'A feast of Romanticism' - The Review of the book “Celebrating the best of Urdu poetry”

 

A feast of Romanticism

The Review of the book

“Celebrating the best of Urdu poetry”

 

            It were the days where CAA,NRC and NPR protests were happening pan-India. I too have attended some of these protests but having no knowledge in either Hindi or Urdu I sometimes felt impatient about what the speaker is saying...(when he speaks in Urdu or Hindi). The people used to clap and hoot and I used to join the crowd.

    In this juncture I heard the song "Hum dhekenge" in many meetings and with the JNU

students protests it became widely popular and no doubt, I feel it is an anthem for CAA protests. I liked the tune of the song but don’t know the meaning of it. I started humming it. Some people even called me anti-national for singing it. After this wide popularity I started searching for the meaning of the song. Then I came to know that it was an Urdu one.

    I started looking for the translations but every translation has different usage/coinage of words. Some I felt more theistic, some enthusiastic and finally felt a strong need for a good translation(My Telugu Translation of  Hum Dekhenge). Someday while searching for the book "Eating god" at Ashok  book store, surprisingly I found this book "Celebrating Urdu poetry. It was a 2007 print and was almost lying in dust. I picked it out and asked for a 30% discount and things worked out and it walked to my shelf.

    Thanks to the lockdown, I got some time to read this wonderful book. I was of the opinion that this book is going  to be too theistic. Since many Urdu poets as I heard will be in praise with Allah. Well, the book too was in the line but it's also rational. It's actually blend of theology and philosophy.

 

To quote Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s poem, “A picture” from the book

“A picture speaks for itself, what learned exposition does it need?

The paper on which it is painted is only it’s outer garment: it tells

Its own tale indeed ”

 

    The rational theistic approach I see a lot in the canonical poems of Mohammad Iqbal – Shikva and Javab-e-shikvab (which calls for the muslims to tears the social ills of the society) powerfully translated by the translator Khushwant Singh but The poem “The faith” of Mohammad Iqbal denies Politics being separated from the religion and goes to say that it would end in tyranny (which I don’t want to agree with). He even mocks at Democracy as a form of government where heads are counted but men never weighed. However, Iqbal is strong and bold in delivering his strong opinion on idolatry worship and many social issues.

 

    There’s highest sense of Romanticism in the poems. The poems were highly subjective in approach and the lines were weaved in an extraordinarily normal language  having a deeper sense of meaning between the lines. Sometimes, I need to read them aloud two to three times to get the meaning. Many poems show the longing for the lover, the pain in departing. This is a perfect feast for broken up hearts,

 

To quote a poem Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s  poem, “Love” from the book

“Love gave me the lust for living-

To ease my pain it gave me something else for sure;

It gave me pain that nothing can cure”

 

The most astonishing part is though wine is forbidden according to the religious texts, many poems emphasize the ‘Joy of Drinking’ and many poets were hardcore drunkards as Khuswant says in his Introduction.  Sometimes the mania of emphasizing the drinks gets too crazy

 

To quote Firaz Ghorakpuri’s poem Drukard

“O, holy man, if there is power in your prayer

Let me see you make the mosque walls shake,

If not, come, take a swig or two of wine

And watch how the mosque quakes”

 

    The  most favourable part of the book is that some poems are greatly progressive. My favourite to quote from Iqbal’s poem Beauty is transient: he says “the essence of beauty is to fade.” The most strongest statement having a feminist essence is the line “If love can wander freely, why should beauty not be set free” from the Iqbal’s poem “Javaab-e-Shikva”. The poems “We sinful women” of Kishwar Nahid and The story of Gul badshah of Zehra Nigah is exemplary in potraying the strong, bold and progressive feminist ideology.

 

The Ghazals as admitted by Khuswant sing in the Intoduction, is very hard to understand and still some lines of Ghazals are going on rummage in my mind for the meaning. Sometimes Arabic and Persian Allusions and terms are used which will be hard for an English reader to comprehend since no appendix was given such which goes on vague in the reader’s mind.  

 

    The book is highly a feast for the people wanting to learn the essence of Urdu poetry(with 20 poet’s works featured) having no knowledge in the language and no doubt the book is gonna increase your romantic and subjective skill that you can pick out pieces of literary  devices extraordinarily employed by the authors ably administered by the translators. The book reading was like... “Ohhh! Has it completed?”

To end with a beautiful poem from the book 

“When I woke up to the story of life

I was already in the middle of tale

I know nothing of the beginning

I’ll know nothing of the end” 

                                        -      Shaad Azimabadi

Happy Reading!

-      Reviewed by

Pity Parker