‘Wo intezaar tha jiska ye wo seher to nahi’

Mukul Bansal 

Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984), whose 108th birth anniversary fell last month, is regarded as the greatest Pakistani Urdu poet of the 20th century. His popularity was next only to Muhammad Iqbal and he became a legend in his lifetime.

Among other honours, Faiz was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and won the Lenin Peace Prize.

Interestingly, Faiz mentored another legendary Urdu poet of Pakistan, Ahmed Faraz (1931-2008), who is known wherever Urdu is written or spoken. Both of them lived together in London in self-imposed exile during General Zia-ul-Haq’s totalitarian regime in Pakistan.

They had served spells in prison in their country for writing revolutionary poetry, decrying tyranny, calling for justice, and in Faiz’s case, for his strong communist outlook, trade unionism and cultural leanings.

 It’s another matter that both the poets also wrote soulful, some of the most exquisite romantic poetry of modern times. Faiz’s use of exalted language, diction and context, his thoughts and emotions are sometimes difficult to understand, especially for modern readers, but it’s irresistible for lovers of Faiz’s poetry not to keep two or three reference books handy and delight in his shayari.

Once I heard a couplet by Faiz, rather simple in language, but it made me double up in delight at its masterly expression and superbly ironical tone: Wo baat saare fasane mein jiska zjikr na tha, wo baat unko bari naagvar guzri hai. This couplet symbolised Pakistan’s military establishment’s dictatorship and repressive policies.

Faiz studied philosophy and English literature at Lahore and finished with an MA in Arabic. He started his career as a junior lecturer in a college at Amritsar. It was 1934-35. Left-wing thought was coming into its own. The Communist Party of India had been founded in 1925. The young Faiz read voraciously and composed poetry.

According to one commentator, the struggle against poverty and the fight against the forces of capitalism gave Faiz’s poetry a sense of direction. His first collection of poetry, Naqsh-e-Fariyadi (The Lamenting Image), was published in 1942. It was instantly lapped up. It had the legendary nazm, Bol... an exhortation to the exploited classes to speak up against zulm and injustice:

Bol ke lab (lips) azad hain tere, bol zaban ab tak teri hai/tera sutwan (well-built) jism hai tera, bol ke jaan ab tak teri hai/Dekh ke ahangar ki (ironsmith) dukaan mein tund (bright) hain shole, surkh (red) hai aahn (iron)/Khulne lage kuflon ke dahane (opening of locks), phaila har ek zanjeer ka daman/Bol, ye thoda waqt bahut hai, jism-o-zabaan ki maut se pehle/Bol, jo kuchh kehna hai kehle.        

One of the famous ghazals in this collection has three of the most-oft quoted couplets: Dono jahan teri mohabbat mein haar ke/Wo ja raha hai (reference to the funeral procession) koi shab-e-gham (night of sorrow, that is life) guzaar ke

(ii) Ik fursate (freedom) gunah mili, wo bhi chaar din/Dekhe hain humne hausle (courage) Parvardigar (God) ke

(iii) Duniya ne teri yaad se begana (alienate) kar diya, tujhse bhi dil-fareb (heart-alluring) hain gham rozgar ke.

In the collection of his poetry, Dast-e-Tahe-Sang (Hand under the rock), a couplet, which is actually a dirge for proud lovers, shows why Faiz was a great poet: Na raha, junoone-e-rukhe-wafa (madness to be faithful in love), ye rasan (stake and noose), ye daar (gallows) karoge kya/Jinhe zurm-e-ishq pe naaz tha, wo gunahgaar chale gaye.  

One didn’t know that Faiz was an admirer of music composer and music director Anil Biswas’ compositions from pre-Independence days. It came as a pleasant surprise when one discovered that Faiz had once written a kita (a couplet of four lines) for Biswas: Harek harf-e-tamanna (word of desire) is izterrar (eagerness) mein hai/ke phir nasseeb ho (mile) darbaar-e-yaare-banda-nawaz (the court of the beloved master musician), har ik ghazal ka safeena (boat) is intezaar mein hai, ke aaye misl-e-saba (like the wind) phir Aneel (Anil Biswas, Anil also means wind) ki tarah.

It’s interesting to note that when Faiz sought admission to Government College, Lahore (Aye roshnion ke shehar... O city of lights — Faiz) around 1927, after finishing high school from Sialkot, even though he had been a brilliant student throughout, it was Allama Iqbal, no less, who, according to Faiz’s eldest grandson and authorised biographer, Ali Madeeh Hashmi, gave him a letter of introduction.

Faiz’s heart and mind were shaken when the Progressive movement was started in 1936 under the leadership of Munshi Premchand and Sajjad Jaheer. He was intensely affected by the Great Depression of 1929 and the farmers’ and labourers’ movements and expressed his anguish in Nizami’s Persian declaration: Ab mein dil bechta hoon aur jaan kharidta hoon.

Faiz, like a multitude of sensitive minds, was disillusioned in the aftermath of Partition and developments that took place in Pakistan but there were lakhs in India too who admired Faiz’s nazm, Subah-e-azadi (Dawn of Independence), for similar reasons:

Ye daagh daagh ujala, ye shab gazeeda seher

Wo intezaar tha jiska ye wo seher to nahi

Ye wo seher to nahi, 

jis ki arzu le kar   

Chaley thay yaar ke mil 

jayegi kahin na kahin

Falak ke dasht mein taaron ki aakhri ki manzil

Kahin to hoga shab-e-sust mauj ka saahil

Kahin to ja ke rukay ga safeena-e-gham-e dil

English translation by Ali Madeeh Hashmi

This stained light, this night-bitten dawn;

This is not that long-awaited daybreak;

This is not the dawn in whose longing,

We set out believing we would find, somewhere,

in heaven’s wide void,

The stars’ final resting place;

Somewhere the shore of night’s slow-washing tide;

Somewhere, an anchor for the ship of heartache.