“THREE things cannot be taught: generosity, poetry and a singing voice,” goes an Irish maxim. But Ahmed Hussain Mujahid, the author of the book Rumooz-i-shear, does not seem to agree to it.
The book, just published by Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) under its new series ‘Rahnuma kitaben’ (guide books), intends to instruct the young poets and new entrants to the field of literature in the art of poetry. Those who want to learn the art of poetry, or want to know what poetry is, what its finer points are and how poetry is evaluated would find this book helpful.
But first let me clarify that it is not the kind of ‘guide books’ that are commonly used in our colleges and universities and are often called ‘get-through guide’, produced by unscrupulous publishers for students who lag behind in studies, though I very much doubt anybody can get through any exam by going through that trash. But Rumooz-i-shear is the kind of instruction book that guides beginners through difficult parts of a subject swiftly. It is the kind of books that are very common in the western world and are called ‘Made easy’ or ‘Teach yourself’.
Of late, one such series in the West that is immensely popular is called ‘for dummies’. Sometimes youngsters want to read about some subject but are scared and driven away by the technical jargon or too pompous a language. The book is written in plain language and explains terms, theories and basic terminology of poetry and critical views on poetry in an easy-to-understand way.
In the first chapter, Mujahid refutes the popular claim that poetry is something that is produced as a result of some divine inspiration (‘ilhaam’) or intuition. This, he says, only led to an incorrect notion that only those born with a poetic knack can become poets. This, in turn, led to another myth that says a person bestowed with divine inspiration does not need to learn anything or study much for writing poetry. While poetry is indeed a mysterious process, it is both art and skill that can be learnt like any other branch of knowledge, skill or art, he adds. What he stresses for new poets is deep study and rigorous practice and feels that when creativity meets deep study and hard work, the result is poetry that is often called ‘sehr’ or magic. Rhetoric is something that can mesmerise the audience and the expression ‘sehr-ul-bayan’ refers to ‘the magic of eloquence’. That is why poetry is often alluded to as ‘sehr-i-halal’ (magic that is allowed, as practicing magic is a taboo in Islam).
In the second chapter poetry is defined and certain terms, used in poetry and literary criticism, are discussed. Different poetic genres, such as ghazal, nazm (poem), doha, geet, masnavi, rubai, qaseeda are defined and explained in a simple way. Next two chapters explain the rhetorical and expositional terminologies. They are defined with examples. The fifth chapter, perhaps the most delicate one, is on prosody (ilm-i-arooz) and it deals with the difficult task with as much ease and mastery, confirming the writer’s command over prosodic art. The last chapter with examples explains the common prosodic errors and linguistic inaccuracies that often creep into the poetry of young or inexperienced poets.
Most of the examples given in the book are from contemporary poets and dozens of beautiful and fresh couplets by our contemporary poets surprise us. This not only shows the author’s vast study of contemporary Urdu poetry but also his open-mindedness. As it is a common observation that professionals, especially poets and critics, nurture grudges for their contemporaries and rarely quote from peers.
It is the second book in PAL’s ‘Rahnuma kitaben series’, the first being TV drama kaise likhkha jata hai, informs Dr Qasim Bughio, the director general of PAL, in his intro. He says that the author Ahmed Hussain Mujahid is well-known in Urdu’s and Hindko’s literary circles and is especially acknowledged for his modern poetry and his command over ‘arooz’ or prosody, the branch of knowledge that deals with the metres of poetry.
Students and beginners who want to know the basics about poetry and how to compose it would love this book that is written in a lucid and easy-to-understand manner.
Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2017
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