Meeting Poet Ahmad Faraz

Ras:

This might sound belated, but is Mukhtaran Bibi still in California? Is another fundraiser possible in the midwest to help with the school building?

Mohammed Amjed
amjed12841@hotmail.com

Faraz Ji dey baarey padh ke vadiya lagya .... bahot hi Kamaal de Shayar tey Umda Shakhsiyat dey Maalik Ney ...tussi likhya vi changaa hai . shukriya !

Faraz is great.

For the simple reason that he was trying to get a humanist voice out of the Islamized urdu.

Re: # 26

Quran-e-Hkeem says "La hukmo illa Lillah" ('Hakoomat' belongs to Allah alone). This being the basic tenant of Islam, following it is what endears Faraz to the people more than his poetry or his desire to be considered as an intellectual.

Qaafilah-e-Hijaz mein koi to Hussain he!

Faraz is some one who is good at translating his thoughts in synchronised words. A typical poet.
My definition of a typical poet : One who wants to be considered as an intellelctual and takes up poetry and makes it a habit of criticising various regimes all the times.

#20 by teshah:

[Farzana

Excuse me, dear, it is not the question of language. You added `even` when even there was no `bhi` in the original because perhaps you were not aware even of the truth Faraz intended to depict in the stanza. He probably wanted to say that sincere love (`wafa` has no exact substitute in English or the culture which it represents) always leads one to bad shape...]

I already explained why I added `even`. Having said that I don`t see why a translation has to be literal. I do not agree with you when you say that `sincere love` always leads one to bad shape. I am far more optimistic and maybe your interpretation of Faraz is closer to his, but mine is mine.

I believe that in looking within barren souls is itself adorning them with `pearls`. Agar khud par yakeen nahin tau auroun se kya umeed rakh sakte hai?!

Ras

I may point out that Faraz is not ethnic Pathan. He is ethnic Arab being a sayyad. So one should not be surprised on his poetry being in Urdu as ethnic Arabs came to India via Iran or Central Asia imbibed with the Persian culture of those peoples like the greatest Urdu poet Ghalib.

Ahmad Faraz certainly has some of the modern classics of Urdu poetry, to his name........Much of the fame of individuals comes through the poetry written by poets..........Similarly much of the fame of poets come through someone singing their poetry.....

Would Nizamuddin Auliya be famous had Amir Khusro not written and sung about him......Would Amir Khusro, himself, be (as) famous had Sabri Qawwals not brought Khusro`s renditions on Nazimuddin Auliya to the present day......

........Would Shah Inayat be famous had Bulleh Shah not written about him.......Would Bulleh Shah be (as) famous had Abida Parveen not put him to music........

.......Would Ahmed Faraz`s poetry be famous had Mehdi Hasan and Tahira Syed not sung his works.......I doubt it........he would be famous for his politics, but his poetry would be limited to the die-hard poetry fans.......

Would qou-ba-qou be a household word, had Mehdi Hasan not put Parveen Shakir to music....

One would have to place Ahmed Faraz in the second tier category of Urdu poets; one level below the top category of greats - Ghalib, Iqbal, Mir and Faiz.........

Still a distinguished crowd, including others like Parveen Shakir..........

Ranjish he sahih is an all-time classic; up there with the greatest Urdu works......And the trademark ghazal of the greatest ghazal singer of our time - Mehdi Hasan........

Ras sahib, your piece makes it amply clear that Pakistan needs more poets and less Generals - generally speaking, of course!

Can anyone post a link to Faraz` famous poem ``Pak afwaj kay naam``? I heard it once; it is a masterpiece.

Re: # 16

James - Indeed, an appropriate time to remember the Pakistani Afwaaj!!!

:)

Newspapers all over the world carried the sad news on the recent fiasco in Islamabad where the jan`baaz faujis had to do what they should have done 3-6 months ago!!! Glad that the faujis took the action.

I hope the poem has good things to say :)

Re: # 19

ZahraJ, Mullah monsters were created by Pakistan Army and the ISI for their own selfish institutional interests in the first place. Let them sort out the mess they have created over the last 30 years in the name of this jihad or that jihad.

Re: # 22

It is in fact `Wardi Jihad` versus `Mullah Jihad`, both basically parasitic outfits, nurturing on the blood of the people, bogged in the culture of bigotry and hatred.

Paradoxically, both these outfits use the name of Islam, which has no place either for a professional careerist army or professional `deen-firosh` Mullah. Naturally, both of them insist that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam though the fact is, as our generation knows well, that Pakistan was meant to be just a federation of Muslim majority provinces of India. It was meant to be a national state with equal rights for all the citizens living in it. But unfortunately, the Mullah, who had, as a class, opposed its establishment hijacked it and turned it into a worst type of theocracy. With their `Deen-e-fassaad`, the Mullah is now out to challenge the Army`s writ with the help of its terroristic outfits. As it is, the Mullah Military clash bodes a very bleak future for the country whose very existence is at a stake. Who can save us from the holocaust we are facing now? This is the question staring us today. So:

`` Mein Aakhaan Ahmad Faraz noon toon `muhaasire` wichon bol
Te aj kitabe ishq da koi agla warqah khol``

(Amrita Pritam se mahzrat ke saath)

I Wrote this quite a while ago........



(Dedicated to the living legend of the Urdu language)


To Poet Ahmed Faraz


To this weaver of Urdu words like fine Persian Carpets
A writer in English and a weak mother tongue pays homage
As the often controversial originator of many ageless poems
Startles us all by passing the age of sixty-five
But when did this happen, a generation asks?

Armed with the ammunition of words he battled
Against tyrants who held the power of guns and jails
But defiant the poet inside strengthened by a conscience
Behind bars, solitary confinement and then exile
Into the homes and hearts of many, yet still
The poet never forgot his country and its people


That Faraz is still with us now, we are lucky
Old tyrants are gone but new critics emerge to accuse
Writers who hold the basic rights of god’s humans
Close to their work, in their self as a sacred trust, this liberty
For which they are wrongly branded as atheists and traitors
But people know the strength and feel of truth

The keepers of the literary traditions of Urdu today welcome
Faraz as one of their greatest living craftsmen of verse
This Shayir-Poet has risen to the defense of many causes
Some popular, others not, and some now necessary
Like the recent deadly embrace of atomics in South Asia
Faraz and his pen now face the prospect of a Hiroshima
In a land where he continues to offer peace and
sincere friendship
As an alternative to the new nuclear madness
Started by those who claim to be the inheritors of
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence.


Ras H. Siddiqui 7-24-98


A special thanks to Nora Boustany who was able to
remind this writer about the importance of Faraz in the Washington Post
(July 1, 1998) in an article titled “Roses Are Red, Bombs Leave You
Dead”

You write beautifully, it is a joy to read your writings, thanks a bunch!

Indeed,

Yeh Alaa`m Shau`q Kaa Dekhaa` Naa` Jayae`

:)