Hazaron Khawaishen Aisi

by Anisur Rahman

  1

  Yaad ab khud ko aa rahe hain hum

  Kuchh dinon tak Khuda rahe hain hum

  Aaj to apni khaamshi mein bhi

  Teri aawaaz paa rahe hain hum

  Baat kya hai ke phir zamaane ko

  Yaad rah rah ke aa rahe hain hum

  Jo kabhi laut kar nahi aate

  Wo zamaane bula rahe hain hum

  Zindagi ab to saadgi se mil

  Baad sadiyon ke aa rahe hain hum

  Ab hamein dekh bhi na paaoge

  Itne nazdeek aa rahe hain hum

  Ghazlein ab tak sharaab peeti theen

  Neem ka rus pila rahe hain hum

  Dhoop nikli hai muddaton ke baad

  Geele jazbe sukha rahe hain hum

  1

  A God for some time now

  I recall myself now

  Even in my solitude

  I can hear your voice now

  What’s the matter, why this world?

  Remembers me often now

  Ages that never return

  But I must call them back now

  Life! Meet me with no pretence

  Ages later, I come now

  You wouldn’t even see me then

  So close I am getting now

  Ghazal has been drinking wine

  I bring her a bitter drink now

  The sun has shown after ages

  I dry up moist emotions now

  Sardiyon mein lihaaf se chimte

  Chand taaron pe ja rahe hain hum

  Zeest ki ek barqi ladki ko

  Noor Namah padha rahe hain hum

  Us ne poochha hamaare ghar ka pata

  Coffee house bula rahe hain hum

  Kandhe uchka ke baat karne mein

  Munfarid hote ja rahe hain hum

  Teddy tehzeeb teddy fikr-o nazar

  Teddy ghzalein suna rahe hain hum

  In hard winter, wrapped in quilt

  I leave for the starry skies now

  To a life’s electrifying lass

  I am teaching Noor Nama now

  He asked me of my address

  I take him to coffee house now

  I talk with shaking shoulders

  I’ve got so special now

  Teddy culture, thoughts and ways

  I recite teddy ghazals now

  2

  Saanp jab os ka badan chaate

  Ret ko ret ki jalan chaate

  Barf ki ungliyaan agar choomoon

  Mere talwon ko ek kiran chaate

  Kis mohabbat se choomate ho hamein

  Saanp jis tarha apna mun chaate

  Ek lamhe ki raushni ke liye

  Aag kaaghaz ka pairahan chaate

  Ek hazaar ek raat ke phun hain

  Jab ye naagin kisee ka tun chaate

  Mard us samt dekhte hi naheen

  Gaai jab gaai ka badan chaate

  Zard kutte ki surkh jeebh kabhi

  Surmaee raat ki thakan chaate

  2

  When a dewdrop the snake licks

  Then sand’s blaze, the sand licks

  If I kiss the snow’s fingers

  My soul, a ray of sun licks

  You kiss me with such pure love

  As its own being, the snake licks

  To create a moment’s light

  The paper’s garb, the fire licks

  Night unfurls a thousand hoods

  Someone’s body, the snake licks

  Men don’t look that side ever

  When a cow’s body, a cow licks

  The red tongue of a pale dog

  The grey night’s exhaustion licks

  Ek billi safed choohe ka

  Dhoop mein baith kar badan chaate

  Ek khargosh barf per leta

  Ik gilahree ka sard tun chaate

  Aaeena khaane mein akela saanp

  Jhoom jhoom aap apna phun chaate

  Do minute mein cooker ki saat dishein

  Ungliyaan ab ghazal ka fun chaate

  A cat, basking in the sun

  Of a white rat’s body licks

  A rabbit lying on snow

  A squirrel’s cold body licks

  Lonely snake in mirror-house

  Its own hood, in rapture licks

  A cooker, two minutes, seven dishes

  Now the art of ghazal, the finger licks

  48

  Adil Mansuri

  Adil Mansuri (1936–2008), poet, painter, calligrapher and playwright, was born Farid Mohammad in Ahmedabad. His mother tongue was Gujarati but he also learnt Arabic and Urdu in Karachi, where his family had migrated after the Partition of India to see if their life could be better there. Returning eight years later to his native land, Mansuri revisited himself afresh as a young man of twenty years. He finally chose to settle down in the United States of America at the age of fifty, where he also breathed his last. He is one of the very few who combined the vocations of calligraphy, painting, digital art, plays and poetry, and used his multiple skills to write avant-garde poetry both in Gujarati and Urdu, and win several awards.

