Daily Times

Mein Saans Torrta Hua

By Iqtidar Javed

Alasr Publications; Pp 144; Rs 500

As I read all the poems of Iqtidar Javed’s new book Mein Saans Torrta Hua, I discovered that his poems encompass many worlds, some reformed, some disturbed. As per Sajjad Naqvi, while reading Iqtidar’s poems, one falls into a trance. Iqtidar Javed writes poetry in the nazm format, which is a deviation from a number of other poets who prefer the ghazal format to nazm to transmit their thoughts. Let us see when and how this deviation occurred in literary history. It was a group of progressive writers in the beginning of the 20th century who opted for the freedom and flexibility offered by the nazm format as against the rigidity of rhyme of the ghazal format. Thus the result at that time was the choice between blank verse and free verse.

Metaphorically speaking, Iqtidar Javed has tasted the dark night of his death. In his poem titled ‘Maqam-e-Sakht Par Nigah’ (Eyes set on a solid place), he refuses to have his body become dust despite the mourners standing in lines. He concludes ‘Mein kar kei maqam-e-sakht par nigah/ Apne haath paon dekhney laga/ Damagh ki ragein/ Ubhar kei kanpati ko surkh kar gaein/ Mein apne kaandhey, apna pait/ Apna darmeyan/ Apni dhoop chaon daikhney laga/ Mein khud ko lehza lehza/ Khud mein jorney laga/ Mein saans torta hua zameen ko chorney laga’ (Page 13). (I took a look at the hard earth/ And started looking at my hands and feet/ The veins of my brain/ Bloated and made my temples red/ But I composed my shoulders, stomach/ And the centre of my body together/ And started looking both at my bright and dark sides/ I, with each passing moment/ Composed my body into one piece/ And with broken breath started leaving the earth.) With such themes and expressions, Iqtidar’s poems are not contemporary poems. They raise many questions as we read them and sometimes these questions remain unanswered. That aspect alone makes his poems different from contemporary poems.

Let us now look at the technicalities of various forms of nazm. A poem written in blank verse is called nazm-e-muarra in Urdu. Such a poem breaks with the tradition of radif and qafia (rhyming words of a couplet). It, however, observes the sanctity of metre, and prefers to stick to lines of equal length. The free verse poem called azad nazm goes a step further, for it not only ignores rhyme but also allows the use of lines of unequal length in the same poem, or even in the same stanza. With the skilful manipulation of the internal pause, and by avoiding the frequent use of end-stopped lines, the practitioner of this form can give a greater degree of flexibility to his lines. This, in turn, brings them as close as possible to the intonation and rhythms of natural speech. However, even the poet of azad nazm has to be careful in preserving the inner rhythm and tempo of his verse and obey the laws of metre, without which his poem may have to surrender its categorisation as poetry. It may not be out of place here to mention that, despite the outstanding achievement of Urdu free verse poems at the hands of poets like N M Rashid, Meeraji, Majeed Amjad, Wazir Agha, Naseer Ahmad Nasir and the like, the traditional kind of nazm continues to delight the readers with the chant of its musical measures.

This reviewer feels that aside from the controversial definitions and questions about the validity of prose poem as ‘verse’, a prose poem does not constitute a large part of the body of modern Urdu poetry. As far as Iqtidar’s poems are concerned, these are different from nazms generally present in Urdu culture. It could be termed as a step towards introducing a new culture. We are not sure whether it would be widely accepted or not, as it rises above the typical imagery, being constructed differently. He has written poems titled ‘Namak Zaar’ (Salt Miner), ‘Darya’ (River), ‘Kisi Dard Sei Mitti Labrez Hei’ (The earth is filled with some pain), ‘Saat Bazaron Ka Sheher’ (A city of seven roads)’, ‘Abnaei’ (The feelings of a fisherman), ‘Surkh Minar Pei Nasab’ (Fixed on a red tower), ‘Sarangiya’ (Sarang player), ‘Sitariya’ (Sitar player), ‘Mujhey Taza Pani Ki Khushbu Bulati Hei’ (The smell of fresh water calls me), ‘Hujoom Aik Erhi Peh Kab Sey Khara Hei’ (The crowd is standing on its feet for long) and many more. The 43 poems in the book under review have novel ideas/themes and are a saga of present times. Sajjad Naqvi terms these as representative of sheer poetry!

The reviewer is based in Lahore and can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com