BY AMIR SUHAIL WANI
Existential engagement with the past and the poetic expression thereof borders redundancy, particularly when it emerges and reemerges in the poetic universe again and again. But the craft of poetry, and therefore literature, as it has been defined to represent ordinary as extraordinary and make visible the otherwise hidden subtleties has been so tacitly executed and even romanticised by Arif that each hemistich, each couplet and each ghazal, even if it reiterates the same theme, does so in such a masterful and mindful way that the reader is left in literary awe and launched into infinite space of poetic and aesthetic possibilities. When it comes to aesthetic possibilities, Arif exercises the finest literary abilities at his disposal not only to manifest and reveal the beauty by the selection of themes he broods over in his poetry but also by the selection of metres, precisely chosen words, compound Persianate phrases, historical and cultural allusions and the element of rhyme and rhythm, he so consistently incorporates into his poetry. Couplets over couplets can be poured to bear witness to this fact of poetic grandeur, linguistic majesty and aesthetic sensibility, but for the constraints imposed by space, suffice to quote a single representative Ghazal speaking for his aesthetic sensibilities.
bikhar jā.eñge ham kyā jab tamāshā khatm hogā
mire ma.abūd ākhir kab tamāshā khatm hogā
charāġh-e-hujra-e-darvesh kī bujhtī huī lau
havā se kah ga.ī hai ab tamāshā khatm hogā
kahānī meñ na.e kirdār shāmil ho ga.e haiñ
nahīñ ma.alūm ab kis Dhab tamāshā khatm hogā
kahānī aap uljhī hai ki uljhā.ī ga.ī hai
ye uqda tab khulegā jab tamāshā khatm hogā
zamīñ jab adl se bhar jā.egī nūrun-alā-nūr
ba-nām-e-maslak-o-maz.hab tamāshā khatm hogā
ye sab kaTh-putliyāñ raqsāñ raheñgī raat kī raat
sahar se pahle pahle sab tamāshā khatm hogā
tamāshā karne vāloñ ko khabar dī jā chukī hai
ki parda kab giregā kab tamāshā khatm hogā
dil-e-nā-mutmain aisā bhī kyā māyūs rahnā
jo khalq uTThī to sab kartab tamāshā khatm hogā
What deserves special attention vis a vis the representative Ghazal quoted above is Arif’s ability to transform abstract literary aestheticism into “Cultural Aestheticism” as Schimmel observes about his poetry. This Cultural Aestheticism represents the poet’s commitment to the social issues at hand and “historical anxiety” arising out of engagement with the past, with cherished cultural moors, with things that are historic but subjected to evanescence. Eliot said that the poet acts like a connecting link and mediates the shared cultural and literary heritage in his individual, subjective and creative capacity. Poet can’t be unique in the sense of being uninfluenced and untouched by the tradition he is breathing in and despite all the poetic claims to Originality and De Novo genesis, he is deeply shaped, both consciously and unconsciously by the legacy of tradition. Arif, subjected to the same overarching literary and cultural norms, depicts in his poetry, an existentially tumultuous, yet apparently beautiful encounter between the past and present, the tradition and individual talent, the world he witnesses crumbling before his eyes and the world he aspires for, as a poet of commitment. He mourns the loss of the world, culture and space he is heir to, while at the same time aspiring to new space-time orders. This is what Schimmel intends to describe while describing Arif as a poet of “Cultural Aestheticism”. Few couplets that speak for this strand of his poetry may be thus reproduced here:-
“Hum Apnay Raftagaa Ko Yaad Rakhna
Chahatay hai
Diloo ko Dard se aabaad rakhna chahatay hai”
Or
“Muhafiz e rawish e raftagaa koi nahi hai
Jaha ka Mai hu mera ab waha koi nahi hai”
He is fully conscious of the slippery and ever-escaping nature of the past with all its attachments, yet he relives it in his poetic universe, without attempting to reclaim the same, instead advising:-
“Aftaabu Par Nazar kar, Anjum wa Mehtab dekh
Subh ki bunyaad rakhni hai toh pehlay khwab dekh”
What has been said about the mode and manner of engagement in which Iftikhar Arif’s engages with culture and history, holds also true for his engagement and encounter with literature. He doesn’t pass beyond his ancestors in literature, rather moves in a trajectory parallel to and in congruence with the one charted and chalked by grandees like Mir, Ghalib, Siraj, Josh, Faiz and others. He is, what we characterize in theology as “radically orthodox”. He doesn’t believe and has not attempted any innovations or departures from the traditional poetics of Urdu, while at the same time interjecting the consciousness of contemporary social milieu into his poetic matrix. This resolution of revolving the centres of past in orbits of one’s own and garnering the sensibilities of contemporaneity distinguishes Iftikhar Arif as a poet of unique style and poetics without breaking away from the past. This, as Faiz observes, is reflected in the metres (Bahr) in which Arif decides to write. They carry freshness and are such that they have almost been untouched by the ancestor poets.
