you cannot but discern...if you are a reader of english literature...something faustian about the simple lines of provincial poetry here...
pyase pyase naina uske, jaane pagli kya chahe
tat par jab bhi aaye chahe chchagli bhar loon gagar mein
these beautiful lines could also be hinting at the unquenchable desire for the objects of the material world...one of which is also knowledge.
here is a tour de force which can be compared to Milton's description of Eve, stretching out to reach for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the whole idea of breaking out of the balanced composed symmetry of the contours of the body, an image of transgression...the same is rendered here in another way...more mundane and more real. Faustus and Eve at the same time in just two lines that is the power of Urdu verse.
aur bhi seena tan-tan jata, aur kamar bal kha jaati
chalte chalte paun phisalne lagte jab dhalyawan pe
one must note the image of pride, the image of ripeness, the image of breaking out of the natural corporal bounds, all in one...there is also the image of the fall..at least impending...the contortions of the natural body to keep apace with the newly acquired power...given here in the form of sexual ripeness. Knowledge truly is such a slippery path, ask the ones who go in the pursuit of it.
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poochte hain woh ke ghalib kauh hai...
- aahu e khutan
- Senior assistant professor at Zakir Husain Delhi College (Eve.) of the Delhi University
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A quart in a pint pot!
you cannot but discern...if you are a reader of english literature...something faustian about the simple lines of provincial poetry here...
pyase pyase naina uske, jaane pagli kya chahe
tat par jab bhi aaye chahe chchagli bhar loon gagar mein
these beautiful lines could also be hinting at the unquenchable desire for the objects of the material world...one of which is also knowledge.
here is a tour de force which can be compared to Milton's description of Eve, stretching out to reach for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the whole idea of breaking out of the balanced composed symmetry of the contours of the body, an image of transgression...the same is rendered here in another way...more mundane and more real. Faustus and Eve at the same time in just two lines that is the power of Urdu verse.
aur bhi seena tan-tan jata, aur kamar bal kha jaati
chalte chalte paun phisalne lagte jab dhalyawan pe
one must note the image of pride, the image of ripeness, the image of breaking out of the natural corporal bounds, all in one...there is also the image of the fall..at least impending...the contortions of the natural body to keep apace with the newly acquired power...given here in the form of sexual ripeness. Knowledge truly is such a slippery path, ask the ones who go in the pursuit of it.
pyase pyase naina uske, jaane pagli kya chahe
tat par jab bhi aaye chahe chchagli bhar loon gagar mein
these beautiful lines could also be hinting at the unquenchable desire for the objects of the material world...one of which is also knowledge.
here is a tour de force which can be compared to Milton's description of Eve, stretching out to reach for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the whole idea of breaking out of the balanced composed symmetry of the contours of the body, an image of transgression...the same is rendered here in another way...more mundane and more real. Faustus and Eve at the same time in just two lines that is the power of Urdu verse.
aur bhi seena tan-tan jata, aur kamar bal kha jaati
chalte chalte paun phisalne lagte jab dhalyawan pe
one must note the image of pride, the image of ripeness, the image of breaking out of the natural corporal bounds, all in one...there is also the image of the fall..at least impending...the contortions of the natural body to keep apace with the newly acquired power...given here in the form of sexual ripeness. Knowledge truly is such a slippery path, ask the ones who go in the pursuit of it.
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