Beautiful image--Irfan Siddiqui

this is one of the best couplets from a ghazal by Irfan Siddiqui I recently came across on one of the websites---

haal zaalim shikari ki soorat mujhe, waqt ki zeen se bandh kar le chala
mera maazi mere saath chalta raha, door tak ek majboor maan ki tarah

It doesn't get better than this---or does it?
haal means the present moment....like a cruel hunter....zalim shikari ki soorat, waqt ki zeen---is the saddle of time....maazi is the past.

isn't it beautiful!!!

A NAZM---AFTER A LONG TIME...

Andheri raat mein, sunsaan rusta
aur apnon ki rafaaqat bhi nahin hai
doosre lafzon mien ye kahiye..
tamaddun ne basarat cheen li hai (tamaddun=culture, basarat=sight)
aur andhera is liye hai: raston ki raunaqen tehzeeb ke dar se nazar aati nahin hain
aur kyon ke dono baten sirf mujh ko hi pata hain...
is liye main hoon akela...
yane..apnon ki rafaqat bhi nahin haasil

abhi ghar door hai, darta hoon
aur dil mien baghawat bhi nahin hai
doosre lafzon mein yun kahiye..
mein jana chahta hoon us jagah jo jism ko aazaad kar de
woh purana ghar jo kafi door hai.
Dar is liye hai:
doosron ko, jism ke aazaad karne ka pata chal jaye to kya ho
baghawat kar nahin sakta!

bahut khush posh hoon...(well dressed)
malboos bhi kafi hoon, khul kar khelne ki meri aadat bhi nahin hai
doosre lafzon mien yun kahiye
nafasat aur tarah daari ne meri awwaleen fitrat ke jauhar ko
kabhi uryan nahin hone diya...

ek nahin kafi libaason ka badan par bojh hai
zahir hai...aise mein meri marzi kahan tak chal sakegi
kaise man maani karunga mein!

jo mera raasta roke khadi thi...
ab woh apni ediyon ko aage aur panjon ko peeche kar ke chalti aa rahi hai
is pe ghalib aa sakun mujh mein yeh himmat bhi nahin hai
doosre lafzon mein yun kahiye
ke meri aaj ka ehsaas, kal ki yaad, mustaqbil ki zimmedariyan
tehzeeb ki uljhan, tamaddun ki ghutan
iqdaar, zapt, ikhlaqiyat
sab raasta roke khadi hain
aage badne hi nahin deti...
meri hi zapt aur tehzeeb ki yeh ghair fitri chaal (ghair fitri=unnatural)

mere dar ka bunyaadi sabab thehri
nihayat ghair fitri chaal chalti hai...pichchal pairi

nateeja soch ka yeh hai...
udhar...
main ghar se kaafi door
apnon ki rafaqat se juda
sunsaan raste par, andheri raat mein
darta hua chalta chala jaata hoon!
(chalta kya hoon chalna chaahta hoon!)
ghair fitri chaal se woh meri jaanib aa rahi hai...
aur idhar,
ye khush libaasi
mere malboosaat ki bohtaat

mujh ko hi sataati hai
badhe boodhon ki ik baat aaj mujh ko yaad aati hai
woh kehte the
PICHCHAL PAIRI KE AAGE NANGE HO JAO TO FAURAN BHAAG JAATI HAI!

if my readers like this they should, would, could ask me who this is by....lately there have not been any comments...please comment people!

Recently reminded of Ghalib

Farogh e husn se hoti hai hal har mushkil e aashique
na nikle shama ke paa se, nikale gar na khar aatish

farogh e husn means the propogation of beauty
hal hona means a problem being solved
paa means foot and aatish means fire

It is only through the propogation of beauty that the lover of beauty solves all his problems, like the candle feels the thorn stuck in its foot (the image of the string in the candle) until it effaces itself while giving light to others. One of the most beautiful images of a helplessness in sacrificing oneself. Very akin to the image of the bismil, the lover who dances to death....the word ashique in the first line is evocative of this pleasure in sacrifice.

muzaffar hanafi's poetry

main gunahgaar aur an ginat paarsa char janib se yalghaar karte hue
jaise shab khoon mein baukhla kar uthen log-talwaar! talwaar! karte hue

this couplet sketches a laconic picture of the fears of a society that points fingers at others....paarsa means 'holier than thou'...people who are usually threatened by difference are the ones who are usually unsure about their own beliefs. The image of an ambush (shab khoon) is very appropriate in suggesting the sleepy monotony of the existence of the people who are not used to difference and change.

