Pakistan and its people have inherited rich cultural heritage of poetry from the pre-partition era.
This heritage included great names in Urdu and Persian poetry, like Mirza Ghalib, Momim, Dard, Mir Taqi, Mir Anees, Hali, and in a comparative modern times, Allama Mohammad Iqbal, who earned the title of national poet of Pakistan as well. Out of these poets, the modern generation of the poets started to write in English as well under the influence of British colonialism, especially after the formation of Progressive writers Movement in 1930. One of these, Professor Ahmed Ali wrote both in English and Urdu.
Some of the names are like trademarks in Pakistani anglophone poetry, like, Alamgir Hashmi, Toufiq Rafat, Makki Qureshi, Muneeza Naqvi, Daood Kamal. These poets have followed the traditional set up of poetry and have modernized in their own way. In fact, their poetry is more like modern Urdu as well as American and English poets but with a distinctive color of Pakistani landscape, people, history, customs, traditions and culture. By doing so, they have not only become the part of postcolonial literary studies but also have given an agency to the people of Pakistan and hence making a place for Pakistani literature in the postcolonial literature.
This short article only discusses poetry by Alamgir Hashmi with reference to his representations of Pakistani people and their culture and his making of place for the Pakistani literature in the world literature. Alamgir Hashmi is one of the pioneering poets in Pakistan. He, not only, created literature but also laid foundations for the literary criticism on Pakistani literature and received accolades for his literary efforts. So, he can be taken as a poet, critic and theorist on Pakistani literature.
This short article only discusses poetry by Alamgir Hashmi with reference to his representations of Pakistani people and their culture and his making of place for the Pakistani literature in the world literature
His poem ‘Eid’ is one of the most famous poems of Pakistani literature in English. In this poem the poet appears as a child narrator who is looking at the celebrations, rites, and functions of the Day of Eid, which the Muslims celebrate as a note of thankfulness to Allah after they have successfully fasted during the month of Ramdhan. But the poem is more about the eid prayer, money distribution and eating of sweet dishes. The poet begins with the activity in Mosque where many people gather to say their prayer but it is delayed for the collection of a few more rupees for Imam sahib. So, the holy occasion is turned into monetary matters. Similar, idea proceeds ahead when the poet watches certain beggars who year after year appear on Eid day and ask for money and people do pay them, but their condition remains the same, poor, haggardly and miserable. So, even on Eid day, the human beings are divided between the people who can celebrate Eid and the people who cannot. After hugs with the friends and family, the poet turns to his home and enjoys eating sweet vermicelli. These are vermicelli and other dishes that make this Eid sweet. On the whole poem is reflective of the Pakistani culture which is partly worldly and partly religious, especially the occasions like Eid.
While on the other hand the Poem ‘Encounter with the Sirens’ is an experiment in the Contemporizing of the past classical and mythological poetry and its theme by bringing it in to the modern times. The poet traces the song of the sirens from the Greek mythological poetry and alters and adjusts the old images and the imaginative scene within the contemporary context. The song of the sirens in Greek mythology was supposed to detract the travellers and so they would lose their way and hence could be destroyed or at least they won’t reach their desired destination. But the modern traveller makes arrangement so that his ears may not listen to the song and so he may not be destroyed. So, temporarily he succeeds in making the sirens feel sad but he did not realize that though he was not listening but was seeing the movements of the lips of the sirens and could understand the voiceless song of the Sirens as well.
Similarly, in another poem ‘Snow’ the poet attempt to create man in harmony with nature and nature in harmony with man by using the theme of snow falling in the cold areas of the world. He says that the neat and green grassy landscape turns into the desert of white snow scattered all around that only whiteness of the snow becomes visible and all other parts of nature become hidden under it. The poet equates whiteness of snow with the age of his father and imagines that his father tried to hide the whiteness of his hair by shaving his face for a long time but ultimately all whiteness spread all over him.
So, it is visible that the approach, scope and theme of Alamgir Hashmi is not restricted to Pakistan and its culture and people but rather his poetry spans from Pakistani culture to ancient Greek culture and vaster theme of nature as well. That makes his poetry even more versatile where he talks of past and present, nature and man within and without Pakistani context. This aspect of his poetry keeps him not only a part of Pakistani postcolonial literature but also, he can claim international audience by writing on such a variety of themes and experimentation.
The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson College, Multan. He can be reached at [email protected] and Tweets at @Profzee