MODERN POETRY OF PAKISTAN
MODERN POETRY OF PAKISTAN
EDITED BY IFTIKHAR ARIF
TRANSLATIONS EDITED BY WAQAS KHWAJA
DALKEY ARCHIVE PRESS
CHAMPAIGN AND LONDON
Copyright © 2010 by Dalkey Archive Press
Foreword copyright © 2010 by Fakhar Zaman
Preface copyright © 2010 by Iftikhar Arif
Introduction copyright © 2010 by Waqas Khwaja
Translations copyright © 2010 by their respective translators
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Modern poetry of Pakistan / edited by Iftikhar Arif; translations edited by Waqas Khwaja. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes poems translated from seven major languages in Pakistan:
Balochi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Pashto, Seraiki, Sindhi, and Urdu.
ISBN: 978-1-56478-669-2
1. Pakistani poetry--20th century--Translations into English. I. Iftikhar, Arif. II. Khwaja, Waqas Ahmad.
PK2978.E5M65 2011
808.81’0089914122--dc22
2010035342
The publication of Modern Poetry of Pakistan was made possible by support from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Permission for use of the poems has been granted by the copyright holders.
www.dalkeyarchive.com
CONTENTS
Foreword
FAKHAR ZAMAN
Preface
IFTIKHAR ARIF
Introduction: Stirring Up a Vespiary
WAQAS KHWAJA
Modern Poetry of Pakistan
ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBAL
The Great Mosque of Córdoba
JOSH MALIHABADI
Address
Program
HAFEEZ JALANDHARI
Staff of Old Age
What Am I?
Yearning for Free Time
SAMANDAR KHAN SAMANDAR
Come to Salvation
Ghazal: Is It a Glittering Gem That Hangs from Your Ear, Love?
Ghazal: None Has Such Bewitching Eyes
AMIR HAMZA KHAN SHINWARI
Ghazal: I Learned to Bow When I Lost My Head
Ghazal: I Seek a Simple Definition of Fate
Ghazal: I Shall Always Go with the Brave Pukhtun
Ghazal: Since I Have Known Your Benevolence
Ghazal: To Whomever You Belong, I Long for You
N. M. RASHID
Afraid of Life?
Death of Israfil
Hassan the Potter
FAIZ AHMAD FAIZ
A Prison Evening
At the Sinai Valley
Don’t Ask Me, Dear, for That First Love Again
Go Forth into the Streets Today in Your Fetters
We, Who Were Killed in the Dark Pathways
USTAD DAMAN
He Knows Not What He Must Express
My Country Has Two Allahs
Partition
SHARIF KUNJAHI
Brother, Are You from Kunjah?
My Words Are Odd
Traveler
Tree of the Barren Waste
MEERAJI
Call of the Sea
Strange Waves of Pleasure
Tall Building
MAJEED AMJAD
An Individual
Little Children
On the Radio, a Prisoner Speaks…
A Cry
Solicitation
Sons of Stony Mountains
Spring
GUL KHAN NASEER
I Am a Rebel
Towering Ramparts
Will Not Be Silent
GHANI KHAN
Devadasi
O Ghani! O You Ass, Ghani!
Question or Answer
Search
AHMAD NADEEM QASMI
A Prayer for the Homeland
Stone
WAZIR AGHA
Terminus
SHEIKH AYAZ
Dialogue
Farewell to the Earth
Horse Rider
Write
AHMAD RAHI
Gently Blows the Breeze
Spinning Party
ZIA JALANDHARI
Portents of Good Tidings
A Winter’s Evening
JANBAZ JATOI
Koël
ADA JAFFERY
Arrival of the Spring
Even Today
Listen
NASIR KAZMI
Ghazal: Bearing Hints of Bygone Days
Ghazal: He Is Charming but Not Perceptive
Ghazal: When I Learned to Write
JAMILUDDIN AALI
A Gecko’s Mind
Orthography
HABIB JALIB
Code
Political Advisor
Everyone Else Forgot How to Write the Word of Truth
MUNIR NIAZI
Cry of the Desert
I Always Wait Too Long
Love Will Not Happen Now
MUSTAFA ZAIDI
Meet Me for the Last Time
Mount of the Call
AHMAD FARAZ
Siege
Why Should We Sell Our Dreams?
ZAFAR IQBAL
Ghazal: The Flower that Bloomed Beneath the Ground Is in My Heart
Ghazal: Time Will Tell You One Day What I Am
Ghazal: Who Gave the Jhoomar of Pale Leaves to Dust’s Forehead?