  Mansuri belonged to the first line of modernists who made bold interventions in language and form, as his collection, Hashr Ki Sub’ha Darakhshan Ho, shows. He used his poetry as a canvas to configure the political and the social, alongside the cultural, contours of his times. He was acutely conscious of contemporary history and Islamic tradition, as also of colour, word and image. Mansuri did not indulge in a conscious construction of meaning; in fact, he broke the constraints of language and meaning to approach the meaning of meaning. He, thus, reached to a supposed meaning through apparent meaninglessness, which in turn, defined him as a surrealist poet of remarkable significance. ‘I am curious about shapes, colours, form, light, horizon, time, language, scripts,’ he wrote, ‘and every day, I move ahead into curiosity, my endless journey.’

  1

  (Khud kalaami ki ghazal)

  Ghoorata kya hai kameene kutte

  Soonghata kya hai kameene kutte

  Chandani odh so gaee basti

  Jaagata kya hai kameene kutte

  Shab ki khaamoshi sun sake to sun

  Bhaunkata kya hai kameene kutte

  Ye to teri hi apni haddi hai

  Chaata’ta kya hai kameene kutte

  Ghair ka aks aaeene mein kahaan

  Nochata kya hai kameene kutte

  Tere saai ka tujh pe paon pada

  Kata’ta kya hai kameene kutte

  Teri manzil hunooz koson door

  Haanpata kya hai kameene kutte

  Saamana kar tamaam dunya ka

  Bhagata kya hai kameene kutte

  Sochane ka koee ‘ilaaj naheen

  Sochata kya hai kameene kutte

  Dekh saari Khudaaee jaag uthhi

  Oonghata kya hai kameene kutte

  1

  (A ghazal that is also a soliloquy)

  Why stare, you lowly dog?

  Why sniff, you lowly dog?

  In moonlight, the village sleeps

  Why awake, you lowly dog?

  Hear this night’s silence, if you can

  Why so bark, you lowly dog?

  Can’t you see your own bone, dog!

  Why lick it, you lowly dog?

  There is none else in mirror

  Why dig it, you lowly dog?

  Your shadow stepped over you

  Why then bite, you lowly dog?

  Your goal still so far away!

  Why pant now, you lowly dog?

  Face the world squarely now

  Why run away, you lowly dog?

  No remedy for dark thoughts

  Why then think, you lowly dog?

  God’s creation is awake

  Why then doze, you lowly dog?

  2

  Ruswaayi se ab bacha lo Aleph

  Pateele main rakh kar ubaalo Aleph

  Badan Bey ke under utar jaai to

  Kinaare pe rah kar nikaalo Aleph

  Kaheen to kisee shai se takraaegi

  Khalaaon mein jaa kar uchhaalo Aleph

 
Bure waqt mein saath deta hai kaun

  Sabhi apne apne sambhaalo Aleph

  Kisee ka bhi ho us se kya waasta

  Padaa gar mile to uthha lo Aleph

  Ye paani to pighli hui barf hai

  To sooraj ke haathon sukha lo Aleph

  Pighal jaaiga mom ban kar abhi

  Andhera hi achha bujha lo Aleph

  Lagee hai to basti ko jal jaane do

  Magar ho sake to bacha lo Aleph

  2

  Save me now from this disgrace, Aleph

  Put me in the pan, boil Aleph

  If the body slides in Bey

  Be at the banks, salvage Aleph

  It will bump into something

  Go into open, toss Aleph

  None keeps company in bad times

  Let one save one’s own Aleph

  Don’t even bother whose it is

  If found lying, grab Aleph

  Water is but melted ice

  Go to the sun, dry Aleph

  It will melt like wax in a while

  It’s better dark, put out Aleph

  Let the village burn, if it burns

  If you may save, save Aleph

  49

  Shahryar

  Shahryar (1936–2012), poet, academic and film lyricist, was born Kunwar Akhlaq Mohammad Khan in Aonla, Uttar Pradesh. He received his early education in Bulandshahr, before joining Aligarh Muslim University for higher studies. He began his professional career with Anjumn Tarraqi Urdu, and then left it to join his alma mater as a faculty member. Shahryar built up his reputation as an academic and poet, who later wrote some memorable lyrics for films without ever compromising with his literary criterion or taste. He also edited Sher-O Hikmat, a literary journal of lasting value, with another academic fellow, Mughni Tabassum. Shahryar’s popularity with both literary and common readers kept him in the forefront for decades. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award as also the most prestigious Jnanpeeth Award.

