice, Ahmad ideas into English, but also to retain Washington, DC), and ‘Black Wall’ dia. What is more, its contemporary exalted self
Faraz has shown himself to be a true the flavor of the original diction and (a tribute to the victims of the war literature, poetry in particular, is also You are the messenger of light.
descendent of his literary ancestors. phrasing. I hope with these transla- in Vietnam). All people are united in the favorite and much-loved read- And our history is filled with the dark-
Faraz started his poetic career as a tions a window will be opened to struggle against the oppressor, in the ing of Indo-Pakistani communities ness of persecution.
romantic but soon began to concern contemporary Urdu poetry…” creation of a new world, and Faraz is settled in many Western countries. Your message was love
himself with the stark realities of the speaking it for us, through us, in us. Secondly, it has long outgrown the But in my world, with hate minds and
time. He was also influenced by the American poet, Mary McAnally, Hear this voice and recognize it. It is swaddling clothes of the more de- hearts are mazed.
Progressive Writers’ Movement; this capturing the essence of Ahmad yours.” veloped literatures that nurtured its This is your greatness, O’ high stationed
influence showed itself in his liberal Faraz’s poetry observes, “Ahmad growth, and it has produced, in the That you conversed with us, the earth’s
humanism and his rebellion against Faraz is the people’s poet. He speaks In the foreword, Faiz Ahmad last four or five decades, a whole crop inhabitants.
political oppression and exploitation. in metaphors of prophecy and vision Faiz expounding on the growth of of very gifted writers in both prose But, these muftis, preachers, ombuds-
Physically, even today, he has the look that transcend rhetoric and narrow Urdu language, states: “Unlike some and verse. Among them a highly cel- men and priests
and bearing of a lean, tall romantic, nationalism. He is truly an interna- other Oriental literatures, both clas- ebrated name these days is that of the Who are known for their crafty moves
but there is a slight difference: now tional poet, a pan-humanist of the sical and modern, Urdu language poet Faraz.” Will sell God’s name; but God forbid
the expression of defiance on his face rarest sort. Rare because his poems and literature are very little known If they be moved by the cries of the
has acquired a pinkish glow. He has are all love poems, even when they to Western readers. Perhaps the only Commenting on the traits of world.
set himself up against the usurpers decry, denounce, lament, or accuse. major poet in this language known Ahmad Faraz’s poetry, Faiz observes: I do not wear kohl nor are my clothes
of power. Faraz’s poems in this col- As he states in his poem ‘In praise of in the West, at least in the learned “Faraz began his poetic career as a fragrant
lection reveal that he is preoccupied the Prophet’, ‘Your message was love,’ circles, is the Pakistani poet, Muham- lyricist in the classical style and chose As my heart joins with the destitute.
with the fight to deliver humanity and ‘my heart joins with the destitute.’ mad lqbal, Allama (the great scholar) for his formal medium the age-old Hearing me the pulpiteer becomes surly
from bondage. He portrays the invis- He cannot tolerate violence against as his countrymen reverently call and very elusive form, the ghazal, at And my questions enrage the city’s
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