woh kharaashen dikhate rahe haath ki, sangsaari ke dauraan aayin thin jo
ham idhar zakhm e sar ko chchupate rahe, aur taz'een e dastaar karte hue

this is another image of the oppressor and the oppressed, lover/beloved, sangsaari is stoning, or throwing stones at someone, but also look at the self respect of the one stoned who tries to hide his wound by raising his head gear (dastaar) higher

phir chchati his ne parche lagae bahut, aaine aaqbat ne dikhaye bahut
bhai ne aaj kyon mujh ko dekha nahin, taj poshi ka darbaar karte hue

woh zamaana laga hai ke ab jism mein khaar ke waste qatra khoon bhi nahin
ek woh waqt bhi tha ke chalte the ham, raaste bhar ko gulzaar karte hue

this couplet is self evident....khaar means a thorn.

Aadmi Nama

here is an excerpt from "Aadmi Nama" by Nazeer Akbarabadi.

duniya mien badshah hai so hai woh bhi aadmi
aur muflis o gada hai so hai woh bhi aadmi
zar dar be nawa hai so hai woh bhi aadmi
ne'amat jo kha raha hai so hai woh bhi aadmi
tukde jo mangta hai so hai woh bhi aadmi

abdaal o qutb o ghaus o wali aadmi hui
munkar bhi aadmi hue aur kufr se bhare
kya kya karishme kashf o karamat ke kiye
had ta ke apne zor o riyazat ke zor pe
khaliq se ja mila hai so hai woh bhi aadmi

fir'aun ne kiya tha jo daawa khudai ka
shaddad bhi bahisht bana kar hua khuda
namrud bhi khuda hi kahaata tha bar mala
yeh baat hai samajhne ki aage kahoon main kya
yan tak jo ho chuka hai so hai woh bhi aadmi

yan aadmi hi naar hai aur aadmi hi noor
yan aadmi hi paas hai aur aadmi hi door
kul aadmi ka husn o qaba mien hai yaan zahoor
shaitaan bhi aadmi hai jo karta hai makr o zor
aur haadi, rehnuma hai so hai woh bhi aadmi

masjid bhi aadmi ne banai hai yan miyan
bante hain aadmi hi imaam aur khutba khwan
padhte hain aadmi hi namaaz aur quran yan
aur aadmi hi un ki churaate hain jootiyan
unko jo tadhta hai so hai woh bhi aadmi

yan aadmi pe jaan ko ware hai aadmi
aur aadmi hi tegh se maare hai aadmi
pagrhi bhi aadmi ki utaare hai aadmi
chilla ke aadmi ko pukare hai aadmi
aur sun ke daudhta hai so hai woh bhi aadmi!

explanations follow in the next entry...please comment !

a little more meer!

i recently came upon this one...identified with it and then felt that the identification would be quite universal...

baawle se jab talak bakte the, sab karte the pyar!
aql ki baten kiyan, kya ham se na dani hui!

in fact there are quite a few which can be read out to the rationalists...

kehta hai baat woh dil, jo aql mien na aye!
ghar ka musheer kitna na daan hai hamara!

'musheer' is the advisor...this one is quite paradoxical...but the tone is certainly that of praise for the heart's advice.

and finally just to give a discursive feel to the tropes mentioned in meer
Iqbal says:

be khatar kood padha aatish e namrood mein ishq
aql hai mahv e tamasha e lab e baam abhi!

here is one for the rationalists by shuja khawar:

aankhen bata rahin hain ke daana hai daam mein
aur fikr keh rahi hai ke daane mein daam hai!

when one sees the bait in the trap one does not know that it is bait...it is only the 'fikr' or reason that tells you that the seed is not only in the trap...but that the 'seed' is the trap

flaneur, troubadour...dervish

my blog might be inspired by the poetry of delhi but the mind should not cease to travel beyond the boundaries geographical or otherwise...i try and bring to my readers sheer poetry from the extant pockets of urdu in the country or abroad...as iqbal says...

darvesh e khuda mast na gharbi hai na sharqi
ghar mera na dilli, na safahan, na samarkhand!

i recently came upon some interesting nazms by another indian genius, Nazeer Akbarabadi...
the nazm is called chuhon ka achar..