  Shahryar’s poetry is marked by a sense of bewilderment and intellectual curiosity. With an acute sensitivity to the classical forms of ghazal writing, he evolved an idiom for his compositions through an artful absorption of traditions, rather than an outright denial of older values. He is considered to have contributed significantly to the development of the short poem in Urdu, marked by metaphoric precision and linguistic ease. His five collections, Ism-e Aazam, Saatwaan Dar, Hijr Ke Mausam, Khwaab Ka Dar Bund Hai and Neend ki Kirchein, are witness to his gradual growth from a poet of seemingly simple apprehensions of life to a writer with a deep philosophical understanding of life as a phenomenon. Shahryar’s collections have also appeared in Devanagari script that bear witness to his popularity among Hindi readers.

  1

  Zindagi jaisi tawwaqo thi naheen, kuchh kam hai

  Har ghadi hotaa hai ehsaas kaheen kuchh kam hai

  Ghar ki taameer tasawwur hi mein ho sakti hai

  Apne naqshe ke mutaabiq ye zameen kuchh kam hai

  Bichhde logon se mulaaqat kabhi phir hogi

  Dil mein ummeed to kaafi hai, yaqeen kuchh kam hai

  Ab jidhar dekhiye lagtaa hai ke is dunya mein

  Kaheen kuchh cheez ziyaada hai kaheen kuchh kam hai

  Aaj bhi hai teri doori hi udaasi ka sabab

  Ye alag baat ke pehli si naheen kuchh kam hai

  1

  Life is not as I thought; somewhere, something less

  A feeling lingers, there’s somewhere, something less

  I can surely make a house but only in my dreams

  I surely have a map but the space somewhat less

  Those who have parted now will surely someday meet

  I’ve enough hope in heart but the faith somewhat less

  Wherever you look, the world would look uneven

  Something somewhere more, somewhere something less

  Even today, I’m sad you’ve gone so far away

  But not as ever, my sadness is somewhat less

  2

  Zakhmon ko rafoo kar lein dil shaad karein phir se

  Khwaabon ki koee dunya aabaad karein phir se

  Muddat hui jeene ka ehsaas naheen hota

  Dil un se taqaaza kar bedaad karein phir se

  Mujrim ke katahre mein phir hum ko khada kar do

  Ho rasm-e kohan taaza faryaad karein phir se

  Ai ahl-e junoon dekho zanjeer hue saai

  Hum kaise unhein socho aazaad karein phir se

  Ab jee ke bahalne ki hai ek yahi soorat

  Beeti huee kuchh baatein, hum yaad karein phir se

  2

  Let’s stich our wounds, let’s make merry once again

  Let’s find a world of dreams, let’s roam it once again

  It has been long since I have felt I am alive

  Let my heart make a plea, find a way once again

  Stand me in dock again, let me pray for mercy

  Let those rites follow, let them follow once again

  Crazy friends! The chains have now turned to shadows

  How can I set them free, how can I, once again?

  That’s the only way for my heart to seek its cheer

  Recall the days gone by and ruminate once again

  50

  Saqi Farooqi

  Saqi Farooqi (1936–2018) was born Qazi Mohammad Shamshad Nabi in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, from where his family migrated to Bangladesh in 1947, before settling in Pakistan in 1950. A resident of a new world in an age of consequential transformations, Farooqi moved to London in 1958 to work as a computer programmer, although he represents the movements of life and times as a diasporic poet and prose writer of great merit.

  Farooqi’s individuality lies in his experimentation with the Urdu language, the traditional line lengths of the Urdu verse and the stereotypical rhythm of Urdu diction. Further, he found a new form for these experimentations in a complete denial of the existing form of Urdu poetry. Both his poetry, and remarkably fresh prose, may best be read as narratives free of the drama and melodrama of life. Saqi turns futuristic quite often, as he goes beyond the limits of the modern and the postmodern. He uses language intuitively to incorporate the fragmentary conditions of his time. He turns anecdotal and reflective by turns, representing the mundane and the philosophical in the complex kaleidoscope of his poetry. This iconoclast of the new Urdu nazm and ghazal, has strengthened his poetry with unusual perceptions of the world and the text. This is amply illustrated by his curiously titled collections, Radar, Zindaa Paani Sacchaa and Surkh Gulaab Aur Badr-e Muneer.

