The Hidden Garden, Gopi Narang [cheapest way to read ebooks txt] 📗

hands

again and again.

ik nigeh ek chashmak ik sukhan

is mein bhi tum ko hai ta-ammul sa

A slanted look,

a wink, a word.

Alas! even in this,

you have hesitation!

hai jo andher shahr mein khurshiid

din ko le kar charaagh nikle hai

har sahar haadisa meri khaatir

bhar ke khuun ka aayaagh nikle hai

The sun in a deserted

and ruined city rises

as if someone walks

holding a lamp

in darkness.

Each morn a new calamity,

holding a goblet

brimming with blood,

shows up looking for me.

saaye mein har palak ke khwaabiida hai qayaamat

is fitna-e zaman ko koi jaga to dekho

The calamity is sleeping and dreaming

under the shadow of her eyelids.

Who will dare to wake up

this hideously appalling beauty?

mansur ki nazar thi jo daar ki taraf so

phal vo darakht laaya aakhir sar-e buridaah

Mansur’s gaze was fixed on the hanging post.

Eventually that tree bore its fruit

when the acclaimed head of Mansur

appeared there.

tuk Mir-e jigar sokhta ki jald khabar le

kya yaar bharosa hai charaagh-e sehri ka

Do inquire about the condition

of Mir’s burning heart.

My friend, you can’t rely much

on the morning’s lamp.

kuchh mauj-e hava pechaan ae Mir nazar aaii

shaayad k bahaar aaii zanjiir nazar aaii

The wave of wind, Mir,

seemed to be curled.

Possibly spring has arrived.

I saw the chains of

those who are madly in love.

aage bhi tere i’shq se khenche the dard o ranj

lekin hamaari jaan par aisi bala n thi

My love for you had brought

untold pain and torment

in the past as well.

But my life was not as miserable

and agonized as it is now.

apne to honth bhi n hile us ke rubru

ranjish ki vajah Mir vo kya baat ho gaaii

Even the lips didn’t move

when I was with her.

Mir, I don’t know

what caused her indifference

and unfriendliness.

sad harf zer-e khaak tah-e dil chale gaye

mohlat n di ajal ne hamein ek baat ki

Hundreds of words in my heart

went with me as I was buried.

Death didn’t give me permission

to say even one thing.

marg-e majnun se a’qal gum hai Mir

kya diivaane ne maut paaii hai

The death of Majnun, Mir

makes me lose myself in disbelief.

Can a lover like him ever die?

Urdu’s First Complete Poet

aatish si phuk rahi hai saare badan mein mere

dil mein a’jab tarah ki chingaari aa pari hai

My whole body is on fire.

A spark of a strange kind

has hit my heart.

For a complete understanding of Mir’s poetic creativity, we have to go beyond the traditional lenses of simplicity and complexity. These classifications are too general and compartmentalized. Mir’s creative mind is indifferent to such ready-made explanations. Mir was Urdu’s first all-inclusive complete poet, and his work is truly multidimensional, including those aspects that unfolded in Urdu poetry long after he was gone. His metaphorical dictum was:

she’r mere hain sab khwaas pasand

par mujhe guftagu a’vaam se hai

My poetry is appreciated

by the sophisticated.

But I address

the common people.

As mentioned by Mohammad Husain Azad in Aab-e Hayaat, there is a lot in Mir’s works that is meant for the literati, people with refined literary taste, and at the same time, there is enough for common folks enjoying themselves sitting leisurely on the steps of a crowded place like the Jam’a Masjid in Delhi. Mir himself used ‘Jam’a Masjid steps’ as a metaphor because in the changed shallow cultural environment of Lucknow there was no concept of ordinary folks enjoying the intricacies of refined and cultivated poetry.

Mir spent his childhood in Akbarabad, as Agra was then known, and therefore the language that he picked up at an early age was not the Persianized Urdu of Delhi. Still, colloquial Urdu mixed with Braj Bhasha was the common speech in the Agra-Mathura region. Many Braj words, expressions, and unrefined styles that show up repeatedly in Mir’s verse and these elements remind us of an early influence that left a permanent mark on his unconscious mind. Consider the high frequency /o/ or /u/ endings or common colloquial words such as kabhu, kisu, kiijo, liijo, tuk, nipat, pavan, bachan, mukh, jad, tad, in, kin, baas, Nagar, birha, saanjh, sajan, maati, etc. He also grasped the art of selecting long vowels and stretching the short vowels to make them musically long, a common practice in Braj. Perhaps the knowledge of one language alone would not have made Mir what he became. When Mir arrived in Delhi, he carried this gift from Agra which when grafted on to Delhi’s the more refined idiom, called Khari Boli, became the language of his early poetic expression. The influence of Khari Boli is visible in the use of words like aave hai, jaave hai, khaave hai, dosh uuper, ham paas, dekhiya huun, or jo jo tum ne sitam kiye so so ham ne uthaaye hain, etc. Further, all these colloquial treasures were creatively kneaded into the Persian tradition prevalent during Mughal era’s the twilight years. This is what bestowed a magical glow to Mir’s lyricism.

The situation in Lucknow was quite different. There was a robust Awadhi influence there, as witnessed in Anis’ marsias (elegies) and Mirza Shauq’s masnavis. By the time he arrived in Lucknow, Mir was in his late sixties. It was therefore difficult for him to make a compromise based on local practices. Nonetheless, he unconsciously absorbed some Awadhi influences, and that is how he became the first complete poet of Urdu. It does not mean that Mir’s command of vocabulary exceeded everyone else. Not that it matters much, no count has been made of the number of words every prominent Urdu poet knew or used. Words, a single distinct meaningful element of writing, is just one measure. Language has many layers and levels. It includes aspects which are metaphorical, syntactical, and philological. When we consider all these aspects, Mir is the only one who qualifies to be called Urdu’s first complete poet. Critics, especially Rashid Ahmed Siddiqi, have mentioned that Mir’s Urdu is different from other poets because while other poets rely on the use of Arabic and Persian constructs and phrases, Mir uses Urdu, pure and simple spoken Urdu with naturalized dialectal influences of the heartland of India, Agra, Delhi, and Lucknow. There is more Urdu-iyat (feel and ambiance of Urdu) and Urdu-pan (refined taste and touch of Urdu) in