TAOS BANIHALI
Anthem
Kashmir Is a Lion
Our Heritage
AFTAB IQBAL SHAMIM
Half Poem
Romance of Imagination
The Waterwheel Turns
TANVEER ABBASI
Ghazal: The Luster of a Pearl Is Something Else
Ghazal: Nobody Knows to Whom We Belong
Writing a Poem
ZEHRA NIGAH
Compromise
Evening’s First Star
ATA SHAD
Lament of the Merchants of Hope
The Road of Memory
Power and Powerlessness
Traveler
In the Hour of Death
KISHWAR NAHEED
Counterclockwise
Grass Is Just Like Me
Nightmare
We Sinful Women
SHABNAM SHAKEEL
Curse of Infertility
Elixir of Life
Every Dream of Ours, Framed by the Hereafter
Ghazal: I Am Schooled in Scriptures of Grief
Heritage
IFTIKHAR ARIF
Dialogue
It Will Take a Few More Days
Orientation
The Last Man’s Victory Song
Twelfth Man
AMJAD ISLAM AMJAD
Look, Like My Eyes!
Then Come, O Season of Mourning
You Are in Love with Me
SARMAD SEHBAI
Poem for Those Affected by Disaster
FAHMIDA RIAZ
Aqleema
The Chador and the Walled Homestead
Search Warrant
NASREEN ANJUM BHATTI
Ascending Mystic Song
I
It Could be Any Age
Kafi
The Sparrows’ Question
YASMEEN HAMEED
Another Day Has Passed
I Am Still Awake
I Have Spat Out This Poem
In Our Station
PK 754
Who Will Write the Epitaph?
&nb
sp; SEHAR IMDAD
Acid
Mohenjo Daro
Sun, Moon, Star
Living but Dead
Tsunami
PARVEEN SHAKIR
Ghazal: From Lane to Lane Spread the Rumor of Familiarity
Ghazal: No Spirit Left to Proceed, Impossible to Stop
Misfit
Soliloquy
PUSHPA VALLABH
Singer
I Am Without Form or Shape
Light a Lamp and See
People Are the Same
A Small Desire
HASINA GUL
?
Beautiful Book
Life and Time
Truth
Where, in the Ground Plan of Your Life, Do I Stand, My Love?
Notes
The Poets
Other Contributors
FOREWORD
Poetry is universal, and its enduring appeal depends on the ability of poets to capture and convey our innermost emotions. Like a fragrance that spreads everywhere in a subtle, almost imperceptible way, poetry transcends all borders and nationalities. Pakistani poetry is especially rich because it is inspired by the mystic poets of Sufi tradition. Indeed, the fundamental ethos of Pakistani culture and literature is perhaps most visible in the Sufi poetry of the region. The mystics lived their lives among the common people, giving expression to their sorrows and joys. Their poetry is an open rebellion against prejudice, intolerance, and hatred. This mystic heritage, which is reflected in all the country’s regional languages, is the driving force behind Pakistani poetry.
The subject matter of Pakistani poetry ranges from romance to resistance against the tyranny of dictators and other oppressors. Some of our more traditional poetry is couched in rhyme and meter, while some is free verse. The most recent Pakistani poetry is offbeat and avant-garde and exudes a new sensibility, infused with fresh metaphors and similes. As a general rule, though, the diction of our poetry is devoid of stereotypes, clichés, and other hackneyed expressions. Pakistani poetry can, I believe, easily be compared to the best poetry currently being written in any of the world’s major languages.
I hope that this selection of poems will provide a comprehensive glimpse into the vibrant literature of Pakistan. I am sure that American readers will be both surprised and delighted by the kaleidoscopic colors of our country’s poetry.
I offer my appreciation to the American Embassy in Pakistan for arranging reciprocal translations of the poetry of our two countries.
FAKHAR ZAMAN
Chairman, Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad
PREFACE
The poetry of Pakistan is not something young like the country, which is only some six decades old. It represents an unbroken tradition rooted in the rich mystic soil of the land and in the refined and highly sophisticated verse of masters like Meer, Ghalib, and Iqbal, whose own sources of inspiration go back to the great Persian poets Hafiz, Saadi, Rumi, and Omar Khayyam. It is by no means a matter of opinion when I say that the heritage of world literature has been the poorer for not having given due recognition to this magnificent tradition, but I would hasten to add that the fault has entirely been our own for not endeavoring to facilitate translations of this work into the major languages of the world.
