Book Review by Dr Aftab Husain Sin of Semantics Poet: Saima Afreen Publisher: Copper Coin, India; 2019
Sin of Semantics is the debut collection of poems by Calcutta-born and Hyderabad-based poet, Saima Afreen. She already has a glorious record of being featured in many publications and anthologies, both in her native India and abroad. Her work has appeared in The Nassau Review, Muse India, Coldnoon Travel Poetics, Ræd Leaf Poetry, and Contemporary Literary Review India. Besides poetry, journalism is her vocation and photography is her avocation.
The first thing that you encounter in Afreen’s poetry is the cultural mosaic of Indian-ess that permeates her verses, sometimes manifestly, but mostly, at a deeper, symbolic plane. The sheer mention of Indian-ness, especially in the face of present day, state-sponsored jingoistic nationalism, and a ghastly majoritarian agenda being perpetuated by the incumbent regime, could lead to many negative connotations. But here we have a poet who is clear-headed, and who speaks for the great Indian tradition of pluralistic, inclusionary and secular values.
That, however, does not follow that Afreen is insensitive to the disasters perpetuated by a brutal state system. Immediate political realities do surface in her poetry, if not often in quite a direct way, as they do in her poem about Kashmir, “For a Child of Kashmir”. It takes a child as a protagonist, and exposes the abuse of beastly power exercised by the state machinery. It is a powerful poem with genuine human concerns about the gruesome state of affairs in the valley: unchecked brutal forces versus sheer helplessness of innocent inhabitants. Writing poetry with political engagement is a job marked with pitfalls, as in such an effort the first causality is poetry itself. But despite enunciating its stance with full force, the poem does not relinquish its essential poetic properties.
The first thing that you encounter in Afreen’s poetry is the cultural mosaic of Indian-ess that permeates her verses, sometimes manifestly, but mostly, at a deeper, symbolic plane
Afreen’s poetic system operates more within the cultural spectrum. She delves deep, though not exclusively, in the (Indian-) Islamic/Muslim culture. But again, in an era when religion has been rendered something tantamount to a segregating and exclusionary grouping, she reverts to it, and brings back its powers as a cultural phenomenon. In other words, religion does play a vital role in the making of these poems, but the poet takes and transmits it as a unifying force and not as a dividing weapon. “Shab-e-Qadr”, “Maghrib”, “At the Poet Daagh Dehlvi’s Grave”, “At Moazzamjahi Market”, “Bhishti”, “Song for a Dastango I Met Last Winter” and “Hindustan” can be referred to in this connection. More important, perhaps, is the finding that the symbols she takes from Islam and the way she put them they evoke an ambience that is at once fascinating and profound.
The ethos of Indian Islam might be a more conspicuous colour of Afreen’s variegated poetic canvas, but in no way has she confined herself solely to that. There are luminous glimpses of other cultures and foreign lands that the poet has encountered-an experience that finds a haunting presence in some of her memorable poems.
Not only have we here the world outside, but the universe inside also gets its due share in these poems. There are moments of sorrow, love, estrangement, ennui, and ecstasy, but whatever Afreen lays her hand at she does it with a peculiar soulfulness.
Another significant aspect of these poems is their essential lyrical quality that might have been generated courtesy her intimate acquaintance with Urdu language-her mother tongue, and Urdu culture, especially with Urdu ghazal. But it is pertinent to note here that her diction as well as her treatment of such cultural images bear no trace of any cloying romanticism.
This is Saima Afreen’s maiden collection, yet this book announces the arrival of a poet mature in thought and sensitive in perception, a voice that is soft and serene, but at the same time powerful.
The reviewer is a Pakistani-born Austria-based poet. He teaches South Asian Literature and Culture at the Vienna University
Saima Afreen is the author of Sin Semantics