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On Shahryar and the Jnanpith Award

By Rakhshanda Jalil
Updated Saturday, 24 September 2011 14:09:54 - IST (UTC +5:30)


It was with great pride that I watched Shahryar receive the country's highest literary award, the venerable Jnanpith, being conferred upon him on Sunday, 18th September 2011. That the person giving it was Amitabh Bachchan was another matter. In my humble opinion, Mr Bachchan, regardless of his stature in the Hindi film industry, had little grounds for being there. Any grounds he might have had for being present in such an august gathering by virtue of being the son of Harivanshrai Bachchan were lost given his advocacy of Narendar Modi. But the matter of the Chief Guest aside, there is no diminishing the significance of the award itself or, more importantly, of Shahryar as the pre-eminent voice of an entire generation.
Coming in the wake of the progressive writers’ movement, Shahryar represented the new poetic sensibility of the 1960s that was at once fiercely individualistic yet profoundly humane.The poets of Shahryar’s generation viewed, at first hand, the commensurate rise of modernism or jadidyat as it was called in Urdu with many erstwhile progressives turning into modernists. Etymologically, a modernist too ought to be progressive and vice versa, but in the Urdu lexicon, tarraqui pasand (progressive) and jadeed (modernist) have always been antonyms used to signpost those who occupy opposite ends of the literary spectrum. The modernists have not only given greater importance to the individual rather than the collective experience, they have also interpreted the social function of literature per se differently. Not only have the modernists revolted against the watertight compartmentalisation of ideas but also against literary etiquette and ideologies, state patronage, even against the ethical, philosophical, religious, social or political conventions that had come to represent convention.
In the years after partition, a group of young writers who styled themselves as the Nai Nasl (new generation) -- which comprised Balraj Komal, Baqar Mehndi, Qazi Salim and some lapsed progressives such as Khalilur Rahman Azmi as well as several brand-new voices on the Urdu firmament such as Ibne Insha, Nasir Kazmi, Shaaz Tamkanat, Jafar Tahir, Waheed Akhtar, Shahab Jafri -- mounted repeated attacks on the citadel of ‘organised’ progressivism. This wave of new poetry was continued by the post-1960 generation which comprised Shahryar, Zafar Iqbal, Ahmad Mushtaq, Nida Fazli, Kumar Pashi who reveled in defying labels and classifications.
Shahryar, however, refused to belong to either one group. The individualism and romanticism of his early years, as evident in his first collection of poetry, soon gave way to an acutely felt concern for the world around him. In this he differed sharply from the jadeed-parast; for he refused to write merely to satisfy his own creative self or ease the burden of his soul. Shahryar continued to grope for meaningful ways of communication and, in the process, gifted Urdu literature with a unique lexicography, a whole new set of images and symbols. His poetry mirrors the evolution of personal symbols that transcend the immediate and personal and speak of universal concerns. I think it is this that lifts his poetry leagues above his contemporaries and it this singular ability to speak for himself while also speaking for the world that defines his entire poetic ouvre. Unlike the modernists, Sharyra has never bemoaned the futility of communication, nor has he resorted to the use of dense, impenetrable images and idioms. I would imagine in the age-old debate on Art for Art’s Sake vs Art for Life’s Sake, Shahryar would align himself with the latter.
We pay tribute to Shahryar and his invincible spirit. May there be more awards, greater recognition and much happiness in store for him.We pray for his health and his long life and for him we say: Allah kare zor-e-qalam aur ziyadah.
As a token of my respect for one of the greatest living Urdu poets, I append some of my translations from his nazms below:
Tonight the night presented me
With a new dilemma
It emptied the basin of my eye
Of all sleep
And filled it with tears
Then, it whispered in my ear:
‘I have absolved you of all sin
And set you free, forever
‘Go, wherever you wish
Sleep, or stay awake
The doorway of dreams is closed for you.’
A black poem
Let me write a black poem on virgin paper
Let me light up this banquet with unseen, formless silences
The smell of unripe guavas maddens me
It makes my empty eyes brim with wetness
Far away wild animals growl and snap at each other
Between us, lies endless nights
An uncreased bed stares at me
My body half sleeps, half wakes
And I resolve
To write a black poem
Let me speak
Let me open
Let me open the window of fragrances
Let it fly
Let this bird-like soul fly far, far away
Let it speak
Let the red blood imprisoned in this body speak
Behind the gold and green curtain
Lies an impenetrable silence
Don’t hush me, don’t stop me
Let me speak
Do you remember?
Do you remember
You had sworn
Placing your hand on night’s palm
That the glitter and keen of morning’s sun-sword
Would no longer frighten you
And you would give away
The dream treasures
That you had hidden in your eyes
As gifts
To someone
Braver and stronger
Than you
So, what stops you now
In the defence of sleepless nights
Think, my friend
Open your eyes and see
This barren night
Is the enemy of all your dreams
Don’t sell your sleeplessness
To this night
(The above translations are from Through the Closed Doorway: A Collection of Nazms by Shahryar, translated by Rakhshanda Jalil, Rupa & Co., 2004.)

Tags: Rakhshanda Jalil Shahryar, Jnanpith Award, A.M.U.

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