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!