Poet with a magical touch
Parwaz Ambalvi

WHEN Munir Niazi, one of the top-ranking Urdu poets of our times, died recently at Lahore some time back at the age of 78 years, it was a loss not only for poets and artists but also for all those who believe in international peace and amity.

Munir was born at village Khanpur in district Hoshiarpur on April 9, 1928. Situated at the feet of Shivalik hills, the village has a picturesque landscape. In the background there are higher mountain ranges sprawling not too far away in the north. Mango groves, peepal trees, forests, brooks, rivulets, monasteries of sadhus and sufi saints lend a wild beauty to the area, so much so that it looks like a fairyland. This was the land where Munir opened his eyes as a child for the first time.

He received his primary and high school education at Khanpur and Montgomery respectively. He was studying in BA (final year) at Jalandhar in 1947 when India ruled by the British crown was given independence and was simultaneously partitioned into two sovereign states India and Pakistan. Communal riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out resulting into heavy bloodshed and mass migration of Hindus from Pakistan to India and of Muslims from India to Pakistan.

At that time, Munir was just a teenager. His family migrated to Pakistan leaving behind idyllic Khanpur by circumstance and not by choice. After reaching Pakistan, Munir, like numerous others, underwent pangs of rehabilitation. The problem acquiring food, clothing and shelter was, as usual, a very tough ordeal. Anyway, normal life was restored in the due course of time but the tragedy of losing his paradise of Khanpur could not be reversed.

It left an indelible print of nostalgic agony on his sensitive mind. The poetry in his first two books Tez hawa aur tanha phool and Jungle mein Dhanak is a poignant testimony to it.

A born poet, right from his early childhood and formative years up to his death, he was engrossed in a world of imagination, beauty and romance. He was gifted with an exceptionally aesthetic sensibility. He devoted himself exclusively to poetry. The most important aspect of his poetry is the evocation of a weird and a dream atmosphere. His spirit always longed for beauty. He was a man of childlike simplicity. For him, it was utter nonsense to believe that an imaginative piece of poetry lacks reality. His belief was that an imaginative experience is not only as real but far more real than an unimaginative one.

To him, therefore, the unseen, the imagined, and the fabulous had a great appeal. The ‘fairy’ quality in Munir’s poetry is fed on exquisitely romantic emotions. Through the blending of a marvellous suggestiveness and the richness of melody, he invests his poetry with an aura of other-worldliness. In one of his poems, he says, Mar bhi jaaoon to mat rona, apna saath na chhotega/teri meri chah ka bandhan maut se bhi nahin tootega/ mein badal ka bhes badalkar, tujhse milne aaoonga/tere ghar ki sooni chat par gham ke phool ugaaoonga/jab tu akeli baithi hogi, tujhko khoob rulaoonga.

Retaining a childlike wonder for things beautiful, Munir used to view the world from the standpoint of an innocent child. Consequently this world remained to him a mystery up to the last breath of his life. As far as the language, style and other externalities of poetry are concerned, Munir was a skilful craftsman. He was a pastmaster in his style and technique in spite of the fact that he had no mentor (ustaad) unlike the rigorous tradition peculiar to the Urdu world. Words, sounds and metres chosen by him are always in consonance with the themes of his poetry. Certain words, however, because of their association, are repeatedly used by him. To a superficial reader they seem to make Munir’s range a limited one. But to an astute reader they are essential for creating an atmosphere of magic, remoteness and freshness.

There are very few Urdu poets who, in their poetry have consciously or subconsciously achieved the same effortlessness. His poems are poems of enchantment in which he tells short magic tales of romance, mystery, beauty and wonder. Unlike other romantic poets, his poems contain ethereal romance. They are miracles of poetical creation. Whatever he wrote sprung up straight from his heart and was expressed by him intensely with natural ease. The following poem is an apt example:

mujh ko andar aanay do". Iskay baad ik lambee chup aur tez hawaa ka shor.

(There is groping darkness all around and jet-black dense clouds she says "who are you?"

I say "I" — open this heavy door

and let me come in"

after this a long silence and noise of the racing wind).

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