[Reader-list] A Poem by Faraz

Sun Aug 31 10:29:09 IST 2008

and Kashmiris can live as freely as any other people in the world.

ayiya haath uthaya hum be, hum jinjinhien rasm-e-dua yhaad nahin

( valiv sariy karav dua,  as tim , yim ne mandran masheedan chi gassan  )

let us all pray, all those,who dont go to temples and mosques )

On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Kashmir Affairs
<kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Shuddha,
> Thanks.
> Of course it is a very very powerful poem. whenever i have read it, its power has captivated me. Faraz stood firm on the side of those victimised by the state, 'ideology' and jackboots. This poem conjures up images of suffering Kashmiris - who are being ruthlessly massacred, starved by the blockade and humiliated at every point in the name of 'national integration' and what not.
> I sincerely hope that it all ends soon and Kashmiris can live as freely as any other people in the world.
> best,
> Murtaza
>
> --- On Thu, 28/8/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>
> From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] A Poem by Faraz
> To: kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com
> Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Thursday, 28 August, 2008, 10:23 PM
>
> Dear Kshmendra,  Dear all,
>
> Many thanks, Kshmendra, for the posts on Ahmed Faraz's death, news of
> which will leave all those who love Urdu poetry with a sense of loss.
> Thank you also for your translation, and for the link to online
> editions of Faraz's poems, which I am sure will introduce the many
> non-Urdu speakers on this list to a sense of Faraz's work.
>
> In many parked cars all over north India, middle aged gentlemen
> sipping clandestine whisky alone by themselves, or with a sad
> companion, sometimes play the song 'Ranjish hi sahi" or 'At least
> let
> there be rancour' in a saccharine sweet rendition by Ghulam Ali,
> without knowing that they are listening to the words of Ahmed Faraz.
> To most, Faraaz is the consummate poet of male melancholia, of
> unrequited love and the bittersweet ironic cadences of unspoken (or
> unspeakable) desire, sometimes smothered by the over-the-top voices
> of many Indian and Pakistani Ghazal singers. I have a certain
> affection for this Faraz, as I do, in my own way ,for his melancholy
> fans.
>
> But there is also an angry, acerbic Faraz. A Faraz less likely to
> feature in the CD players of punjabi gentlemen as they pour
> themselves another large measure of Blenders Pride, or if they can
> get it, Scotch, before they return to loveless marriages and
> sleepless nights thinking about falling interest rates.
>
> And this is Faraaz the traitor, the Faraz I love.
>
> Ahmed Faraz is one of the few poets who earned himself the
> distinction of imprisonment under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as well as
> exile under Zia ul Haq. His words spoke a trenchant opposition to
> every henchman that has occupied the postition of paramountcy in the
> sad and bleak political landscape of Pakistan. Neither Nawaz Sharif,
> nor Parwaiz Musharraf escaped his scathing tongue. And he returned
> his Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian decoration given to
> Pakistanis in disgust at the excesses of Musharraf's military
> dictatorship.
>
> Faraz may have been loved by people all over the Urdu speaking world,
> but he has had his fair share of hatred from many Pakistani
> nationalists, and was considered by many to be a traitor, a
> seditionist, especially after his poem 'Pesheywar Qatilon Tum Sipahi
> Nahi!' spoke openly and critically of the genocide unleashed by the
> Pakistani Army in erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and
> massacres in Balochistan.
>
> Here is my rough,  random and incorrect attempt at translation of
> some of the lines of this poem. The Urdu (romanized) fragment is
> first, the English version follows.
>
> Pesheywar Qatilon Tum Sipahi Nahi!
> Mein ne ab tak tumhare qaseeday likhe
> Aur Aaj apne naghmo se sharminda hoon
> .....
> seena chakan-e-mashriq bhee apnay hee thay
> jin ka khooN mooN pay malnay kay tum aaey they
> .....
> in kee taqdeer to kya badaltay magar
> in kee naslain badalnay ko tum aaey thay
> .....
> aur marg-e-bangal kay baad bolan main
> shehrioN kay galay katnay aaing gay
> -------------------------------
> You are professional killers, not soldiers
> for whom I had written elegies till now
> today I am ashamed of my poems for you
> ......
> Those in the east, flesh of our flesh,
> they were ours too, whose blood you painted on your faces
> .......
> You went to change their fortunes, and look what you did
> their children are the progeny of your rape
> .....
> and after soaking in the bloodbath of Bengal you turn
> to slit the throats of so many in Bolan  -  (Bolan is a place in
> Balochistan)
> --------------------
>
> Ahmed Faraz's direct and fearless indictment of the Pakistani Army's
> massacres in East Pakistan and Balochistan (Bolan is the site of a
> famous massacre, which was undertaken as part of the crushing of an
> uprising in Balochistan in the '70s) earned him the eternal wrath and
> ingratitude of Pakistan's ruling elite. From being the darling of PTV
> mushaira circuit he suddenly became yet another 'invisible
> intellectual' under the mind numbing years under Zia Ul Haq. In doing
> so, he joined the ranks of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Eqbal Ahmed and many
> others, who opposed the tyrranies they saw unleashed by successive