We are a multilingual country, one in which a host of cultures, intermingled with folk traditions that have persisted for millennia, informs the national psyche and colors creative expression in all its various forms. Pakistani literature itself spans a broad range, its themes encompassing moral, social, emotional, intellectual, and philosophical issues. In the realm of poetry, the topic of love, with its limitless dimensions, of course claims the largest territory, yet reflections and insights abound concerning society and the human condition, particularly in regard to the question of how the individual braves the privations of a developing economy while tradition grapples with new ideas. In Pakistan, modern trends in poetry have been evident almost from the advent of modernity itself: it would be difficult to single out any “experimental” trend in Western poetry that has failed to find enthusiasts among the younger generation of our own poets as well (sometimes to the great amusement of the classical school). In our own literary milieu, debates still rage between the art-for-art’s-sake school and those who argue that art must serve society: the progressive movement, which originated in the 1920s, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution, and which held sway for close to a half century, continues to be visible in certain areas of mainstream poetry, if no longer as strident as it once was. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Sheikh Ayaz, and Gul Khan Naseer were among the last great progressives.
The creation of Pakistan in 1947 provided space for a synthesis of the intellectual and philosophical thought that emerged on the Indian subcontinent following the arrival of Muslims in the eighth century. During the centuries preceding the birth of Pakistan, Islamic thought had undergone a number of important developments, represented by such luminaries as Amir Khusro (1253–1325); Sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi, known as Mujaddid Alif Thani (1564–1624); Shah Waliullah (1703–1762); and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898). This process found its fullest expression in the thought and poetry of Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), who spearheaded the move in British India for an independent Muslim state. His poetry and thought have influenced successive generations of poets and thinkers, not only on the subcontinent but throughout the Muslim world.
Among the poets who became popular in the new country were N. M. Rashid, Meeraji, and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. This troika represents three divergent trends in Urdu poetry: Faiz’s inspiration coming from progressive Marxist ideology, whereas Rashid and Meeraji represent the modernists. Nasir Kazmi captured the experience of migration, combining the classical with a highly contemporary sensibility, while Majeed Amjad made creative use of local imagery and idiom. Others, among them Qaiyyum Nazar, Mukhtar Siddiqi, Zia Jalandhari, Yousaf Zafar, Aziz Hamid Madni, and Saqi Faruqi, gave new vigor to the Urdu nazm, and Jamiluddin Aali, Ahmad Faraz, Athar Nafees, and Jaun Elia did the same for the Urdu ghazal. With their unique styles and vision, poets such as Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Munir Niazi, Saleem Ahmad, and Zafar Iqbal have given us new ways of looking at the world. Similarly, Ghani Khan, Janbaz Jatoi, Taos Banihali, and Sheikh Ayaz have opened up new paths for poets writing in Pashto, Seraiki, Kashmiri, and Sindhi.
A distinctive blend of Arabic vocabulary, Persian epic tone, and the echoes of a historic past finds expression in many a talented poet of our time. Akhtar Hussain Ja’afri combined these elements into a coherent system of thought, producing a small volume of poetry that stands out for its virtuosity. Along with my contemporaries, I have also made my humble contribution to this classical mode. More recently, another trend has emerged in which the epic tone of the Persian classics is being transposed into a highly modern atmosphere. Over the course of the twentieth century, prose poetry also matured and became the preferred form of many gifted poets, including Abdul Rashid, Qamar Jamil, Ahmad Hamesh, and Mubarak Ahmad.
The work of women poets has become increasingly multidimensional as they explore and expose the world that appears to their eyes. Never before in our history have we seen such a large number of women writers and poets contributing so significantly to our literature: Ada Jaffery, Zehra Nigah, Kishwar Naheed, Fahmida Riaz, Parveen Shakir, Shahida Hasan, and Yasmeen Hameed to name but a few.
Poetry is not just something to be read, but, like music, is a popular passion in Pakistan—people come in the thousands to listen to poets recite their verses. Quite a few of our poets have excellent singing voices and have developed melodies of their own in which to sing their work, crooning their compositions to cries of “Mukarrer, mukarrer!” (“Encore, encore!”). New collections of poetry are launched in one city or another nearly every day—but, in the end, the current volume had to limit itself to forty-four poets only. Even if one were to restrict one’s selection to living poets only, and be utterly uncompromising in this selection, working with so small a number
would have been a difficult task at best; to make one’s selection from across the entire twentieth century, however, from all the major languages of Pakistan—Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Seraiki, and Kashmiri—and from the entire range of progressives, modernists, classicists, formalists, and so on, was an exercise in aesthetic brutality. I have had to make hard-to-justify omissions from every class of poets. Yet, from even this relatively small sample, I feel the Western reader will still gain an appreciation of the poetic output of Pakistan and its representative variety—the remarkable range of poetic sentiments, thoughts, and themes.