This could well be one of the best collections on Faiz in English

By Sarwat Ali

With articles by some of the most reputable scholars and critics of the Urdu language, this could well be one of the best collections of writings on Faiz under one cover in English.

The collection consists of articles and some translations of poems. These translations are by Victor G. Kiernan, Agha Shahid Ali, C.M. Naim, Carlo Coppola, Naomi Lazard, Yasmeen Hameed, Mahmood Jamal, Shoaib Hashmi, Riz Rahim, Baidar Bakht, Kathleen Grant Jaeger, Shiv Kumar, Waqas Khwaja and Daud Kamal.

All the articles have been originally written in English, sans one which is translated from Russian. The ones in English may have been edited, shortened or abridged for this collection and culled into an article from a talk that was delivered, or the skeletal notes that survived in written form. Some of the articles are written by those who do not generally write in English but have done so for the occasion.

The articles vary in the topics or the issues they are addressing. One basic issue is the question of translation of poetry. It is generally considered that translating poetry is a very difficult task because the interiority of the language somehow belies translation. Knowing firsthand the various difficulties and challenges faced by these scholars, some familiar with the Urdu language while some not, some from this land in contact with the living culture while other foreigners, is akin to weaving the web of associated references in a twice removed relationship with a culture that gives birth to the language.

In this context, Carlo Coppola has written specifically about translating five poems of Faiz by five different translators i.e. Victor G. Kiernan, Mahmood Jamal, Daud Kamal, Naomi Lazard and Agha Shahid Ali. Naomi Lazard and Frances W. Pritchett have concentrated on the travails of translating poetry in the particular context of Faiz.

The period when Faiz started to write poetry is much discussed in the number of articles. The other contemporary poet, Noon Meem Rashed, had a close enough relationship to have been asked by Faiz to write the preface of his first published volume ‘Naqsh-e-Faryadi’. In a way the two contemporary poets developed in different directions and chartered the course Urdu poetry had taken in the 20th century.

In layman’s language, while Rashid has been subjective and not readily accessible to the readers, Faiz has been more conscious of his objective environment and much in tune with the tenor of mainstream Urdu poetry. As this sweeping statement needs shading in, scholars and critics have narrowed down on it in the course of these articles. Now that much time has elapsed since the two poets wrote, the distance gives a healthier picture of the similarities between the two, not that obvious in the beginning. Though there are major differences, the similarities now seem more prominent because of the times that they lived in and the common issues or problems that they faced.

Faiz in many ways was swimming against the current of what poetry meant for those carrying the flag of progressivism then. He did not totally rebel against the poetic diction and the use of the well-wrought stylised imagery of  poetry but instead infused new meaning to the same images. Gopi Chand Narang has pointed to the skilful manipulation of imagery and diction in his well-illustrated piece.

This has been one of the characteristics of Faiz’s poetry as well as an object of criticism, but he retained the balance and was able to attract readers who at least could relate to him at two levels, if not more. That could be the main reason for him surviving the high point of the ideology now on the ebb, but his poetry is admired and appreciated just as much.

Aamir R. Mufti has dwelled on this in his long and thoughtful piece — on the embedded significance of the high quality of lyricism in the poetic tradition of the language in the Indian subcontinent and points to the contribution of Faiz who added to the already big treasuretrove of high lyricism. This added lustre of particularity left hues, making it different from a standardised brand.
Carlo Coppola focused on the growth of Faiz’s poetry due to his incarceration, twice, especially the first one and calls it the second or another adolescence of the poet.

Karrar Husain points to the humanising significance to a civilisation of the living word and Faiz’s contribution to our civilisation and poses it as a counter to the accumulation of wealth and power, while in his article Safdar Mir establishes an essential link to the revolutionary urge being the soul of our traditional poetry. These two articles fully placed the revolutionary vision of the poet at the centre of our tradition.

Two interviews of Faiz, one in first person in question-answer format by Muzaffar Iqbal and the other in third person by Tahir Mirza are about the various issues that bedevilled his age and the sources of his inspiration.

But the most touching is by Alys Faiz. She cuts through the academic and literary fluff to focus on the man and her relationship with him. Faiz emerges as a man facing hardships and travails with fortitude but with embedded concerns and worries of one who is a husband, father and brother. It portrays the human side of the person, in contrast to the larger-than-life persona the others make of a great man fighting their causes.

There is plenty of thoughtful stuff and the list of contributors include Victor G. Kiernan, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, Ralph Russell, Gopi Chand Narang, Carlo Coppola, Safdar Mir, Naomi Lazard, Rimma Kazakova, Maryam Salganik, Frances W. Pritchett, Agha Shahid Ali, Ludmila Vassilyeva, Ayesha Jalal, Aamir R. Mufti, A. Sean Pue, Ted Genoways, Karrar Husain, M. Sadiq, Alys Faiz, Mirza Hasan Askari, Khalid Hasan, Muzaffar Iqbal and Tahir Mirza. It will take a while to absorb it all.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s death anniversary falls on November 20.
Daybreak — Writings on Faiz
Compiled and edited by:
Yasmeen Hameed
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013
Pages: 366

Frome: Daily Jang November-17 2013