‘Times They are-a Changin`’

There was never such a threat to the integrity of our nation as now.

Desh-drohis are planning rebellion in every street, every mohalla of the country. Urban centres are teeming with Naxalites, who are busy in upending the social-democratic structure of our society. State enemies have ganged up and want to blow the country in tukade-tukade. India-bashers and Indian-haters, stooges of western ideology, the highbrow crowd of Lutyens’s Delhi and Khan Market, preach their seditious ideas with impunity. Harward trained pseudo-intellectuals spread calumnies about the hardworking, desh-sewaks. Descendants of nomadic invaders, a barbaric race, foreign to our culture, want to disrupt the harmony that characterises our diverse nation.

Bob Dylan sang about the ‘times they are a-changin`’.

And these times that ‘are a-changin`’ demand new interpretations of old concepts.

Definition of patriotism has thus been revised. To sincerely work at your job all your life, to pay your taxes honestly and to abide by the law of the land as a responsible citizen is no service to the nation. One must wear their bleeding heart – a heart that sheds tears of blood for the country – on their sleeves. One must have a robust hatred - and loudly proclaim such - for the ways of fellow countrymen which are perceived alien to our culture. Latter may be language, food, literature, clothing or architecture. One must cultivate exquisitely delicate sentiments that are grievously hurt at the mere mention of our culture in any but hyperbolically laudatory manner. One must have an unstinted, unshakeable belief in the greatness – as narrated by the ideologues of the new nationalistic zeitgeist – of our millennia old culture and a healthy dislike for every other civilisation in the world. Vigour of patriotism is now measured by the loudness of chest thumping employed in its display.

 

Times were ‘a-changin`’ in India of 1930s too. Country was fired by a zeal to free itself from imperialism and chart its destiny on its own terms. Intellectuals differed in their approach to achieve the ideal of liberty and prosperity for every citizen. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, a young poet in his twenties and a post-graduate in English, arrived in Amritsar to teach English at one of its colleges. Here he befriended the writers of All India Progressive Writer’s Association. This contact changed the course of Faiz’s poetry. His poetry soon became a mascot for this ideology – ‘बोल कि लब आज़ाद हैं तेरे, बोल ज़बाँ अब तक तेरी है …’

Another writer of the same era, but from a different world, whose writing was irredeemably influenced by the prevailing political milieu, was George Orwell. In his essay ‘Why I Write’ he says, ‘Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.’ Orwell didn’t abjure artistic invention in his writings which had an unabashed political message – ‘What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art. … I am not able, and do not want, completely to abandon the world view that I acquired in childhood. So long as I remain alive and well, I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information. It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public, non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us.’

This quest for literary excellence suffuses Faiz’s poetry too. His poems, seeped in socialist ideology, are composed in an ineffably beautiful language. His poetic imagery is matchlessly elegant. A lover of poetry is left mesmerised with an intense sense of wonderment.

But lest I wander far, I must introduce the Nazm that set me thinking about the times that are ‘a-changin`' In this nazm, Do Ishq, Faiz talks about two loves of his life – for the beloved and for the country. He says both are alike and he is proud of both.

The subtlety of emotions, the refinement of literary form, an unrepentant irreverence for dogmas in society – apart from his problematic ideology – contrast sharply with the ways of neo-patriotism. Is it a surprise then, that Faiz is an anathema to all such thought-pundits?

 

दो इश्क़

फ़ैज़ अहमद फ़ैज़

 

(1) 

ताज़ा हैं अभी याद में ऐ साक़ी-ए-गुलफ़ाम¹                       

वो अक्स-ए-रुख़-ए-यार² से लहके³ हुए अय्याम⁴   

वो फूल सी खुलती हुई दीदार⁵ की साअत⁶                       

वो दिल सा धड़कता हुआ उम्मीद का हंगाम 

1. Flower-faced saaqui 2. Reflection of lover’s face 

3. Blooming 4. Days  5. Spectacle of beloved     6. Moments

 

उम्मीद कि लो जागा ग़म-ए-दिल⁷ का नसीबा                    

लो शौक़ की तरसी हुई शब हो गई आख़िर 

लो डूब गए दर्द के बे-ख़्वाब सितारे 

अब चमकेगा बे-सब्र निगाहों का मुक़द्दर

7. Sorrows of heart

 

इस बाम⁸ से निकलेगा तिरे हुस्न का ख़ुर्शीद⁹                     

इस कुंज से फूटेगी किरन रंग-ए-हिना¹⁰ की                      

इस दर से बहेगा तिरी रफ़्तार का सीमाब¹¹                      

उस राह पे फैलेगी शफ़क़¹² तेरी क़बा¹³ की

8. Courtyard 9. Sun 10. Henna-coloured

11. Mercury 12. Evening light 13. Robes

 

