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Born in Chak in Jhelum district
(Pakistan), Jafri was educated at Islamia College, Lahore. After
his graduation he joined the army but the soldierly life did not
suit his temperament. After a short interval, he rejoined the
army. During the Second World War he served at Singapore, where
he came in close touch with Faiz and Noon Meem Rashid, whose
poetic models set a standard for his literary ambitions. In 1949
he rose to the position of Captain, and in 1966, a Major. Later
he served in the Pakistan intelligence service, holding highly
sensitive departments. He specialised in Afghan affairs. Because
of his literary contributions he was honoured with the
Qaid-e-Azam award in 1985. After his retirement he settled in
Islamabad. In 1989 he went to America, where he died in 1997.
Not by any means an intellectual poet, Jafri’s poetry
expresses a deep and abiding concern for the poor, the peasant
and the working class. Free from any trace of rancour or irony,
his poetry exhibits in simple idioms his variegated moods of
self-mockery while cajoling others simultaneously in a
light-hearted vein. His poetry won wide acclaim from his
audience when he recited his poetry. The articles published in
the memory Jafri are mostly adulatory, emphasising the high
quality of excellence reflected in his poetical works. His poems
‘Motor’ and ‘Mazi-ulzamir’ and his dialogue with the
poet and philosopher Sir Mohammad Iqbal on the growing
degeneration of moral values in Pakistan won recognition as
literary masterpieces. Randhir Singh’s technical virtuosity is
evident in his poem, and so is the novelty of theme in Amad
Feroz’s composition.
***
A distinguished
woman Urdu poet of Pakistan Parveen Shakir, born in Karachi in
1972, died in 1994 at the age of 42. Endowed with a high sense
of discrimination, Shakir did not publish much. Her poetical
work ‘Khushboo,’ originally published in 1977, has been
republished by Kitabi Duniya Publishers, Lucknow, recently. This
slim poetical work of 124 pages established Shakir’s
reputation as an outstanding Urdu poet, and her early death was
regarded as an irreparable loss to Urdu literature both in
Pakistan and India.
Shakir took her MA
degree in English literature from Karachi University, and
studied further at Harvard University. Later she joined the
Pakistani civil service and held various high administrative
positions. But her first love remained poetry. She was greatly
influenced by the Progressive writers movement. As an
intellectual, she was substantially in touch with the current
ideas and assimilated their vitality in some of her poems. In
her poetry she derived much impulse of thought from the writings
of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid and Ali Sardar Jafri. She
has no doctrine or philosophy to preach! Her poetry is itself an
aesthetic experience. Her poetic idiom is chaste and exquisite,
and she writes spontaneously with effortless ease.
Shakir’s poem
‘Aj ki shab to kisi taur to guzar jayegee’ shows her
sensitivity and delicacy of touch. As an artist she understands
the anguish of the suffering lot. At certain moments she regards
separation from the beloved as noble, while the union is viewed
as death. Free from artificiality and frills, her verse is
tender. Hush, a mere touch would break it! Shakir was a born
artist, and such a perception cannot explain her uniqueness
merely by an analysis of the external factors that worked as a
stimulus on her life. Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s ‘Wasteland,’
Shakir wrote a poem in the same vein of gloom and despondency on
the annihilation of the moral and spiritual values. I think her
poetry has much affinity with the Pre-Raphaelites in England.
***
Mohinder Pratap
‘Chand’ has promoted the cause of Urdu, particularly in
Kurukshetra University, where he took up the initiative of
setting up the Bazm-e-Adab and introducing the study of Urdu in
the university curriculum. Though serving in the Kurukshetra
University library, he has kept up his interest in writing Urdu
poetry. His latest poetic collection is Azar-e-Gham-i-Ishq (Prakashan,
Delhi, Pages 112, 2001).
Chand did his
masters in Urdu and in library science: his association with
Qais Jullundhari acted as a stimulus on his poetic talents. The
present work is a selection of his earlier as well as his latest
poems. To Chand, as expressed in his poetry suffering, is one
long moment and a holy ground, a springboard for
self-examination and soul-searching. He is essentially a poet of
sorrow and love. His experience translated in his verses is not
individual but universal, not leading to a blind alley but
opening a wider horizon. Not losing sight of a glimmering hope,
he firmly believes in submission—more things are wrought by
prayers than the world dreams of, as Tennyson says. His latest
poetic compositions show the vitality of his thought and
technical virtuosity. There are also in the collection a few
patriotic poems, and others on general themes.
In the last part
of this collection, his poems focus on his son Vivek (Ghoshai-e-Vivek)
who had died tragically in a bus accident in May 1997. These
poems are the anguished cries of a broken heart instinct with
utmost sincerity and rendered into moving verses, expressing his
depth of feeling. After reading these poems the lines that come
to mind are Shakespeare’s ‘Rest is silence’ and, perhaps
the greatest, ‘Readiness is all.’
Note: Apropos
of my review of Antony Beevor’s The Fall of Berlin, 1945
(Spectrum, July 7, 2002), the dates of Germany’s surrender and
her capitulation are given as April 7 and 8, 1945. This is
wrong. The dates should have been May 7 and 8. The error is
regretted.
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