Urdu Poetry - an introduction

Aakar Patel's article in today's edition of the Mint Lounge serves as a lovely introduction to Urdu poetry. Think it is worth clicking on this link and reading the entire article. For those that lack the patience, am reproducing some sections from the article below :

Faiz Ahmed “Faiz” (Success) died in 1984 and thought Partition was unfulfilling. He wrote a poem about this called August 1947, which opens with this couplet: “Yeh dagh-dagh ujala, yeh shab-gazidah sehar/Woh intezar tha jiska, yeh woh sehar to nahin (This stained light we see in this tattered dawn/This isn’t the morning we had been promised).”

Director Sudhir Mishra named his movie after the Ghalib couplet: Hazaaron khwahishen aisi, kay har khwahish pe dam niklay/Bohat niklay meray armaan. Lekin phir bhi kam niklay.

Kahaan maikhanay ka darwaza Ghalib, aur kahaan waiz/Par itna jaante hain, kal woh jaata tha kay hum niklay (You wouldn’t associate the mullah with the tavern, Ghalib/But this I know: I was leaving it yesterday when I saw him enter).

Ghalib could laugh at himself and that made him unusual, for good poets are pompous. My absolute favourite couplet from him is: “Yeh masail-e-tasawwuf, yeh tera bayaan Ghalib/Hum tujhay wali samajhte, jo na badakhwar hota (These philosophies you spout with such pompous gravity, Ghalib!/People would think you wise, if you weren’t such a goddamn drunk).

One writer I am fond of is the Gujarati polyglot Sheikh Adam Abuwala. Few know him, but all of us know his work. He wrote the ghazals that Gujarati singer Pankaj Udhas sang. Abuwala wrote in Urdu and in very good Gujarati. One couplet of his I like is: “Adam, gajab ni vaat chhe: astik hata amey/Nastik bani gaya amey, karan Khuda mali gayo (I used to be a believer, O Adam/But I stopped after knowing God).” Abuwala had a certain style about him. He spoke German and English, and one of his books is called Adam thi Sheikh Adam sudhi (From Adam to Sheikh Adam!).

The Gambler

Songwriters : Lorenz Hart, Richard Rogers
Singer : Kenny Rogers

On a warm summer's eve
On a train bound for nowhere
I met up with the gambler
We were both too tired to sleep
So we took turns a-starin'
Out the window at the darkness
The boredom overtook us, he began to speak

He said, "Son, I've made a life
Out of readin' people's faces
Knowin' what the cards were
By the way they held their eyes
So if you don't mind my sayin'
I can see you're out of aces
For a taste of your whiskey
I'll give you some advice"

So I handed him my bottle
And he drank down my last swallow
Then he bummed a cigarette
And asked me for a light
And the night got deathly quiet
And his faced lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done

Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
'Cause every hand's a winner
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep"

And when he finished speakin'
He turned back toward the window
Crushed out his cigarette
And faded off to sleep
And somewhere in the darkness
The gambler he broke even
And in his final words
I found an ace that I could keep

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done

You've got to know when to hold 'em
(When to hold 'em)
Know when to fold 'em
(When to fold 'em)
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done


Comments : Before I discovered the cynicism of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, there was the pragmatism of 'The Gambler'. - Zen

Metaphor

By Thomas Thurman

A metaphor’s a gentle curse
that darkens life with soft implying:
or so I learned from reading verse.

A blanket is a woollen hearse.
A lover’s word is widows’ sighing.
A metaphor’s a gentle curse.

And sex is just a human purse
with prices, goods, and people buying,
or so I learned from reading verse:

transactions made we can’t reverse:
a one-way street, a kind of dying.
A metaphor’s a gentle curse,

though dying is a friendly nurse
with copper coins to ease your crying,
or so I learned from reading verse.

I’m left to wonder which is worse:
to hear your truth, or see you lying.
A metaphor’s a gentle curse,
or so I learned from reading verse.

Comments : A friend linked to this poem on facebook today. I liked it and decided to post it here. I liked the description of a metaphor as ‘a gentle curse that darkens life with soft implying’, as well as ‘I’m left to wonder………………lying’. - Zen

Summer Song

By Lola and Dave Brubeck
(Sung by Louis Armstrong)

Love, to me, is like a summer day
Silent 'cause, there's just too much to say
Still, and warm, and peaceful,
Even clouds that may drift by
Can't disturb our summer sky

I'll take summer, that's my time of year
Winter's shadow, seems to disappear
Gay is swanny season,
That's the reason I can say
That I love a summer day

I hear laughter, from the swimming hole
Kids out fishin', with the willow pole
Boats come driftin', round the bend
Why must summer, ever end...

Love, to me, is like a summer day
If it ends, the memories will stay
Still, and warm, and peaceful,
Now the days are getting long
I can sing my summer song

I hear laughter, from the swimmin' hole
Kids out fishin', with the willow pole
Boats come driftin', round the bend
Why must summer, ever end...

Oh, love to me, is like a summer's day
If it ends, the memories will stay
Still, and warm, and peaceful
Now the days are getting long
I can sing, my summer song

Comments : Link to the song here. Doesn’t it just evoke mellow summer holidays ? Especially due to the slow and lazy way in which it’s been sung, and that voice ! - Zen