February 13 is the birth anniversary of the great Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In 2012 his birth centenary was celebrated all around the world. His verse remains as fresh as the morning dew. And it shows no signs of fading away from the hearts of poetry lovers the world over. It is spring now and one can recall one of the most quoted couplets of Faiz: “Gulon mein rang bharey, baad-e-naubahaar chaley bhi aao ke gulshan ka kaarobaar chaley”.
The Doon valley may not have made any great efforts to celebrate the centenary of Faiz but his connection with the valley was a strong bond and has remained so. Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born a century ago on February 13 in Sialkot in pre-Partition Punjab. It was indeed a fortunate and auspicious day for the world of poetry. He grew up surrounded by literature with a father who was a friend to many writers, including Muhammad Iqbal. His schooling took him to lahore where he studied Arabic and English literature.
When he began teaching at the MAO College in Amritsar, Faiz made friends with Mahmood-uz-Zafar and his wife, Dr Rasid Jahan, who were from Dehradun. Both were among pioneers of the progressive writers’ movement in India. Faiz was greatly influenced by them and became an active member of the association. So the second part of ‘Naqsh-e-Faryadi’ depicts the change in his thinking that came with his coming into contact with progressive writers. Thus begins the period of Faiz’s poetry with a purpose.
But Doon’s “Faiz connection” did not end with the death of Mahmood-uz-Zafar and Rashid Jahan. It carries on till today due to a very interesting development, an almost spiritual link between the Saiduzzafar family of Dehradun and the great poet. This link exists even now.
The link is none other than a dignified, graceful and amazingly brilliant lady called Dr Sarvat Rahman. She was a close friend and neighbour of the family of Mahmood-uz-Zafar in the good old days of the Doon valley (1920s to 1950s).
Dr Rahman, when I met her a few years ago, gave me the great news that her latest work of translation (Fifty poems of Faiz) had been published and was ready for release in the poet's centenary year. It is a trilingual version (Urdu, English and French).
Her volume, ‘100 Poems By Faiz Ahmed Faiz,’ was brought out in 2002 and remains one of the most sought-after publications by lovers of the Urdu language and poetry. It brought Faiz close to the hearts of those who do not read the Urdu script but are keen to read it in Roman script and translations.
Interestingly, this volume is dedicated “to the memory of Hamida, Rashid and Mahmud.” Hamida was Mahmuduzzafar’s sister and Sarvat’s best friend.
She met Faiz when she was a 16-year-old girl. “The year was 1941 and I was a young student of lady Hardinge Medical College. My friend Hamida, who belonged to Dehradun, told me that Faiz was in Delhi with her brother Mahmuduzaffar and sister-in-law Rashid Jahan. I went to meet him and he gave me his first book, Naqsh-e-Fariyadi”.
“I first translated his poems into French and then from French to English”, says Rahman who was practicing as a medical doctor in France for many years before returning home to the Doon valley and settling in to her translations of Urdu poetry around twenty five years ago. Renowned poet Javed Akhtar once said in his tribute to Faiz, “ Faiz’s poetry is like the moonlight, it beautifies all it touches.”
Faiz can be described as a “cross-cultural” poet. Influences like Keats, Shelley and Byron were rapidly assimilated by the young Faiz into his own tradition. This was quite natural as Faiz studied and taught English literature and his knowledge of it was profound. At the same time, he was imbued with the Sufi ideals of Hafiz and Rumi and all the great Urdu poets.
Romance and politics, sensuous lyricism and fiery passion, mingle inextricably in Faiz’s poetry. “The true subject of poetry is loss of the beloved,” he wrote but, in his case, the “beloved” could mean a lover, country, freedom, even revolution.