KARACHI: Faiz had the capacity to create new universes through his poetry and that is what sets him apart from all other poets, said Dr Syed Nomanul Haq at an intimate gathering organised by the Tehzeeb Foundation on Sunday.

The evening comprised an arrested audience where Dr Noman passionately spoke about Faiz and his poetry — sometimes reciting, sometimes playing recordings of Faiz’s eternal verses being sung. He explained about Faiz’s word-building, the simplicity of his expression coupled with grand imagery and even the technicalities of his diction. And despite critically analysing in such minute detail, he admitted to still being fascinated and bewildered by the master’s craft.

Dr Noman mentioned that he had for a long time been working on Kulliyat-i-Faiz, which would focus on the poetic genius of Faiz. “Before this, most of the focus has been on Faiz’s personality rather than on his poetry and essays among others. There has been mention on this definitely, but much less. For instance in 2011 for Faiz’s centenary celebrations, most of the articles read and speeches given did not highlight his poetry in detail,” he said.

One more reason was because Faiz Ahmed Faiz had been at the hub of much of the country’s political history, he explained. He was not only part of some of the defining moments for Pakistan and his life trajectory encompassed realities such as arrests, loneliness, court appearances and a lot of despair, almost like a Dastan, he said.

Giving the example of Faiz’s “Dasht-i-Tanhai”, which he recited and even played a recording of Iqbal Bano’s rendition, Dr Noman said the ideas expressed in it were conceptually like a honeycomb, interconnected like a network.

Another interesting observation Dr Noman made was how Faiz Ahmed Faiz would in some verses completely bypass the use of verbs and using only nouns still painted a grand image. “When we look at the verses from a grammatical point of view, we see a gathering of nouns. In case a verb does make an appearance, it is usually an adjectival verb.”

Faiz’s time was the time of Hali, Maulana Husain Azad and of Sir Syed’s Tehreek, he said, when it was urged that expression should be simple and easy to understand and it should leave an impact on the intended audience. “In such an environment Faiz did maintain simplicity in his expression, but created such beauty that there is no other at par with it.”

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018