In the post-Iqbal era of Urdu poetry there are few greater poets than Majeed Amjad (this is a link to a short bio of him in Wikipedia that I wrote and I would love readers familiar with his work to add to it).
Yet, he may also be amongst the most under-recognized and under-appreciated of our great poets.Even amongst the lovers of Urdu poetry his name is least likely to be recognized.
Reading Majeed Amjad’s magnificent poetry I have often wondered how it is that some literary reputations get created from meager contributions but some people forever struggle to gain just acclaim.
In Majeed Amjad’s case I think it was a confluence of factors: he was a quiet, reserved introvert with no inclination for self-marketing. He lived away from the literary center of Lahore in small Punjabi towns like Sahiwal and Jhang and never had many influential advocates of his literary merits.
But, perhaps more importantly, Majeed Amjad was not an ideological poet affiliated with one or the other group of literary luminaries who could beat their partisan drums on his behalf (Progressive Writers Movement managed to turn everyone who knew the words ‘mazdoor’ or ‘kisan’ into literary giants).
However, on to some examples of his wonderful poetry (unfortunately I do not possess any talent for translation so my apologies to those who struggle with literary Urdu).
Shab-e-Rafta was the only collection of his poetry published in his lifetime. He wrote a beautiful poem (Harf-e-Awwal) as an introduction to that collection:
DardoN ke is koh-e-garaaN se
MeiN ne tarashi, nazm kay eewaN
ki ik ik sil,
Ik ik soch ki hairaaN moorat …Garche qalam ki nok se tapke
Kitne tarane, kitne fasane
Lakh masaail
Dil meiN rahi sub dil ki hikayat!Bees baras ki kaawish-e-paiham
Sochte din aur jaagti raateiN
Un ka haasil:
Aik yahi izhaar ki hasrat!
The persistent undercurrent of Majeed Amjad’s poetry is a view of life that is essentially tragic (perhaps another reason why it is difficult for the young to embrace him compared to say Faiz’s optimistic theme of ‘we shall overcome’) . Majeed Amjad feels the inexorable cruelty of time in his bones. Life’s circle continues with unremitting regularity indifferent to what it leaves behind.
In the poem “KunwaN”, the water wheel symbolizes the perpetual circle of time and the water carrier, symbolizing the divine, watches this passing of time and its ravages with complete detachment:
KunwaN chal raha hai! magar khet sookhe pare haiN, na fasleiN, na khirman, na dana
Na shakhon ki bahein, na phooloN ke mukhre, na kalioN ke mathe, na rut ki jawani …KunwaiN wala, gaadi pe leta hai, mast apni bansi ki meethi sureeli sada meiN
KahiN khet sookha para reh gaya aur na us tak kabhi aai pani ki bari
KahiN beh gayi aik hi tund rele ki fayyaz lehroN meiN kayari ki kayari …Aur ik naghma sarmadi kaan meiN aa raha hai, musalsal kunwaN chal raha hai
Payape magar narm rau us ki raftaar, paiham magar betakan us ki gardish
Adam se azal tak, azal se abad tak badalti nahiN aik aan us ki gardish
Na jane liye apne dolaab ki aastinoN maiN kitne jahaaN us ki gardishRawaN hai rawaN hai
TipaN hai tipaN hai
Yeh chakkar yuhiN jaawidaN chal raha hai
KunwaN chal raha hai
I could go on but the last poem that I would like to quote in this piece is “Maqbara e Jahangir”. Notice the wholly different tone of Majeed Amjad’s poem. His reaction to this beautifully historic sight is a deep sadness as he sees human beings (gardeners, people picknicking etc.) in this serene setting either struggling to get through the day or wholly oblivious to this fleeting existence.
Khurdre, maile, phate kaproN meiN boorhe maali
Yeh chaman band, jo guzre hue sultanoN ki
HaddiaN seench ke phulwariaN mehkate haiN
Ghaas kat ti hai ke din in ke kate jate haiN …Teen sau saal se mabhoot khare haiN jo yeh sarv
In ki shakheiN haiN keh afaaq ke sheeraze haiN
Saf-e-ayyam ki bikhri hui tarteebeN haiN
In ke saaye haiN keh dhalti hui tehzeebeN haiN …MarmareeN qabr ke ander, tahe zulmaat kahiN
Kirmak-o-Moor ke jabroN meiN salateeN ke badan
Koi dekhe, koi samjhe to is eewaN meiN jahaaN
Noor hai, husn hai, taz’een hai, zeebaish hai
Hai to bus aik dukhi rooh ki gunjaish ha
Fawad is a California-based literati-at-large and manages the blog Moments of Tranquility, where a version of this was first posted. This post was first posted at ATP in October 2006 and is now being re-posted.
On Majeed Amjad, I just cannot get the imagery of Maqbara-e-Jehangir out of my mind:
Khurdre, maile, phate kaproN meiN boorhe maali
Yeh chaman band, jo guzre hue sultanoN ki
HaddiaN seench ke phulwariaN mehkate haiN
Ghaas kat ti hai ke din in ke kate jate haiN …
(that is about as taraqi pasand as you can get!)
I will leave the critical analysis to those who know this stuff better than me, but I do know that one Iftikhar Arif sheyr has sustained me for over a decade here in the US (maybe it is not the sheyr, maybe its just the way it resonates with me):
hum nay jabb wadi-e-ghurbat mein qadam rakha tha
doour tak yaad-i-watan aaye thi samjhanay ko
Folks, There is an other name that has been making echoes in Karachi for a while and is a must read. His name is Ahmad Navaid.
Sabahat, I deleted my first response here and am writing it again. There is no need to go into debate based on personal opinions. (Especially in a post about Majeed Amjad). Mine of course are influenced by the surroundings I grew up in. May be what I have read and heard about I Arif has made me biased in the way I look at his poetry. Parveen, in my opinion, was a great poet and has earned her name. But I think I did overstate her rank. Perhaps I just wanted her name to to be mentioned here. There is no question of comparing her with Nasir Kazmi! Again this will start an other unnecessary debate but perhaps Shahzad Ahmed, Zafar Iqbal, Saleem Kausar, Jamal Ahsani, Obaidullah Aleem, Jaun Elia (even though I think Obaid and Jaun were slightly a cut above), Amjad Islam and Parveen Shakir could be grouped together.
@ Mr Adnana Ahmad, I think you are shortchanging Iftikhar Arif on the basis of something that has nothing to do with his poetry. One’s humanity and literary skills (fortunately or unfortunately) are two separate issues altogether and confusing the two just makes for bad literary criticism. Iftikhar Arif (in my opinion) has written consistently good poetry his repertoire is far more wide ranging than just the two poems you have mentioned.
Your putting Parveen Shakir in the top tier also perplexed me. She may be one of the foremost names amongst women Urdu poetesses but most of her poetry does not manage to go beyond the yearnings of adolesecent sentimentalism even though to its credit it is mostly heartfelt and also speaks to the heart, but that in no way ranks her next to the likes of Nasir Kazmi or N M Rashid.