This book is meant to introduce the reader to the poetry of Iqbal, a great poet, often bracketed with Ghalib, the all-time great in Urdu poetry. While Ghalib is a specialist of the ghazal, Iqbal is essentially a poet of the nazm, a poetic form, a better suited than the ghazal for the logical development of thought or theme.
The book contains the text and translation of some of the finest poems of Iqbal including Tarana-e-Hindi, Naya Shivala, shikwa, Jawab-e Shikwa, Saqi Nama, Taloo-e-Islam, Tasweer-e-Dard, Walida Marbooma ki Yaad mein , the poet and the Candle, etc. There are in all 61 nazma and 26 ghazals, drawn mostly from Bang-e- Dara, and Baal-e-Jibreel. The poems are thoughtfully chosen and faithfully rendered also attempts to retain the beauties of the thyme and assonance, the special ornaments of Urdu verse.
For the benefit of the reder who is not familiar with Urdu language in the Persian script, the author has given the transcription of the Urdu text in the roman script. The book begins with an Introduction which discusses the important aspects of Iqbal’s life and art. As the reader will discover for himself, Iqbal’s poetry is remarkable for the musicality of its style, for the felicity of word and phrase, for its lofty thought, and for the animating quality of its message. It is hoped that the reader will find this selection interesting and inspiring.
K.C.Kanda has had a long and distinguished tenure as a Reader in English at Delhi University. He holds a doctorate in English from Delhi University, Master’s degrees in English from Punjab University and Nottingham University, and a first class first M.A dgree in Urdu from Delhi University. While English poetry has been his forte professionally, Urdu poetry has been his love since his schooldays. In the special area of translated Urdu poetry, this is his eleventh title.
Dr Kanda was given the Urdu Academy Award for ‘ excellence in translation ‘ in 1997. He is currently working on Bahadur Shah Zafar and his Contemporaries.
This book is a labour of love. I have been reading and enjoying the poetry of Iqbal since my school time. Our day in school used to begin with Iqbal’s ‘prayer,’: Lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri, while on the walls of the assembly hall of the school were displayed, in bold calligraphy, some of the famous verses of Iqbal, such as:
Amal se zindagi banti hai jannat bhi, jahunnam bhi,
Yeh khaki apni fitrat mein na noori hai na naari hai.
Life is either hell or heaven , depending upon our deeds,
By himself this earthy man is nor an angel, nor a beast.
The interest in Iqbal, developed in younger day, has stayed with me stayed even in old age; nay, it has even matured with repeated readings of Iqbal’a poetry, and a comparative study of the poet with other major poets of Urdu. This interest may be called the inspirational source of this book which is intended to preserve the pleasures of Iqbal’s poetry, and propagate them among a wider section of the lovers of poetry.
Iqbal is undoubtedly a great poet whose name is bracketed with that of Ghalib is specialist of the ghazal, Iqbal is essentially a poet of the nazm, a poetic form better suited than the ghazal for the logical development of a thought or theme. This book cantains the text and translation of some of the finest poems of iqbal, including Tarana-e-Hindi, Naya Shivala, shikwa, Jawab-e Shikwa, Saqi Nama, Taloo-e-Islam, Tasweer-e-Dard, Walida Marbooma ki Yaad mein, The poet and the Candle , etc.. I have excluded from this book poems which are overtly religious or political, for I am not competent to deal with such subject. There are in all 61 poems, carefully chosen and faithfully translated into English. The book also contains a set of 26 ghazals drwn mostly from Bang-e- Dara and Bal-e- Jibreel. Iqbal is a poet with a long tongue, and I have taken the liberty of curtaining the length of some of the poems, without, however, damaging their essential spirit and structure.
Iqbal verse is remarkable for its music and metre. To enable the reader to have a taste of the poet’s musicality, I have attempted to introduce rhyme or assonance in my translations. For the convenience of those readers who are not familiar with Urdu in the Persian script, I have also included in the book a transcription of the Urdu text in the Roman script. As is well-known, Iqbal is the poet of Khudi, (self-respect and self-hood). This emphasis on self-respect gives a strong stimulating flavor to his poetry, and makes it spiritually uplifting and emotionally energizing. In spite of the fact that the poet is quite often concerned with the subject of death and grave yards, his poetry is not depressive in its overall effect. This is because the poet can always see the light at the end of the tunnel, and can find in death the beginnings of a new life:
Tu ise paiman –e- imroz –o-farda se na naap,
Javedaan, paiham dawanm har dam jawan hai zindagi.
Do not measure life by counting day and nights
Ever young, ever alive, eternal is the font of life.
It is hoped that the reader will find such verse inspiring and energizing.
I m grateful to all my friends who have given me encouragement and advice in the preparation of this book. I am sincerely obliged to my friend, Mr A.N. Walia, formerly the Persian interpreter with the All Indian Radio, Simla, for lending me some useful books on Iqbal from his personal library. I give affectionate thanks to my son, Dr Arun Kanda, who, as always, has spent long hours in typing and correcting the manuscript on his computer. Sincere thanks are also due to Mr.S.K .Ghai, managing director, sterling publishers, New Delhi, without whose cooperation this book could not have seen the light of day. In the end, I record my appreciation of the good work by Mr Mohammed Salim my Katib, who has painstakingly typed out the Urdu text on his computer.
