One song, a ghazal hummed by one of my dear and most respected colleagues, kept my mind fertile over the last two weeks.
It was a famous ghazal by the great poet from Pakistan, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, "Mujh se pehli si mohabbat meray mehbub na maang." The ghazal is about the meaning of love, humanity and progression of our personal affections towards more wider and responsive relationships. Let me use Faiz's own couplets to protray it....
“…mein ne samjha tha kay tu hai to darakhshaan hai hayaat
tera gham hai to gham-e-dahar ka jhagdra kya hai
teri surat se hai aalam mein bahaaron ko sabaat
teri aankhon ke sivaa duniya mein rakkha kya hai…”
(“…I had thought if I had you, life would shine eternally on me
If I had your sorrows, those of the universe would mean nothing
Your face would bring permanence to every spring
What is there but your eyes to see in the world anyway…”)
Yet, Faiz, the humanist, painfully realises that there are grater worries in the world, which he also is supposed to own, address and solve. Please see the following lines -
“…jaa-ba-jaa bikate huye kuuchaa-o-baazaar mein jism
khaak mein lithade huye khuun mein nahalaaye huye…
…jism nikale huye amaraaz ke tannuuron se
piip bahatii hu_ii galate huye naasuuron se
laut jaati hai udhar ko bhi nazar kyaa kije
ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya kije….”
(“…In every corner are bodies sold in the market
Covered in dust, bathed in blood…
…Bodies retrieved from the cauldrons of disease
Discharge flowing from their rotten ulcers
Still returns my gaze in that direction, what can be done
Even now your beauty is tantalizing, but what can be done…”)
Faiz is well known as a Communist (eventhough Communist Party was banned in Pakistan) and his compassion for the exploited and the oppressed gave a distinct uniqueness and melody to his poetry.
It was a deviation from the much romanticised tradition of conservative shayari and ghazals. Faiz in Pakistan along with Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Aazmi and Majrooh Sultanpuri in India opened this proletarian path of shayari and ghazals in the Indian subcontinent.
The ghazal ends with following couplets -
“…aur bhii dukh hain zamaane mein mohabbat ke sivaa
raahaten aur bhi vasl ki raahat ke sivaa…”
("…There are other heartaches in the world than those of love
There is happiness other than the joy of union…”)
There is another poem by Pablo Neruda, the poet among revolutionaries and the revolutionary among the poets, which conveys some what the similar thought. I wish to share it with you in one of my coming posts.
So, "Mujh se pehli si mohabbat meray mehbub na maang."
My heartfelt gratitude for my colleague for humming the ghazal.
It was a famous ghazal by the great poet from Pakistan, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, "Mujh se pehli si mohabbat meray mehbub na maang." The ghazal is about the meaning of love, humanity and progression of our personal affections towards more wider and responsive relationships. Let me use Faiz's own couplets to protray it....
“…mein ne samjha tha kay tu hai to darakhshaan hai hayaat
tera gham hai to gham-e-dahar ka jhagdra kya hai
teri surat se hai aalam mein bahaaron ko sabaat
teri aankhon ke sivaa duniya mein rakkha kya hai…”
(“…I had thought if I had you, life would shine eternally on me
If I had your sorrows, those of the universe would mean nothing
Your face would bring permanence to every spring
What is there but your eyes to see in the world anyway…”)
Yet, Faiz, the humanist, painfully realises that there are grater worries in the world, which he also is supposed to own, address and solve. Please see the following lines -
“…jaa-ba-jaa bikate huye kuuchaa-o-baazaar mein jism
khaak mein lithade huye khuun mein nahalaaye huye…
…jism nikale huye amaraaz ke tannuuron se
piip bahatii hu_ii galate huye naasuuron se
laut jaati hai udhar ko bhi nazar kyaa kije
ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya kije….”
(“…In every corner are bodies sold in the market
Covered in dust, bathed in blood…
…Bodies retrieved from the cauldrons of disease
Discharge flowing from their rotten ulcers
Still returns my gaze in that direction, what can be done
Even now your beauty is tantalizing, but what can be done…”)
Faiz is well known as a Communist (eventhough Communist Party was banned in Pakistan) and his compassion for the exploited and the oppressed gave a distinct uniqueness and melody to his poetry.
It was a deviation from the much romanticised tradition of conservative shayari and ghazals. Faiz in Pakistan along with Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Aazmi and Majrooh Sultanpuri in India opened this proletarian path of shayari and ghazals in the Indian subcontinent.
The ghazal ends with following couplets -
“…aur bhii dukh hain zamaane mein mohabbat ke sivaa
raahaten aur bhi vasl ki raahat ke sivaa…”
("…There are other heartaches in the world than those of love
There is happiness other than the joy of union…”)
There is another poem by Pablo Neruda, the poet among revolutionaries and the revolutionary among the poets, which conveys some what the similar thought. I wish to share it with you in one of my coming posts.
So, "Mujh se pehli si mohabbat meray mehbub na maang."
My heartfelt gratitude for my colleague for humming the ghazal.
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