By Naseer Ahmed

Date:01-05-05

Source: Dawn

More than two-and-a-half centuries ago Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) had initiated confidence-building measures between Muslims and Hindus of the subcontinent. His poetry has many references to the deities, clergy and practices of both creeds. When he attacks the mullah’s ostentatious prayers, he does not spare the Hindu priest if occasion warrants so. This way he seeks to guide the masses on the correct path.

During the ongoing political CBMs between Pakistan and India, incidentally representing the two faiths, Bulleh’s cultural measures have acquired more relevance. His works have been translated into various languages, notably Urdu and English, to spread his message of love and tolerance to a wider range of readership. Hindu and Sikh singers and composers have never considered Bulleh a stranger. Rather, many of them have embraced him as their own mystic poet and earned a lasting name for themselves by drawing in one way or another from his works. Bulleh’s appeal has gained in popularity with the scholars uncovering new layers of meaning and finding fresher melodies to adapt to his lyrical poems. People in Pakistan and India and many other parts of the world have begun to enjoy the divine poetry with a renewed zeal.

All sufi poets, who wrote either in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto, Balochi or any other vernacular, have had a lasting appeal. But Bulleh Shah’s poetry is exceedingly ecstatic, prompting its reader or listener to go wild, chanting ‘Thayya, thayya...’ For instance, depicting the scene of his meeting with the beloved, many authors would call it master or guide, he is irritated by the ticking of the clock. “The clock is chiming again and again just to shorten this night of reunion. I wish I could smash it to pieces.” Such intensity of emotions stirs the reader into a trance, and creates an impact in the poet’s message.

Incidentally, Bulleh was also a great campaigner for women’s rights, which is another contemporary theme. Most of his poems use the female pronoun, depicting her problems and reflecting her aspirations. This selection includes two longish poems in which Bulleh exhorts the young lass spinning cotton to move the wheel faster and save for her dower so that she earns an honourable status in her in-laws’ home as well as in society.

In many verses he solely addresses the mystic. In a poem he reminds the Sadhu (Hindu holy man) that he would have to make the Ganges flow upstream if he wants to find the Creator. Similarly, in a popular poem he says a dog serves its master better than a man who keeps a vigil in remembrance of his Lord because the dog is not demanding and subsists on crumbs and sleeps on a pile of trash. After all it performs its duties more devotedly than the assuming ascetic.

The book in hand contains a selection of 69 kafis and some odd verses of different genres. The author has translated the verses in simple Urdu. A glossary at the end of the book further helps the reader understand the content and message of Bulleh Shah’s poetry. The author is correct in asserting in the preface that no two translators can agree on the translation of a poem. But that doesn’t mean that a good translation cannot be distinguished from a not-so-good one. Many classics have reached us through the intervening centuries in translation. So it is the quality of translation that really matters.

The translator of this volume should have explained many of the sufi concepts as they are difficult to understand for an uninitiated reader. For unknown reasons the translator has retained some Punjabi words without rendering them into Urdu. This is stranger still because some of these words are quite difficult to understand even for a Punjabi speaker. Did the translator know their Urdu equivalents? Or did he just want to add “spice” to the translation? Ideally, any such book should be on the pattern of Prof Hamidullah’s work on Khwaja Ghulam Farid’s poetry. The professor in his Kalam Hazrat Khwaja Ghulam Farid takes each line, explains the meaning of its difficult words and then gives its full translation. But that would involve a lot of hard work, which cannot be expected of every translator.

Saleem Akhtar’s book, however, is head and shoulders above many selections and translations of the mystic poets readily available in the market. He has selected poems most of which have remained popular among the common people. Hence it is an appreciable effort.

Tere Ishq Nachaya (A selection of Bulleh Shah’s verses with its Urdu translation)By Saleem Akhtar Book Home, Book Street, 46 Mozang Road, Lahore Email: bookhome1@hotmail.com 200pp. Rs200. Reviewed by Naseer Ahmad