Dr Shahzad Qaiser, a well-known poet and scholar, is a former civil servant who, in the manner of good colonial officers, keeps the tradition of adding to intellectual richness alive by his writings. He is trilingual and has a score of books to his credit in Punjabi, English and Urdu. His early claim to fame was his doctoral dissertation on the metaphysics of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, one of the last classical poets of Punjab. He has an abiding passion for metaphysics, religious experience and spirituality which frequently overlap in his writings. He is now a practising spiritualist, informs us his latest publication “Cultural and Spirituality (The Punjabi Sufi poetry of Baba Farid-ud-din Masud Ganj-i-Shakr as recorded in Guru Granth Sahib)” brought out by Suchet Kitab Ghar, Lahore.

“His spiritual master, Baba Sufi Muhammad Tufayl (d. 2000), initiated him into the Sufi order of his Murshid Mehr Din Aba Sayan in 1987 and spiritually authorised him to hold doctrinal sittings (dars) which he continues to hold on a regular basis in the tradition of Faqr (Silsila-i-Faqr),” says the note about the author. The book makes a reasonably thick volume and amply shows Dr Qaiser’s dedication and hard work. Baba Farid’s “Sufi poetry… is ‘rendered into English prose and explained in the light of tradition”. The implicit assertion that all the verses of Baba Farid can be placed into the straitjacket of, what is conveniently conceived as Sufi poetry, is contestable. A sizable number of his Shlokas (couplets) and Shabads (stanzas) directly deals with the ordinary life of ordinary mortals. He was never reluctant to explore the mundaneness of the mundane. Baba Farid, both in life and poetry, never made distinction between the ordinary and the sublime. His holistic vision included ‘each and all’. He famously declared bread the sixth tenant of Islam. This visible aspect of his poetry exposes and challenges the extremely repressive hierarchical social order and blatantly exploitative nature of economic relationship between different classes.

Dr Shahzad Qaisar’s view, as found in this book, doesn’t take into account the sociohistorical perspective. His emphasis is on the faith-inspired vision and practice of spirituality in a sanitised space detached from the impurities of social life and humdrumness of individual existence. Baba Farid, on the contrary, never believed in developing any sort of spiritual arboretum. He lived among the people and was an acme of life of blissful poverty.

Dr Shahzad’s renderings of the couplets are simple and thus accessible. The explanations of the couplets are based on the conventions of religion-driven traditional spirituality underpinned by age old metaphysics. Even the translations at times bear the imprint of such inclination. Just one example will suffice. Look at the following inimitable couplet: “Farida! Akhi dekh patinia, sunn sunn rinay kann/ saakh pakandi aai a, hor krandi vann”. It has been rendered as: “Farid! Seeing has weakened my eyes, while hearing has deafened my ears. The crop of my body (embodied self) has started ripening and is changing its colours”. While not discussing the literary quality of the translation, it needs to be pointed out that the translator has added ‘of my body (embodied self) which kills the verse’s suggestive quality. In the original text we find just ‘the crop’ which is a transparently vague metaphor that stirs and challenges the imagination. The spectacle that impairs the seeing and noise that damages the hearing tell the story of conflict-ridden earthly social life in which the reality is different when it reveals itself in all its facets.

Baba Farid’s poetry is open to multiple interpretations. Dr Shahzad is happy with the faith-laced spiritual one. His devotion and painstakingly hard work is commendable. His grounding in philosophy helps him illuminate some of the dark recesses of arcane world of mystic tradition. The book may soothe your taut nerves and raise your low spirit.

In the long history of our classical literary tradition we don’t come across female poets. The reasons are not inexplicable. Patriarchy, gender discrimination and tribal values created enervating sociocultural climate that not only discouraged women’s creative expression but also punished those who tried to flout the norm. ‘Kulli (a hut/a simple shelter)’ and ‘Julli (a coarse wrap/a rag) were thought to be the natural lot of women. They had their contribution in creating folk-lore especially the folk songs. Nothing is known of such anonymous songwriters and songstresses except what they wrote and composed; popular lyrics and tunes. Even today we can count the female poets on our fingertips. Some of them such as larger than life Amrita Pritam and ineffaceable Nasreen Anjum Bhatti have left an indelible shine on the patina of our literary culture.

But now women slowly but gradually are mounting the stage that was a few decades back the sole preserve of males. One of them is vivacious Anjum Qureshi who entered the stage at the beginning of this century with a swagger rarely seen in our conservative cultural milieu. With the publication of her first book of poetry she made her debut with a bang when literate women were expected not to even whimper. ‘Dooja Pasa’ (The other Side) is her book of verses recently published by Sanjh Publications, Lahore.

“She can create the ambiance of a home and then make everything stand on its head, anthropomorphizing every inanimate thing,” comments Nadir Ali, one of our senior fiction writers. Anjum focuses on what is ordinary and familiar that has lost its sheen of meanings because of its overexposure. But what is overexposed always has the other side, the hidden one that remains unexposed or underexposed. She scattering indiscretions pounces on it with gay abandon. Poems “Panna Mundi (it’s about a male prostitute)”, “Doojay Wiyah Tu Baad (musings on incest)” and “Duji Vaar” (it’s on erotic love) are examples of such a poetic attitude. Despite all the sufferings and meanness that Anjum sees all around her, her poems are rhapsodies of optimism due to her refusal to accept which is unacceptable.

“Some difficult journeys yield joy in the end / they be undertaken / some comfortable journeys lead into darkness in the end / they be avoided / There are some words that please the listeners / they be uttered / There are some words which grate on the insides of one who utters them / they be lent ears to”.

What Anjum needs now is to spare a little more time to hone her literary skills and poetic craft. Her book is in some ways a challenging read. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018