The femme fatale is a familiar figure to the lovers of Urdu poetry. Her pride in her beauty and her indifference to her lover’s feelings are a commonplace of the bulk of Urdu poetry. She is the perfect la belle dame sans merci. She is consistently vain, often faithless, occasionally frivolous. Indifferent to romantic advances, cold to endearments lavished on her.
She stands on the high pedestal, revered by the lover notwithstanding her heartless behaviour towards him. In this one-sided affair of the lover and the loved, some of the best Urdu poetry is simply the lamentation of the poet’s heart to woo and placate the stony heart, nestling in a fragile frame.
Nazakat (frailty) is a recurrent theme. Mirza Ghalib curses the frail beauty of the beloved, feels reluctant to touch her lest she gets inconvenienced (Hath ayen toh unko haath lagaye na bane). Another poet Insha Allah Khan says that the morning breeze is enough to besmirch her delicate beauty. Mir Taki Mir’s oft-quoted couplet on the beauty of the lady’s delicate lips takes it to the tenderest limit… Nazuki uske lab ki kya kahiye, pankhuri ek gulab ki si hai (Her lips, the petal of a rose).
Another trait of this enchanting lady is her innocence, her childlike simplicity. Her innocence has been eulogised by almost all the Urdu poets. Says Ghalib, “Iss saadgi pe kaun na mar jaaye ai khuda, ladte hain aur hath mein talwar bhi nahin (who would not be won over by this innocence-she fights but without a sword). Taking this innocence to the extreme, Hafiz Jalandhari talks of a situation where anticipating the moment of his death, he describes the arrival of the beloved on the scene. Not knowing who has died, she asks the weeping crowd as to whose death has occurred “Ab mere rone walo khuddara jawab do/wo bar bar poochte hain kaun mar gaya”.
One mitigating aspect in this portrayal is that this exquisite being, who has a heart of stone, is as delicate as a piece of china and has the innocence of a child, and does have her weaker moments when she is not all prepared to fight or inflict cruelty. Goodness surfaces, remorse takes over, defences crumble and lo! the la belle dame sans merci is transformed into a coy mistress.
Describing the softer side of her nature, Hasrat Mohani says, “Bark ko abr ke daaman mein chhupa dekha hai/hamne uss shokh ko majboor-e-haya dekha hai” (I have seen her helpless in her shyness). But more often than not, the lady is in a haughty frame of mind, inflicting pain on the lover with a smile, or a laugh or even a sneer. But the lover undauntedly persists in his efforts to adjust to her unpredictable temperament. But there are times when his limits are tested a trifle too much. Expressing his dislike of her tendency to sulk, he says, “Pehle ismein ik ada thhi, naaz thha, andaaz thha/roothna ab to teri aadat mein shaamil ho gaya”.
Mirza Ghalib’s famous couplet puts the situation in a nutshell — “Ham hain mushtaq aur who bazaar, ya ilaahi ye majra kya haiIJ” The lover is eager (mushtaq) while the beloved is uninterested, indifferent (bezaar). She will never make any promises or, having made them, will never keep them. Says Ghalib, “Tere waade par jiye ham toh yeh jaan jhoot jana, ke khushi se mar na jaate agar aitbaar hota.”
Obviously, this familiar figure of heartless beauty is far from being a realistic one. It can be said that this image is more a creation of the imagination of poets — an idea to which the poets took fancy and developed into a cliché, albeit an interesting one. From Mir Taki Mir in the 18th century to Ghalib, Daag and Zauk in the 19th century, no poet has been able to resist the temptation of describing the “killer lady”. And one feels that Urdu shayari would not have been the same without this fascinating concept.
The 20th century saw an attempt on the part of Urdu poets to change this tyrannical image to a great extent. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Qatil Shifai, Shakil Badayuni and Sahir ludhianvi are all romantic poets. The man-woman relationship is at the heart of their poetry. But the relationship is more equal, more balanced and far more realistic. It is not just something that has been imagined by the lonely, miserable lover who is also the poet.