> ruling elites in Pakistan with courage and forthrightness. They spoke
> up for the Bengalis in Pakistan when that needed to be done. When not
> to have spoken so would have meant being complicit in the most brutal
> violence,
>
> I say this, especially because there has been a lot of talk of late
> of how 'seditious' writers, who have spoken up for the people of
> Kashmir, must be dealt with in India.
>
> What is unstated in all this is how close in spirit those who want to
> charge writers with sedition in India are to their peers in Pakistan.
>
> However much they may hate to admit it, the hard line nationalists of
> India and Pakistan are like identical twins. If Pakistani nationalism
> had unleashed decades of brutality in the erstwhile East Pakistan and
> Balochistan, then Indian Nationalism too conducts its own grotesque
> opera of terror in Kashmir and the North East. If on one side of the
> border the tendency is to blame every unpleasantness on the R&AW,
> then on the other side of the border, the favourite suspect is the
> ISI. If Pakistani zealots set churches on fire in the Punjab, then
> Indian zealots burn churches in Orissa. If Pakistani goons massacre
> Hindus and Bhil tribesmen in Sindh, then Indian thugs massacre
> Muslims in Gujarat.
>
> if Paksitan's angry elite habitually charges writers with treason and
> sedition, (Faraz is not the only persecuted writer in the history of
> Pakistan) then Indian elites too yearn to do the same.
>
> Even my unbeliever's heart likes to hope that somewhere, in some
> corner of a writer's heaven, there must be a patch of 'Azad' ground
>
> reserved for those who with their words, enacted an honourable
> treason towards their nations in the name of the deeper and more
> abiding claims of an un-namable humanity. If there is indeed such a
> heaven, then I hope that it has welcomed Ahmed Faraz with open arms.
> Meanwhile, the Indian writers charged with sedition by angry patriots
> are earning their place in that traitors heaven with every word they
> write on Kashmir, next to Ahmed Faraz. I hope no one amongst them is
> in a hurry to get there ahead of time.
>
> We need such traitors, many more traitors, and we need them to live
> well and live long, for they alone can save us in India from the
> shame we remain complicit in, at least as long as Kashmir is held by
> force in our name.
>
> I hope we can all learn from the quiet and honorable sedition of
> Ahmed Faraz.
>
> regards,
>
> Shuddha
>
>
>
>
> On 28-Aug-08, at 5:25 PM, Kshmendra Kaul wrote:
>
>> In one of his Ghazals, Faraz writes:
>>
>> Jisko bhi chaa'ha, ussay shiddat se chaa'ha hai Faraz
>> sil'silaa too'taa nahi dard ki zanjeer ka
>>
>> My impoverished translation:
>>
>> That what I desired, I desired with ferocity
>> Unbroken links of pain, I ever enchained
>>
>> Pakistan has struggled since it Independence to come out of the
>> clutches of Military Dictatorship, that allowed it only every now
>> and then to flirt with Democracy. In this period Pakistan has an
>> impressive literary history, especially from amongst the poets in
>> both their writings and  public demeanour, wherein they have not
>> only been critical and questioning of 'dictatorship' but also
>> revolted. Faraz is one such Poet.
>>
>> A poem (a lamentation) below by Faraz which though written for
>> Pakistan would be equally applicable to India. My apologies to
>> those for whom Urdu is alien. It is beyond my capability to
>> translate it
>>
>> Kshmendra
>>
>> ab kis kaa jashn manaate ho us des kaa jo taqsiim huaa
>> ab kis ke giit sunaate ho us tan-man kaa jo do-niim huaa
>>
>>
>> us Khvaab kaa jo rezaa rezaa un aa.Nkho.n kii taqadiir huaa
>> us naam kaa jo Tuka.Daa Tuka.Daa galiyo.n me.n be-tauqiir huaa
>>
>>
>> us parcham kaa jis kii hurmat baazaaro.n me.n niilaam hu_ii
>> us miTTii kaa jis kii hurmat mansuub uduu ke naam hu_ii
>>
>>
>> us jang ko jo tum haar chuke us rasm kaa jo jaarii bhii nahii.n
>> us zaKhm kaa jo siine pe na thaa us jaan kaa jo vaarii bhii nahii.n
>>
>>
>> us Khuun kaa jo bad_qismat thaa raaho.n me.n bahaayaa tan me.n rahaa
>> us phuul kaa jo beqiimat thaa aa.Ngan me.n khilaa yaa ban me.n rahaa
>>
>>
>> us mashriq kaa jis ko tum ne neze kii anii marham samajhaa
>> us maGarib kaa jis ko tum ne jitana bhii luuTaa kam samajhaa
>>
>>
>> un maasuumo.n kaa jin ke lahuu se tum ne farozaa.N raate.n kii.n
>> yaa un mazaluumo.n kaa jis se Khanjar kii zubaa.N me.n baate.n kii.n
>>
>>
>> us mariyam kaa jis kii iffat luTatii hai bhare baazaaro.n me.n
>> us iisaa kaa jo qaatil hai aur shaamil hai Gam_Khvaaro.n me.n
>>
>>
>> in nauhaagaro.n kaa jin ne hame.n Khud qatl kiyaa Khud rote hai.n
>> aise bhii kahii.n dam_saaz hue aise jallaad bhii hote hai.n
>>
>>
>> un bhuuke nange Dhaa.Ncho.n kaa jo raqs sar-e-baazaar kare.n
>> yaa un zaalim qazzaaqo.n kaa jo bhes badal kar vaar kare.n
>>
>>
>> yaa un JhuuTe iqaraaro.n kaa jo aaj talak aifaa na hue
>> yaa un bebas laachaaro.n kaa jo aur bhii dukh kaa nishaanaa hue
>>
>>
>> is shaahii kaa jo dast-ba-dast aa_ii hai tumhaare hisse me.n
>> kyo.n nang-e-vatan kii baat karo kyaa rakhaa hai is qisse me.n
>>
>>
>> aa.Nkho.n me.n chhupaaye ashko.n ko ho.nTho.n me.n vafaa ke bol liye
>> is jashn me.n bhii shaamil huu.N nauho.n se bharaa kashkol liye
>>
>>
>> Reproduced from the most brilliant web-resource for Romanized Urdu
>> Poetry - Urdupoetry.com  http://www.urdupoetry.com/faraz42.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
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