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.
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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
Friday, April 3, 2009
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.
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.
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Very nice pages and poetry. Your kind of information I am a poet. After publish my book "sarmaya-e-muhabbat" i have published my poetry in my site. if you are interested please visit this:
ReplyDeletehttp://sarmaya-e-muhabbat.blogspot.com