Faiz Ahmad Faiz - an Everlasting Voice Who Refused To Be Muted
By
Ahsan ul Haq
November
20, 2020
Today marks
the legendary poet’s, 36th death anniversary. Today he is the most quoted poet
when it comes to free speech. He is not only celebrated as a poet, but he has
also been described as a person of far and wide experience, having been a
teacher, editor, army officer, journalist, and broadcaster.
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Photo
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Faiz, the
poet whose name is interchangeably used with love and revolution. He was called
a Rebel by legendary poet Agha Shahid Ali, and named his translation of Faiz as
‘The Rebel’s Silhouette.’ Translating Faiz has been an adventurous and
fascinating experience for eminent scholars throughout the world. And poetry
was the part of air that Faiz breathed in his youth, enlisting himself in the
caravan of Urdu poets like Ghalib, Meer, Sauda, and Allama Iqbal.
Translating
Faiz into English was a herculean task, as Shahid writes in the introduction of
his translation, but Shahid was not going to escape from this excuse. He wrote
to Faiz asking for permission to translate him, for which Faiz agreed in
affirmation. For Shahid knows how to dance and mesmerize with the words. Shahid
was a poet of great eminence, and he beautifully wrote:
What does
Shahid mean?
It means
beloved in Persian, the witness in Arabic.
Even after
thirty-six years of his demise, the poet is still sung and celebrated in
different corners of the world. Be it Pakistan, India, Palestine, Africa,
Nepal, Bangladesh; even in the Western and Gulf countries. Faiz is a household
name, he is not known to literary and literate people only, he is familiar to
common masses alike. Those who are unable to read him sing him in the fields.
You may hear his poems rendered into music in private and public transport.
Faiz, a
poet was such a craftsman of ghazal that he transformed every stock metaphor,
and as if by the magic of his pen, brought new association into being. And here
lies the beauty ‘Mujh Si Pehli Si Muhabbat Meray Mahboob Na Mañg’ can be
heard on everyone’s lips – lovers and revolutionaries alike.
There are
sorrows in this world other than love
There are
blessings than the union of lovers.
A man with
head held up, Faiz never bowed to any form of tyranny whether religious,
political or social. Nonetheless, his strong commitment to revolutionize the
poetry lent him into threats, tortures, imprisonments and exiles. His muse of
poetry kept him alive even in the extreme times of life singing the slogans of
the revolution, protest, anger and hope. And he famously proclaimed ‘I will
keep nourishing whatever comes to my heart’.
On
stressing the role of an artist Faiz said, ‘the job of the poet is not only to
observe, but to act’. Faiz is an
everlasting voice who refused to be muted.
The main
figure of Progressive writers’ movements, he dedicated his all lot for the
cause of the common man. Injustice, inequality, oppression are some of the
burning concerns in his poems. Faiz is being rendered and sung by the leading
singers like Noor Jahan, Begum Akhter, and Javid etc. Faiz was well versed with Urdu, English,
Persian and Arabic. With these major
languages, he produced large poetic oeuvre to be read for centuries to come. He
is and will be remembered as a master poet. Certainly, Faiz is in the hearts of
people, and the hearts of ones singing and mesmerizing your poetry. His poetry
even after three decades is trembling the people in the seats of power. That is
why English Poet P B Shelly famously proclaimed long ago ‘the poets are the
unacknowledged legislators of the world.’
Some time back I read in an article that ‘poets are not prophets but
often they are prophetic.’
Faiz is a
household name celebrated by all sorts of people. People are never tired of his
poetry, they are reading him with great zeal; scholars are studying him again
and again, writers are translating him into different languages. His poems are
still resonating in university campuses. His political incorrectness was a
crime for regimes, who put him behind the iron grills to stop him singing, but
kept writing whether in prison or outside the prison or even in exile.
Faiz was
nominated for noble prize four times, unfortunately, was never awarded though
was the most deserving of this prestigious award. But for great bards awards hardly matter, for
them their art matters a lot.
He died on
20th of November 1984, the news speared like a wildfire in Pakistan, and all
over the world. Lovers of Faiz assembled to pay the last respect to Pakistan’s
most famous poet after Allama Iqbal. Faiz is the greatest modern Urdu poet and
after he is gone, there is no one of his stature on his horizon. Today, after
thirty-six years after his death, he is loved by millions of people alike.
He was
buried in Model Town Lahore Pakistan, the place where he lived the last years
of his life. Faiz was a poet of many lands while alive, and became the poet of
the world in his Death. Who Can, Other Than Faiz, Pen Down Such A Profound
Couplet?
Kar Raha
Tha Gham-E- Jahan Ka Hisaab
Aaj Tum
Yaad Be-Hasab Aye
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Ahsan ul
Haq studies at the department of English, University of Kashmir
Original
Headline: Remembering the Rebel
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/faiz-ahmad-faiz-everlasting-voice/d/124292
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