Speak, Truth still lives -Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Bol Ke sach zinda hai ab tak
On Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Hearing this name itself rekindles the magical verses which have adorned the poetry lovers across the Globe; no wonder the word Faiz in Urdu means grace and success. It is the name that symbolizes beauty and reality together in the same platform, the sorcery to turn words into images and movements.

My interest in urdu poetry started with Faiz , it was my first love and first love never leaves you and its because of the inspiration it confers on you to go on and on...His poetry has remained with me ever since .

Faiz stands tall as a sensitive, mild mannered and a soft spoken personality, as a glimmer struggles against the establishment. Born in undivided India; he is the only poet after Ghalib to be translated in a lot of languages of Asian subcontinent. He did not write for a country in particular but for the entire race and this is what draws people across to appreciate his writings .His poetry touches deeper chords, expanses from seraphic romantic beauty to excruciating and harsh realities of life.
He was identified as a progressive poet that provoked the weak into rebellion, startling them from their deep slumber. He empathises with the downtrodden and urges them to free themselves from the shackles of misery and repression and thus into a revolution.

Although being a progressive and a moderate poet he did not disconnect with the traditional poetic expression .He used the verses of Ghalib, Sauda and Makhdoom as his inspiration and churned out pearls yet again in respect of these legends. This is not just bland respect but blending his poetry with their spirit.

For eg

Aap ki yaad aati rahi raat bhar
Chandni dil khilaati rahi raat bhar
And

Yaad ka phir koi darwaza khula aakhir-e- shab
Dil mein bikhri koi khushboo-e-kaba aakhir-e-shab

The first two verses are of Makhdoom and second verse by Faiz . This tradition was started by Sauda and Meer which Faiz kept alive. Another one by Zauq

Ab to ghabrake ye kehte hai ki mar jayenge
Marke bhi chain na paya to kidhar jayenge

Faiz further elicits as

Nemete zeest ka karz chukega kaise
Lakh ghabrake ye kehte rahein mar jayenge

Another gem by Ghalib

“Kahoon kisse main ki kya hai , shab-e-gham buri bala hai
Mujhe kya bura tha marna agar ek baar hota”

Blended by Faiz is beauty par excellence

“Tumhe kya kahoon ke kya hai , shab-e- gham buri bala hai
Hamein ye bhi tha ghanimat jo koi shumar hota
Hamein kya bura tha marna agar ek baar hota”

One of the brilliant facets of Faiz was the portrayal of hope and its symbolism of dawn with light. The darkness of the night and penury at its peak, the social injustice rearing its ugly head around him puts in the poet the belief that all is not lost and a harbinger of hope which reflects in his poetry .All his helplessness transcends as a beacon of hope and for a better tomorrow. It is this inexplicable connectedness of traditional optimism that defines the popularity and acceptance to the common man.

“Dil na ummeed nahi, nakaam hi to hai
Lambi hai gham ki sham magar sham hi hai”

His first book Naqsh-e-fariyaadi has this line.

“Chand roz aur meri jaan , faqat chand hi roz
Zulm ki chaanv mein dam lene ko majboor hai ham”

“Lekin ab zulm ki miyaad ke din thode hai
Ik zara sabr ki fariyaad ke din thode hain”


“Najate deed o dil ki ghadi nahi aayi
Chale chalo ki woh manzil abhi nahi aayi”

His poetry has the central theme of Sehar - dawn which puts in the feeling of faith and fervent hope and shows the poets thinking of eternal optimism which was required for his communist line of thought. For example

“Sabane dar-e- zindaan pe aake dastak dee
Sehar qareeb hai , dil se kaho na ghabraaye

“Yahi taareeqi to hai gaza-e-rukhsaar-e-sehar
Subah hone ko hi hai aye dil-e-betaab thehar”

“Yeh gham jo is raat ne diya hai
Ye gham sehar ka yaqeen bana hai”

“Yaqeen jo gham ke karimatar hai
Sehar jo shab se azeemtar hai”

Faiz poetry at the start has that magic that lets us feel the sensuous , beautiful feeling of love , longing moments at the onset and intense pain , restlessness and hence does the supreme sacrifice of love .They may look as oxymoron or paradox but in reality both are intertwined like a fabric is with colour and threads. Faiz has a phenomenal range – in his idiom, in his refined phraseology, as well as in the effortless weaving-in of simple everyday words

“Mujhse pehli si mohabbat” was a landmark in Urdu Poetry. This was Faiz’s first experiment with blending love for the ‘beloved’ into love for humanity, of turning the pain of separation into pain for all those who suffered under the ‘dark, bestial spells of uncounted centuries’, in which he declares, ruefully:

Mujhse pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang
(Do not ask of me, my beloved, that same love)

“Maine samjhe tha ki tu hai to darakshan hai hyaat”
Tera gham hai to ghame dehar ka jhagda kya hai
Teri surat se hai aalam mein baharaon ko sabaat
Teri aankhon ke siwa duniya mein rakha kya hai”

“Aur bhi dukh hai zamane men mohabbat ke siwa
Raahatein aur bhi hain vasl ki rahat ke siwa”

And the other facet of reality which evolves in the next verse is

Anginat sadiyon ke taarik bahimaana talism
Resham_o_atalas-o-kimkhaab se saje jism
Khaak mein lithade hue khoon mein nahlaaye hue
Jism nikale hue amaraaz ke tanavvuron se
Peep behti hui galte hue naasuuron se
Laut jaati hai idhar ko bhi nazar kya kije
Ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya kije
Mujh se pehli si mohabbat mere mahboob na maang

In the above verse we view the paradox which has two opposite sensitiveness , the poet in the same breath can make all the love and longing of the beloved so trivial in the wake of the sorrow , grief of the downtrodden , exploited and deprived society , The transition of the “Me” to the “We”……..

For all this and much more of sorcery in muse, every poetry lover must have a collection of Faiz. Get it if you don't have one.




Some keywords and their meanings
[darakhshaan : shining; hayaat = life]
[Gam-e-dahar = sorrows of the world; aalam = world]
[sabaat = permanence; niguun = bow/subservient]
[faqat = merely; vasl = union/meeting; taariik = dark]
[bahimaanaa = dreadful; talism = magic]
[resham = silk; atalas = satin; kamKhvaab = brocade]
[jaa-ba-jaa = hither-thither; lithade = covered/soaked in]
[amaraaz = diseases; tannuron = ovens; piip = pus]
[naasuur = ulcer/a wound that won't heal; dil_kash = heart-warming]