  1

  Wo log jo zinda hain mar jaaenge ik din

  Ik raat ke raahi hain guzar jaaenge ik din

  Yoon dil mein uthhi lehr yoon aankhon mein bhare rung

  Jaise mere haalaat sanwar jaaenge ik din

  Dil aaj bhi jalta hai usee tez hawa mein

  Ai tez hawa! Dekh bikhar jaaenge ik din

  Yoon hai ke ta’aaqub mein hai aasaaish-e dunya

  Yoon hai ke muhabbat se bikhar jaaenge ik din

  Yoon hoga ke un aankhon se aansoon na bahenge

  Ye chaand sitare bhi theher jaaenge ik din

  Ab ghar bhi naheen ghar ki tamanna bhi naheen hai

  Muddat huee socha tha ke ghar jaaenge ik din

  1

  All those who live now will die one day

  Travellers of a night will fly one day

  My heart has waves, my eyes have colours

  As if I’ll look up, show high one day

  Brusque wind burns my heart even now

  Brusque wind! I will overfly one day

  The world’s luxuries follow me on

  Love will test me now and try one day

  May be those eyes don’t roll down any tears

  May be the stars and moon defy one day

  Neither a home, nor a desire for home now

  But the desire may intensify one day

  2

  Log the jinki aankhon mein andesha koee na tha

  Main jis shehr se guzra us me zindaa koee na tha

  Cheezon ke
ambaar lage the khalq-e Khuda aaraam se thi

  Aur mujhe ye ranj wahaan afsurda koee na tha

  Hairaani mein hoon aakhir kis ki parchhaaeeen hoon

  Wo bhi dhyan mein aaya jis ka saaya koee na tha

  Chaunk pada jab yaadon mein us ki aawaaz suni

  Bus apni hi goonj thi mujh mein warnaa koee na tha

  Main jis khauf mein tha us mein kuchh aur bhi qaidi the

  Main jis khwaab mein tha us mein darwaaza koee na tha

  2

  Such were the people, their eyes showed no sorrow, none

  I passed by the city, there was no one alive, none

  All around was God’s plenty, God’s people lived in peace

  My only worry: there was no one sad there, none

  Whose shadow am I, I don’t know, I’m all baffled!

  Even he figured in thoughts who had no shadow, none

  I was amazed when that voice echoed in memory

  That was surely my own voice, no one else’s, none

  A fear had engulfed me; it had caught others too

  I was in a dream and the dream had no exit, none

  51

  Nida Fazli

  Nida Fazli (1938–2016) was born Muqtada Hasan in the city of Delhi, where one of his ancestors had migrated from a place called Fazila in Kashmir. He chose Nida as his pen name and added Fazli after his ancestral home. He received his education in Gwalior, and found his source of livelihood in Bombay as a lyricist. Fazli was a poet, memoirist, and a sensitive commentator on poetry and poets. He earned several awards and gained considerable popularity among both Urdu and Hindi speakers, unlike many of his contemporaries who remained confined to one language.

  The most striking feature of Fazli’s poetry lies in his ability to exploit the spoken-ness of the spoken word. He drew upon people’s language and blended it with the literary traditions of the Sufi-bhakti poets. Rural and urban ladscapes, small hopes and big fears, as well as the loss and retrieval of values, engaged him endlessly. His poetry speaks at a one-to-one level and develops an intimate rapport with the reader, who seems to be close by and listening to the poet intently. Fazli’s poetry is dialogic and dramatic in his style of speaking and keeps away from complicated phrasing for his philosophical outpourings. These are amply reflected in his anthologies, memoirs, and even his responses to poetry and poets. Lafzon Ka Pull, More Naach, Aankh Aur Khwaab Ke Darmiyaan, Safar Mein Dhoop To Hogi, Khoya Hua Sa Kuchh, Mulaaqaatein and Deewaron ke Beech distinguish him for these merits.

  1

  Insaan mein haiwaan yahaan bhi hai wahaan bhi

  Allah nigahbaan yahaan bhi hai wahaan bhi