KARACHI: One of the reasons that poet Ahmed Faraz is being forgotten by poetry buffs is that people tend to conflate his social and poetic selves. This was the most important argument that Dr Nomanul Haq gave in his talk titled Looking for Ahmed Faraz at the SIUT’s Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture on Saturday evening.

Dr Haq, who is dean, Institute of Liberal Arts, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, said he recently wrote an article on the subject after he was asked by a friend, Anjum Altaf, that why people no longer remember Faraz [the way he merits].

Dr Haq said when Faraz was alive he was a popular figure because he had a charming personality, good voice and an impressive way of reciting poetry. But he was later forgotten. On the other hand, another poet, Jaun Elia, became famous posthumously, especially among the younger generation. Dr Haq said it made him think about the reasons for the resurgence of one man and the dwindling of fame of the other.

His being a revolutionary or rebellious poet termed a misconception

He argued that in our part of the world, people don’t read [as much as they should]. In the West, they have a hefty body of material on the likes of Aristotle and Plato, because of which they’ve now reached where they’ve reached in the literary world. Here, we don’t even have enough work on Ibn-i-Rushd or Ibn-i-Sina. As a result, our standard has come down and we, in Urdu, make spelling mistakes and mispronounce words.

Comparing Jaun to Faraz, he said the former’s poetry has a certain playfulness (khalandrapun) to it whereas the latter’s has humvaari where he remains soft before his beloved with ahsaas-i-jamaal. There’s a misconception about Faraz: he is often labelled a revolutionary (inqilaabi) or rebellious (baaghi) poet. The bulk of his poetry doesn’t indicate that. Faraz’s [social] personality is different from his poetic self. In terms of personality he could be called rebellious, but the softness, aesthetic sense, and fondness for the beloved in his verses is entirely different. Since they don’t understand this, and as a consequence, no serious critic has written about Faraz’s ghazals and nazms. Whatever material there’s available on him is written by journalists. Dr Haq told the audience that he had once heard a famous poet say about Faraz that his poetry is only liked by young girls. “Faraz’s popularity came in his way,” Dr Haq remarked, alluding to him being away from the literary canon.

On the salient features of his ghazals, the scholar said Faraz was very good at using talazmaat (association of ideas through words), and as an example quoted from a ghazal whose second verse is:

Wahshat ka sabab rozan-i-zindaan to nahin hai

Mahr-o-mah-o-anjum ko bujha kiyon nahin dete

[The dreariness is not caused by prison cell’s window

Why don’t you put out the sun, the moon and the entire constellation?]

Underlining another feature of the poet’s creative flow he mentioned people often translate taghazzul as lyricism. It’s not the correct translation. Taghazzul is to do with, among other things, feelings. In that regard he read out a famous ghazal whose first two lines are:

Suna hai loag usey aankh bhar ke dekthe hain

So us ke shehr mein kuchh din theher ke dekhte hain

[I hear people look at her intently, with fondness I should stay in her town for a while]

Dr Haq said the beauty of the beloved in Urdu poetry is best described through metaphors. Faraz’s is replete with such metaphors. Also, the poet is deeply rooted in tradition which is why there’s a fair degree of respect (ahtaraam) for the beloved in his verses.

Us ne sakut-i-shab mein bhi apna payam rakh dia

Hijr ki raat baam per maah-i-tamaam rakh dia

[Even in the quietness of the night she put her message across:

At the moment of separation, she placed the full moon on the balcony]

The scholar rounded off his arguments by lamenting that in our society narratives reign supreme, such as the one that’s built up around Faraz that he was a rebel.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2019