Arif heavily enriches the medium of his poetic expression by drawing upon religious and historical symbols. He is, according to Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the first Urdu poet to have christened the symbol of Karbala and drawn from this universal tragedy the existential and ethical connotations of contemporary relevance. To reimagine the present under shades of Karbala and to demonstrate the elements of virtue and evil in a state of constant tussle with one another is the specificity of Iftikhar Arif.
“Wahi Pyaas Hai , Wahi Dasht hai wahi gharana hai
Mashkeezay se teer ka rishta bohut purana hai”
Or
“Hussain Tum Nahi Rahay tumhara ghar nahi raha
Lekin tumharay baad zalimu ka dar nahi raha”
And
“Damishk e maslihat wa kouf e nifaq kay beech
Fugaan e qafila e be nawa ki qeemat kya”
Iftikhar Arif has not only produced some proverbial and oft-quoted Ghazals, but has been successful and commendable on the turf of Nazm genre too. His Nazams like “Bharwa Khiladi”, “Jis Roz Hamara Kooch Hoga”, “Ya Saree ul Raza” and countless others bear witness to his craftsmanship in this genre. Even in his Nazams, he stays conscious of the rhyme and exercises heightened caution so as not to allow his Nazams to slip away to the plane of prose or even free verse. There is this peculiarity about his nazams that they speak of darkness, pessimism, plight and sorrow. It is only in the last stanza that Arif brings in few lines like a masterstroke that changes the entire paradigm and adds an unanticipated twist to the otherwise linear verse – this is indeed a masterly craft so dextrously used by the Persian poets of past where second hemistich inverts the scheme of couplet and opens new hermeneutic spaces. Let us take a look at this prototype Nazm of Arif titled “Makalma” :-
“havā ke parde meñ kaun hai jo charāġh kī lau se kheltā hai koī to hogā
jo khilat-e-intisāb pahnā ke vaqt kī rau se kheltā hai koī to hogā
hijāb ko ramz-e-nūr kahtā hai aur partav se kheltā hai koī to hogā”
”koī nahīñ hai kahīñ nahīñ hai
ye khush-yaqīnoñ ke khush-gumānoñ ke vāhime haiñ jo har savālī se bai.at-e-e’tibār lete haiñ
us ko andar se maar dete haiñ”
”to kaun hai vo jo lauh-e-āb-e-ravāñ pe sūraj ko sabt kartā hai aur bādal uchhāltā hai
jo bādaloñ ko samundaroñ par kashīd kartā hai aur batn-e-sadaf meñ khurshīd Dhāltā hai
vo sañg meñ aag, aag meñ rañg, rañg meñ raushnī ke imkān rakhne vaalā
vo khaak meñ saut, saut meñ harf, harf meñ zindagī ke sāmān rakhne vaalā
nahīñ koī hai kahīñ koī hai koī to hogā”
One is thrown into ecstasy to observe how, with just last two lines, the entire plot of the poem has been overturned and what was hitherto seen absent is brought into presence with full force and conviction.
……to be continued
Amir Suhail Wani is an Engineer., Writer, Research Scholar, Freelance Writer and can be reached at amirkas2016@gmail.com
