Adil Najam
I want to introduce this new (hopefully regular) feature at ATP. (Actually, if you press the ‘ATP Mushaira‘ category you will find that this is the second installment in this category; the first being our little Faiz Mela on Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s birthday.) Of course, poetry has been a regular and favorite subject for us at Pakistaniat.com. However, this (sub-) category is distinguished from other posts on poetry because here we will feature kalam i shair ba zaban i shair (i.e., poetry recited by the poets themselves).
The Mushaira is a particular - and particularly enchanting - Pakistani tradition. It is, of course, not just a Pakistani tradition, nor any more only an Urdu tradition. Indeed, it seems that the new revival of the mushaira is happening neither in Pakistan nor in India but in the Middle East and North America, because of affluent expatriates yearning for poetic connections to the homes they left behind. Indeed, a new crop of poets are emerging in these diaspora communities, and as we did with Khalid Irfan, we hope to feature these new ‘non-resident’ poets here too.
To me, the format and structure of the mushaira is a wonderful social and literary device and the interactions amongst the poets and between poets and audience adds dimensions to the understanding and appreciation of the artistic expression in ways that are significantly different from reading poetry or to listening to it being sung by someone else. Of course, it has its pitfalls too and I am not suggesting that the mushaira experience is superior to other forms of ‘poetic intake’. All I am suggesting is that it is different. And it is this difference we wish to capture through this series of posts where we will showcase audio and video recordings of poets reading their own kalam.
For this installment I bring you three selections from Anwar Masood; someone I have known and admir
ed for very long and who has been always very kind and affectionate to me.
We have, of course, talked about him before on this blog (also here and elsewhere). But this time, let us talk himself in his unique and extremely entertaining style. The first two selections are of qataat in Urdu (his preferred format for his Urdu work). For many, including me, his most memorable work are his classic Punjabi poems such as Banyaan, Chai tay Lassi, Anarkalli diyan shaanan, Jehlum dey pul tay (my particular favorite), etc. The third offering here is his Punjabi humorous poem Ajj Ki Pakaiaye, which I think is the most representative of his Punjabi work, in structure as well as idiom.
Finally, as a special treat, I offer this audio link to his serious Punjabi poem Ambri (this will open and play in RealPlayer; click on images on left). The subject is a courageous one: domestic violence. And it is rendered with heartfelt passion as well as poetic sophistication. For me, at least, this is amongst the very best of Anwar Masood’s work.
3 Haikus by Matsuo Basho, 1644-94
OOO
aawara chiryan
phullaan dee jhootian siftaan kar kar
saron day khait wich
aa wardian nein !
OOO
Wild sparrows
In a patch of yellow rape,
Pretending to admire
The flowers.
OOO
jangli chiryaan
sarson kay peelay khait mein
bahaney bahaney aati hein
phoolon kee tareef keeye !
OOO
laal sooha sooraj
samay to bay parwah
per hawa noo maloom ay
tarkay dee thand da waada
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Red, red is the sun,
Heartlessly indifferent to time,
The wind knows, however,
The promise of early chill.
OOO
surkh angaara sooraj
waqt say bay niaz
hawa ko magar maloom hay
waada subah ki awwaleen
khunki ka !
OOO
aithey diggan othey diggaan
sarak tay diggan
ik oh gal ay
mein dig jay pia tay
howaan ga dafn phullaan hee dee dheri wich
OOO
No matter where I fall
On the road,
Fall will I to be buried
Among flowering bush-clovers.
OOOO
sarak per giroon
ya giroon kisi bhi maqaam per
mujhe maloom hey kay gir kar
mein nay dafn hee hona hay
phool kee pationkay dhair mein !
Translated(English) by Nobuyuki Yuasa
Translated(urdu & Panjabi) by Mazhar Butt
Wonderful … had been waiting for this post since the blog started!
Thank you, Adil, for this post. I have learned something more today as I was not aware of
Anwar Masood. Thanks to you I know him now and realize what I have been missing. His
description of “qymah bh*areY kareyleY� leaves me nostalgic with water in my mouth.
Perhaps it is the first time that you are presenting Mushayra (mus*AA’erah), but you have
been doing a great service to Pakistani culture in general and to Urdu in particular which is
evident from earlier posts on poets and singers.
There is one particular thing which bothers me is the use of “Roman Urdu� (RU) to write an
Urdu text or Urdu poetry. Roman Urdu is necessary and useful to insert Urdu words in an
English text but an Urdu text can be only written correctly as it is written in Urdu Script.
Actually it is very easy to write Urdu in Roman Script. (UiRS). For that:
We use the following Urdu alphabet in Roman letters to write any Urdu word in Roman Script (RS) exactly as it is written in Urdu Script (US):
A (A^) b p t T c j j* H K d D Z r R z z’ s s* S Z* t* z* A’ G’ f q k g l m n (N) w (W) h h* a’ y Y
In place of diacriticl signs, zabar, zer and pesh in US, we use small letter vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) in RS. Thus Urdu will be written ArdW (ie alif, re, daal and wao).
Adil is A’Adil; Ahsan is AHsn (or AHsan); Faiz is fayZ*; Faraz is farAz; Masood is
masA’Wd and so on… When we drop the small letter vowels we obtain the corresponding US
letters.
For any suggestion, discussion and information: uirs@noos.fr
Ahsan
listening to punjabi and that too by him with all the “adayein” and “naaz nakhra” — it’s just a treat — I got the chance to listen to his mushaira a few times and that was a treat in a treat:>
Looking fwd to the Mushayra’s on ATP :>
Great stuff…. always a pleasure to listen to him…. love this line in the third video:
saadi tay hain Umreeka naal yaarian!
Great stuff Adil, Anwar Masood is such a genius. I just love the kind of Punjabi he uses in his poetry, so pure and totally unadulterated, and the way he recites his stuff is just hillarious.
BTW Adil, do pardon my ignorance I had no clue, among many other crafts in your repertoire, you are an author too! and I bet there is a poet in there as well. Thanks.
Great stuff. Very very funny. Had not heard his serious stuff before. This Ambri poem is very moving. I remember PTV had at one point encouraged humorous poets to do the short qatas in its morning shows and he was a regualr in those. There was another guy too who was very good, but I forget his name.
Adil,
It hasnt been long since i came across this site/blog, and i havent had a chance to go through most of its contents. But from whatever i have seen, i have to say its an amzingly brilliant website and one of the most informative and intelligent blogs on Pakistan.
The wealth of information available on this blog is simply unique. From Faiz to Farooq Qaiser, and from Atta Ullah Easa Khailvi to Pitras Bukhari to Anwar Masood, and even bits and pieces of Maula Jutt and Noor Jahan - this blog took me along to revisit some of the most cherished and now forgotton memories of the past. The towns, the movies, the books, the streets, the culture and the places…
And yes, Anwar Masood is simply brilliant. A rare talent who combines humour with poetic sophistication and spontaneous wit, and delivers it in a package that appeals to a common man as much as it does to a litrary critic. One of the legends of Pakistan !