Inspired by my friend Raza's literary blog Jahane-e-Rumi , I have been meaning to post something on Urdu poets and poetry. 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). 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 gardish
RawaN 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". I was particularly reminded of this reading the poem Raza has posted on his blog with an allusion to Shalimar. 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 hai
Update: (December 15th, 2009)
An extremely rare recording of Majeed Amjad reciting his own poetry. This is recorded at the residence of Mr. Mazhar Tirmazi in Farid Town, Sahiwal on November 13th, 1973.
4 comments:
Two thumbs up
Fawad,
thanks for writing on Majeed Amjad and posting his amazing poetry in the blogopshere. Indeed Amjad is less remembered and this is only a metaphor of what sells in the world of Urdu Literature. He was neither a ringmaster, nor a cheap romanticist nor an ideological zealot. He was truly original and therefore not easily brand-able. This is why the literati has found it difficult to place him in a 'category'. I am hesitant to agree that lack of optimism makes him unattractive for the younger generation. Since Amjad defies the boundaries of conformism, the mainstream was nervous to acknowldege him; and state and civil society being consenting bedfellows in Pakistan conveniently chose to ignore him. He is not known because his works were deliberately under-rated and brushed aside by media, literary critics and mini-mafias that rule Urdu literature across the globe. It was only when the independent and thoughtful Professor Khawaja M Zakariya of Lahore researched for years to compile and document his works, that Amjad re-appeared. Professor Khawaja's labour of love is a befitting tribute to the fountain of creativity that Amjad is.
Advance warning: I will cross-blog this post on JR.
thanks again.
6th August, 2020
Aadaab. My name is Talat Afroze and I have been a fan of Majeed Amjad's poetry since 1974 (the year he passed away) when I was a student at F.C. College Lahore.
I am writing to request your help and your friends' help in getting about 200 or so hitherto unpublished Early Poems of Majeed Amjad published.
The Urdu literary critic Dr Khawaja M. Zikriya (whom I admired in the mid to late 1970s in my student days) has in his possession a 380 page manuscript of Majeed Amjad. Dr Zikriya has admitted in writing that he has this manuscript (see preface to Kulliyaat e Majeed Amjad 1988 Mavra) and Abdul Rasheed, a modern Urdu poet who passed away recently, has also admitted to the existence of this manuscript in the preface to Shab e Rafta Kay Baad (published in1976). Also, when I called Dr. Zikriya Saheb on his cell phone or talked over the phone with his son who lives in USA, they both admitted to possessing this manuscript penned by Majeed Amjad.
Shab e Rafta Kay Baad (1976; published by Lahore Arts Council) contained 16 Early Poems selected from this manuscript by Abdul Rasheed and Amjad Islam Amjad. Kulliyaat e Majeed Amjad published in 1988 (Mavra) contained 44 Early Poems (including the 16 published earlier in 1976) selected from this manuscript. Kulliyaat Taba e Nau (Al Hamd Publications, 2011) contained 47 Early Poems (including the 44 poems published in 1988 by Mavra) selected from this manuscript.
Dr. Zikriya has had this manuscript in his house for THIRTY odd YEARS (mid-1980s onwards) and refuses access to it to anyone and refuses to have it published. I have written him two letters and called him on his cell phone about 4 times beginning in 2010 but have not been given access to this manuscript.
I am writing a screenplay based on the life of Majeed Amjad and would like to browse these Early Poems of Majeed Amjad: those Early Poems contain important clues to the formative years of this great poet and would provide vital material for my screenplay depicting the life of Majeed Amjad.
My point is that in Pakistan, a renowned critic can hoard a manuscript of unpublished poems by a great man like Majeed Amjad and no other literary critic, Urdu Professor can stop him. I realized that Oriental College is NOT a research-oriented department of the University of the Punjab. If Oriental College was a research oriented university department, it would have CONFISCATED the 380 page manuscript from Dr Zikriya decades ago and initiated research on it. I appealed recently to two senior Faculty at Oriental College (Ishrat Feroze and Zia Hasan) but both have kept their silence!!
I request that you either message Dr. Zikriya at his Facebook account (
https://www.facebook.com/khawajamuhammad.zakariya.5 ) or call Zikriya Saheb at his cell phone (if you email me at talat.afroze@yahoo.com I can send you Dr. Zikriya's cell phone number) to request that he publish those Early Poems as soon as possible …. more than 30 years have passed away and still he is refusing to publish them. If he refuses your request, then please take some public, legal action to rescue those Early Poems from Dr Zikriya.
Please let me know if you are willing to do this.
Best regards,
Talat
(Talat Afroze, PhD, Univ of Alabama at Birmingham, USA).
This is the Web Link for Dr Khawaja Zikriya's facebook account:
https://www.facebook.com/khawajamuhammad.zakariya.5
Here are links to my Urdu poetry related web site Dareechah etc.
http://www.dareechah.com/
https://naeemanzil.com/
https://twitter.com/DareechahDotCom
https://www.youtube.com/user/TalatAfrozeToronto
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj__Iziy4frAhXPXM0KHYjrAs0QFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftalat.dareechahwaalaa&usg=AOvVaw3tFwl1NXSmA1jHQJaRtfYy
6th August, 2020
There was a typo in my email address given in the comment above:
Here is the correct email address:
talat.afroze@dareechah.com
The para should have read as follows:
I request that you either message Dr. Zikriya at his Facebook account (
https://www.facebook.com/khawajamuhammad.zakariya.5 ) or call Zikriya Saheb at his cell phone (if you email me at talat.afroze@dareechah.com I can send you Dr. Zikriya's cell phone number) to request that he publish those Early Poems as soon as possible …. more than 30 years have passed away and still he is refusing to publish them. If he refuses your request, then please take some public, legal action to rescue those Early Poems from Dr Zikriya.
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