Birth centennial of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz will be observed on Feb 13, 2011. A great oriental Urdu poet of versatile qualities who showed deep social consciousness for the downtrodden. He was basically a rebellious poet who was seen as a threat to the establishment. He grew up surrounded by literature with a father who was a friend to many writers, including Allama Iqbal. His schooling took him to Lahore where he studied Arabic and English literature. His literary studies laid the foundation for him to create a modern Urdu verse that took on larger social and political issues of his times yet retained the polished style and diction of the ghazal. He began his career as the editor of the leftist English-language daily, Pakistan Times, as well as the managing editor for the Urdu daily, Imroz. Although his first volume of poetry, Naqsh-e-Faryadi, was published in Lucknow in 1941; he became widely known after the 1952 publication of Dast-e Saba, poems written during his imprisonment by the Pakistani Government. After the military coup led by general Zia ul haq in 1979, Faiz lived in self-exile in Beirut writing for the Afro-Asia Writers Association journal, Lotus, until his return to Pakistan in 1982.
As a Marxist Faiz Ahmad Faiz rejected the notion of "art for art's sake". He has been described as a "committed" poet who used his simple verse to probe not only beauty and love but also humanism and justice. His imprisonment was evident in more than his two collections of poems written during his political detention. His translator Shiv K Kumar sees his imprisonment as a "metaphor that embodies his poetic vision." Aside from poet, Faiz was a journalist, songwriter, and activist.
In spite of his Marxist beliefs, Faiz did not burden his poems with ideological rhetoric. He fused classic traditional forms of poetry with new symbols derived from Western political ideas. However, in an interview Faiz has criticized the view that a poet "should always present some kind of philosophical, political or some other sort of thesis..." Like Muhammad Iqbal, he reinterpreted the most important theme in the Urdu ghazal, the theme of love. The word ghazal comes from Arabic and has been translated as "to talk with women" or "to talk of women." Faiz often addressed his poem to his "beloved", which can be interpreted as his muse, his country, or his concept of beauty or social change. "Your beauty still delights me, but what can I do? / The world knows how to deal out pain, apart from passion, / and manna for the heart, beyond realm of love. / don't ask from me, Beloved, love like that one long ago." (from 'Don't Ask Me Now, Beloved') The traditional beloved of ghazal cannot offer the poet answer to human suffering and social problems - "Bitter threads began to unravel before me / as I went into alleys and in open markets / saw bodies plastered with ash, bathed in blood. / I saw them sold and bought / again and again. / This too deserves my attention."
The beauty of Urdu poetry may be called unparalleled for its presentation, pain and depth. Faiz took full advantage of this opportunity and used his exceptional capability in producing some of world's best poems. After Mirza Ghalib he was one of the foremost poets in Urdu language. There is a saying in Urdu that, chand sher mila diziye ghazal tho bunn jati hain, leking zigar ka khoon bhi chahiye asr kay liye. By putting some lines a ghazal can be made but to make it effective blood from the heart is necessary. Faiz put all the blood from his heart into his poems.
I will place here an original Urdu poem and its English translation
Original Urdu
Raat yunh dil mein teri khoee hui yaad aayee
Jaise veeraaney mein chupkey sey bahaar aa jaye
Jaisey sehra on mein howley se chaley baadey naseem
Jaisey beemaar ko bey wajhey Qaraar aa jaaye
English Translation
Last night, your lost memories crept into my heart
as spring arrives secretly into a barren garden
as a cool morning breeze blows slowly in a desert
as a sick person feels well, for no reason.
Another one is so touching,
Sham-e-firaq aab na pooch, aai aur aa ke Tul gai
dil tha ke phir bhehal gaya, jaaN thee ke phir sanbhal gai
bazm-e-Khayal maiN tere husn ki shama jal gai
dard ka chaand bujh gaya, hijr ki raat Dhal gai
jab tujhey yaad kar liya subha mehak mehak uThee
jab tera ghum jaga liya raat machal machal gai
dil se to her muamla kar ke chale thai saaf hum
kehney maiN onkey samney baat badal badal gai
aaKhir-e-shab ke humsafar "faiz" najaney kya hoey
reh gai kis jaga saba, subha kidhar nikal gai
Translation:
Ask no more (about) the night of separation; it came, and passed
The heart got diverted again; life found its feet again
in the salon of (my) thoughts, the candle of your beauty was lighted
the moon-of-pain extinguished itself, the night of separation slipped away
whenever you were remembered, the mornings became fragrant
when your pain was awakened, the nights grew restless
in the heart i had sorted out all the issues before setting out
(however) while recounting before her, (my) words changed themselves
who knows where the fellow-travellers of the end-of-the-night went, Faiz?
at which spot did the breeze get left behind? and which way did the dawn walk off?
Akbar Hussain
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