Iqbal is great poet, read and admired on both side of the Indian sub-continent. His Poetry is remarkable for the musicality of its style, for the felicity of word and phrase, for its lofty thought, and the animating quality of its message. He has a breath of vision that takes within its sweep every object of human interest, small or great, mean of mighty. He can write with equal ease and sensitivity on a cow and a goat, on a moth and a firefly, as also on the rivers and mountains, the moon and the stars. He can indulge in philosophic reflection on the mysteries of love, life and death. He is a friend of the poor and the oppressed, and can write revolutionary verse to rouse their spirits:
Singe the stocks of wheat and rice, burn down the fields
Which can’t provide the peasant with his daily needs?
Jis khet se dahqaan ko muyassar na ho rozi,
Us khet ke har khosha-e-gandam ko jala do.
Or Raise your self-respect so high that ‘fore allotting his fate,
God should ask the man, “what should I write? Dictate!”
Khudi ko kar buland itna, ke har taqdeer se pahle,
Khuda bondey se khut poochhe, bata teri raza kya hai! Or Firm faith, ceaseless action, love, the all-conquering might,
These are the swords with which the brave wage the war of life
Yaqeen muhkam amal paiham, mohabbat faateh-e-aalam,
Jihad-e-zindagani mein yeh hain mardon ke shmsheeren.
Or This is the hour of judgement, the doom lies in wait,
If you have some deed in stock, put if forth apace.
Yeh ghari mahshar ke hai, tu arsa-e- mahashar mein hai,
Pesh kar ghfil amal koi agar daftar mein hai.
A more comprehensive, and a more poetic statement of the same idea is contained in the following lines:
Now where can we find a world in this universe wide?
Where Jamshed’s throne and Kai’s crown be had without a fight;
A new lightning every minute, every minute, a new Sinai,
May our questing zeal, O God, never at its goal arrive!
Aisi koi duniya nahin iflaak ke neeche,
Be maarka haath aaey jahan takht-e-jam-o-kai,
Har lahza naya Tur, nai barq-e-tajalli,
Allah kare marhala-e- shauq na ho tai!
Such verse may be called capsules of concentrated wisdom charged with the magnetism of poetry. This kind of verse adds of the poet’s popular appeal, and invests him with the mantle of a poet-prophet, a mantle he was proud to don. But such verse, ethical and heroic, while it give an entity and individuality to the poet, also separates him from his illustrious predecessors , like Mir, Ghalib and Momin, who in their ghazals are mainly concerned with mapping the inner landscape of a sensitive mind, torn with the dilemmas of love and death, hope and despair, good and evil. None of them was as explicitly concerned as Iqbal with the social and moral regeneration of man and society.
To understand why Iqbal had turned away from the main stream of lyrical poetry and why he had opted for the nazm in preference to the ghazal for the expression of his ideas, we should recall the major influences , social, religious and cultural, that had acted upon his art and thought at the early stages of his life.
Iqbal’s ancestots were Kashmiri Brahmins who had converted to Islam and migrated to sialkoat(West Punjab), where Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877. His father, Sheikh Nur Mohammed, was a saintly man and a sufi who earned his living by making and selling caps. It was he who had initiated Iqbal into the Islamic Iore, and had infused into his mind a deep reverence for every word of the Quran. Nur Mohammed had also known some preternatural experience. A few days before the birth of Iqbal he had dreamt that a beautiful bird was flying in the air. Many people had gathered outside to watch this bird and everyone wished that the bird should fall in his lap. But, lo and behold, when all of them were watching expectantly, the bird descended straight into the lap of Nur Mohammed, forecasting the birth of Iqbal, who was the divine bird sent down from heaven to bring honour to himself and his family.
Iqbla had his preliminary schooling in the house of a learned maulvi, Mir Hassan Shah, who made a great contribution, like the poet’s father, to the religious and literary awakening of the poet. A scholar of Arabic, Persian and Urdu, Mir Hasan gave a good grounding to the boy poet in these languages, and lessoned him in the art of Urdu poetry and prosody. The Pupil and the master were fond of each other, and Iqbal never forgot the debt that he owed to his preceptor. Later in life, when the government of Punjab decided to confer knighthood on Iqbal, the poet accepted the honour on this condition that his old teacher, Hasan Shah, should be elevated to the status of Shamas-ul-Ulma. It is a rare case of student’s exemplary devotion to his teacher. Iqbal became Sir and Mir Hasan became Shamas-ul Ulma.
For his formal schooling Iqbal went to the Scotch Mission School, which later became Murray College, Sialkot. After matriculation, he joined Government College, Lahore, where he obtained B.A and M.A degrees with distinction. His major subjects were English, Arabic and philosophy, it may be mentioned that before allowing his son to study in the Westernised institutions, his father, Sheikh Nur Mohammed had extracted from him the promise that he would devote his higher abilities – academic, philosophic, or poetic-to the service of Islam , and for the uplift of his co-religionists. Thus the influences of his early life and the promptings of his own mind tended to incline him towards the poetry of purpose.
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