फिर देखे हैं वो हिज्र¹⁴ के तपते हुए दिन भी                       

जब फ़िक्र-ए-दिल-ओ-जाँ¹⁵ में फ़ुग़ाँ¹⁶ भूल गई है  

हर शब वो सियह¹⁷ बोझ कि दिल बैठ गया है                   

हर सुब्ह की लौ तीर सी सीने में लगी है 

14. Separation from the lover 15. Worries of life

16. Complaints 17. Dark

 

तंहाई में क्या क्या न तुझे याद किया है 

क्या क्या न दिल-ए-ज़ार¹⁸ ने ढूँडी हैं पनाहें                        

आँखों से लगाया है कभी दस्त-ए-सबा¹⁹ को                     

डाली हैं कभी गर्दन-ए-महताब²⁰ में बाहें              

18. Suffering heart 19. Hand of breeze 20. Moon’s neck

 

(2) 

चाहा है इसी रंग में लैला-ए-वतन²¹ को                 

तड़पा है इसी तौर से दिल उस की लगन में 

ढूँडी है यूँही शौक़ ने आसाइश-ए-मंज़िल²²               

रुख़्सार²³ के ख़म²⁴ में कभी काकुल²⁵ की शिकन²⁶ में

21. Beloved country 22. Pleasure of reaching destination

23. Face 24. Bend 25. Ringlet of lock       26. Curl

           

उस जान-ए-जहाँ को भी यूँही क़ल्ब-ओ-नज़र²⁷ ने 

हँस हँस के सदा दी कभी रो रो के पुकारा 

पूरे किए सब हर्फ़-ए-तमन्ना²⁸ के तक़ाज़े              

हर दर्द को उजयाला हर इक ग़म को सँवारा 

27. Heart and eyes 28. Words of desire

 

वापस नहीं फेरा कोई फ़रमान जुनूँ का 

तन्हा नहीं लौटी कभी आवाज़ जरस²⁹ की                       

ख़ैरिय्यत-ए-जाँ राहत-ए-तन सेह्हत-ए-दामाँ 

सब भूल गईं मस्लिहतें³⁰ अहल-ए-हवस³¹ की

29. Gongs or bell 30. Compromises

31. Lustful people           

 

इस राह में जो सब पे गुज़रती है वो गुज़री 

तन्हा पस-ए-ज़िंदाँ³² कभी रुस्वा सर-ए-बाज़ार      

गरजे हैं बहुत शैख़³³ सर-ए-गोशा-ए-मिम्बर³⁴        

कड़के हैं बहुत अहल-ए-हकम³⁵ बर-सर-ए-दरबार³⁶

32. Behind the prison 33. Preacher, leader

34. From the pulpit 35. Government's agents 36. In court

 

छोड़ा नहीं ग़ैरों ने कोई नावक-ए-दुश्नाम³⁷                

छूटी नहीं अपनों से कोई तर्ज़-ए-मलामत³⁸              

इस इश्क़ न उस इश्क़ पे नादिम³⁹ है मगर दिल    

हर दाग़ है इस दिल में ब-जुज़⁴⁰-दाग़-ए-नदामत⁴¹

37. Arrows of abuse 38. Manner of criticism

39. Sorry, repentant 40. Except 41. Scar of shame

 

 

Two Loves

Faiz Ahmad Faiz

 

(1)

O friend! Memory still retains

Days that were, in beloved’s beauty inflamed

Moments blooming like a flower, as eyes met you

Alike a pounding heart, fluttering hopes unchained

 

Hope stirs – fate of desolate heart is turning

Night, denied of every longing, will now abate

Sleepless stars of pain, have all vanished

Now will shine, anxious eyes’ fate

 

On this terrace will rise, the sun of your beauty

From this corner will sprout, henna-coloured rays

Through this door will flow, the quicksilver of your gait

On this path will spread, your robe’s twilight glaze

 

We have witnessed, blazing days of separation

When all grouse, we forgot in our woes

Such weight of dark nights, that heart was nearly sunk,

When rays of dawn pierced the chest like arrows

 

In loneliness, how haven’t I ached for you

What all shelters, dismal heart did not trace

Held the hands of breeze, close to the eyes

Threw arms around the moon, in embrace 

 

(2)

We adored beloved country, in the same manner

Heart agonised in this desire, in similar ways

Alike longing sought, solace in journey’s end

In a curl of the lock or in a curve of the face

 

Similarly, heart called out for that beloved

With smile on lips or in tearful gloom

We fulfilled every demand of desire

Brightened every pain, every sorrow we groomed.

 

No command of frenzy, did we ever return

Peal of calling bells, received our highest trust

Soul’s wellbeing, solace in life, body’s comfort

We forsook all compromise of the people of lust

 

What others suffer on this path, we too suffered

Alone behind the bars or humiliated mid-bazar

Many preachers have shouted from atop the pulpits

Many officers have hollered, in courts near and far

 

No arrow of abuse, did rivals ever spare

Friends did not shun, any manner of blame

For this love or that love, heart is not ashamed

Every scar is on the heart, but for the scar of shame