phir garm hua shehr mein bazaar chuhon ka
ham ne bhi kiya khomcha tayyar chuhon ka
sar paon kuchal koot ke do char chuhon ka
jaldi se kachoomar sa kiya maar chuhon ka

kya zor mazedaar hai achar chuhon ka

Nazeer writes in common man's language and everything can serve as a theme for his poetry here are a few lines on the watermelon...'tarbooz'

kyon na ho sabz zumurrud ke barabar tarbooz
karta hai khushk kaleje ke ta'in tar tarbooz
dil ki garmi ko nikale hai yeh aksar tarbooz
jis taraf dekhiye behtar se hai behtar tarbooz

ab to baazaar mein bikte hain sara sar tarbooz

mujh se kal yaar ne magvaya jo de kar paisa
us mien taanki jo lagayi to woh kachcha nikla
dekh tyauri ko chadha ho ke ghazab, taish mein aa
kuch na ban aya to phir ghur ke yeh kehne laga

kyon be laya hai utha kar yeh mera sar tarbooz!

some more couplets

this is a couplet from the ghazal by a lesser known poet from Delhi-6...ironical how shahjahanabad has been confined to a kafkaesque number that is made a travesty of by the bombay film industry.

loo ke thapede khate khate, kusht e tamanna sookh gaya
pani ki ek boond na barsi, baadal ghir ghir aye bahut!

ishq jinho ke dhyan para woh, pehle to itraye bahut
boor ke laddoo khane wale, peeche phir pachtaye bahut!

these couplets are exemplary of the delhi style because of the incredibly easy use of muhavra, the delhi idiom.

loo ke thapede... are something every delhi wala would know very well...loo is a Delhi phenomenon...and it is certainly not the 'loo' that we go to these days.
boor ke laddoo...is an idiom for a desire that remains unsatisfied even as you seem to have clenched it...boor is a shorter version of boora, khaand or icing sugar...the muhavara is itself beautiful as it is the most approximate rendering of the elusive object of desire...the moment you hold on to them they break and fall....you might have come across it in the old urdu rhyme for children..
chanda mama door ke, bade pakayen boor ke

meer sahab se dosti kar lo!

there are some wonderful couplets by meer that i recently came upon and would like to share them with my readers...

bas yeh jana ke kuch na jana, haye!!
yeh bhi ik umr mein hua ma'aloom.

the wonderful thing about the couplet is its use of haye!..a version of Alas!...which brings in all the feelings of loss of life and the idea of gain which is miniscule in comparison to the loss...to a religious reader it ought to bring to the mind the meccan surah in the qur'aan called ' wal asr'....

wal asr! innal insana lafi khusr

khusr means loss...in this surah...Allah swears by 'Time'...eternal, temporal, duree real or reel, insaan, man is in a state of loss....except those who believe and do good deeds.
the first line of meers couplet brings to mind this state of loss...with the Haye! which brings out the state of regret at a life 'wasted'. the next couplet clarifies the first when it shows that the life has actually come to an end...ek umr mein hua ma'aloom.

haven't come across such laconic and packed lines in many writers.

ustad phir ustad hi hota hai!

One name seems to have been completely overwhelmed in todays popular choice of poets by Ghalib and Meer and that is Ustad Zauq...Zauq's poetry is incredible in its masterly use of language. There are so many couplets that we just pass over without really relishing the delicate taste...

Behtar to hai yahi ke na duniya se dil lage
par kya karen jo kaam na be dil lagi chale!

the play on dil lagna and dillagi is a masterly stroke as it captures the whole idea of the world being a joke...(Dillagi means harmless fun or joking)

i recently came upon some beautiful, lesser known couplets by Ustad Zauq...

kisi be kas ko ai bedaar gar mara to kya mara
jo aaphi mar raha ho us ko gar mara to kya mara?!

bade moozi ko mara, nafs e ammara ko gar mara
nahang o azdaha o sher e nar mara to kya mara?!

gaya shaitaan mara ek sajde ke na karne se
agar lakhon baras sajde mein sar mara to kya mara?!

the first couplet does not need explanation except the dipthong like use of Aphi which would otherwise be Aap Hi, in order to get the metre right.

the second couplet is about fighting against the 'self', the nafs e ammara, which proves one's prowess more than the killing of a cobra, a python or a male Lion.

the last couplet talks about the uselessness of 'performed' worship...if the intention is not that of submission then the prayers of a thousand years is nought.

Here are some couplets for all the systemic "subjects"

There has been a tendency in Urdu poetry from long before the arrival of poststructuralist thought to talk about the state of subjection that the human is born into. The readers of the blog would remember the couplet by Irfan siddiqui which talks about the chained existence of people of the world at large....ghalib talks about what could be seen reiterated in Gramscian thought when he says...

mishdah! ai zauq e aseeri, ke nazar aata hai
daam khali, qafas e murgh e giraftar ke paas

mishdah! is an expression of ironic praise for the people who can see others trapped in the snares of the world and a yet ready to enter the snare themself...zauq e aseeri means...the joy of being captive..daam is the snare and qafas is the cage. Don't we walk into numerous snares daily, even while being aware of the ones who are in a cage because of having walked into it....

shuja'a khawar says at one point...

udte huon ko ghoorta hai aasman...jaldi karo!
parwaaz par bas ab lagin pa' bandiyan...jaldi karo!

the word 'ghoorta', which stands for 'staring', gives an image of the peeved state of the powerful on seeing some 'fly in the face of authority' and hence the imposition of prohibitions.

another poet 'fani' talks of life and death in terms of subjection and freedom

fasl e gul aayi, ya ajal aayi? phir dar e zindan khulta hai...
ya koi qaidi aur aa pahuncha, ya koi qaidi cchoot gaya!

Meer has several beautiful couplets on the same theme

kaisa chaman?!! ke ham se aseeron ko mana hai
chaak e qafas se bagh ki deewar dekhna!

saye mein, taak ke, mujhe rakkha aseer kar
sayyad ke karam se qafas aashiyan hua!

The above couplet is phenomenal in its timeless appeal...to be born in a cage which does not permit any glimpse of the world outside...the 'beyond', collapses the difference between the cage..the qafas and the home.

there is yet another dramatic couplet by jigar muradabadi

ikka dukka...sada e zanjeer
zindaan mein shaam ho gayi hai!

ending on a positive note...only someone as resilient as Ghalib could say this...

baske hoon 'Ghalib' aseeri mein bhi, aatish zer e pa
mu e aatish deedah hai halqa meri zanjeer ka!

aseeri, to be aseer, means to be captive...aatish zer e pa..is to be ready to fly, to have fire under one's feet...and since one has fire under the feet...the iron rings of the chain (zanjeer ka halqa) would get red hot...the curve of the ring is likened to the humble capacity of a hair (mu) that curls as it is taken close to a burning object.

to mark a century of visitors on my blog!

there is an interesting nazm by iqbal that i dedicate to my readers today...
it is called Ahd e tifli...which means the period of infancy..

the dayar e nau, Zameen o aasman mere liyen
wus'at e aaghosh e maadar, ik jahan mere liyen

thi har ek jumbish nishan e lutf e jaan mere liyen
harf e be matlab thi khud meri zaban mere liyen

daur e tifli mein agar koi rulata tha mujhe
shorish e zanjeer e dar mein, lutf aata tha mujhe

takte rehna hai, woh pehron talak, sooe qamar
woh phate baadal mein, be aawaz e pa us ka safar

poochna, reh reh ke, us ke koh o sehra ki khabar
aur woh hairat "darogh e maslehat aamez" par

aankh waqf e deed thi, lab maa'il e guftaar tha
dil na tha mera, saraapa zauq e istafsaar tha

some of the best lines in the above poem are the ones that bring back the image of the infants actions to the reader's mind. There is the image of the child looking blankly at the moon...the moon that travels through the torn clouds...koh o sehra are the rocks and the deserts over which the moon travels...darogh is the word for a lie...darogh e maslehat aamez is a strategic lie.
it is in quotation marks being a quotation from Sa'adi.

darogh e maslehat aamez
behtar ast
az raast i fitna angez

a strategic lie is better than a scandalous truth.

istifsaar,istafsaar is to explain ...zauq e istafsaar means the desire to explain itself..which defines the existence of the infant.

kuch naye ash'aar !

The so-called poets of today can try and emulate the simplicity of Meer's style of poetry where so much is said without using many words...

Kal chaman mien Gul o Saman dekha
aaj dekha...to baagh, 'ban' dekha!

'ban' is the hindvi word for forest, or wilderness.

Zauq e paikan o teer mein tere
muddaton tak jigar ne chchan dekha

from another ghazal...

is mauj khez behr mein ham ko qaza ne aah!
paani ke bulbule ki tarah se mita diya

sab shor e ma o man ko liye dil mien mar gaye
yaaron ko is fasane ne aakhir sula diya

the above shair is talking about the 'constitution of the self'...'ma' mean me and 'man' means I. Meer talks about the 'I' as a mere narrative, a 'fasana' that eventually puts the 'listeners' to sleep.

and then...in the special dehlavi style

dil na tha aisi jagah jis ki na sudh leeje kabhoo
ujdi is basti ko phir tu ne basaya hota

dil se khush tarha makaan phir bhi kabhi bante hain?!!
is imaarat ko to tuk dekh ke dhaya hota!