mai-khwaar baithe hain
Bhalaa gardish falak ki chain deti hai kise, Insha?
Ghaneemat hai ke ham-soorat yahaan do-chaar baithe hain
Ready to leave
My friends stand packed, ready to leave, determined, absolute
Some have left, the rest await departure, quite resolute
Bother me not, be on your way, O fragrant breeze of spring
I am at despair’s door, while you wish to gambol and sing
Prostrate before the cupbearer, with thoughts that reach the sky
The drinkers sway to strange rhythms, while I silently sigh
Insha, seek no solace in this mad whirlpool of the fates
Be grateful that, in this strange land, you’ve found a few soulmates
Mir Anees
Mir Babar Ali Anees (1803–74) bestrode Urdu poetry like a colossus in the early nineteenth century, which is remarkable considering the fact that his poetry dealt nearly exclusively with religious themes and more specifically with the passion play of Karbala which dominates the religious narratives of Shia Islam. His contribution to the marsiya (or elegiac poetry) genre was so breathtaking that it informed the entire broader corpus of Urdu poetry. The marsiya is an epic poem with between 100 and 200 stanzas of six lines each, where, typically, the first four lines rhyme, as do the last two. 1
For this volume, I have chosen to translate from two of Anees’s poems, both regrettably brief. I began by translating a six-line verse from a marsiya that I placed in the introductory discussion on poetic form
.
The second piece that I have placed below comprises five verses of a marsiya, which is quite regularly performed at Shia religious gatherings called
majalis.
I have heard this poem since my childhood, and can never read or hear it without tears spontaneously welling up in my eyes. The verses I have chosen provide a unique tableau, where the unfolding drama of Imam Husain’s sacrifice is being narrated to angels and prophets by God (indeed, to me it is metaphorically symmetrical that Anees has a God-like command over his language). God instructs his audience to see this moment of martyrdom as the ultimate expression of closeness between the creator and the subject. The last verse shifts the action back to the desert of Karbala, where Husain is on the ground, and his executioner readies himself for the final blow. In a few short verses Anees moves from grandeur to pathos, from the depiction of Husain’s power and stature to that of his helplessness, from his exalted position in the eyes of God to the utter hatred his killers exhibited toward him and his family.
Readers may please note the similarities in language and scene construction of Anees’s and Dabeer’s work to Brij Narain Chakbast’s verses about the Ramayana. The power of the musaddas shines in the work of this triumvirate, even more than in the hands of other exponents like Hali and Iqbal.
Jab pareshan hui maula ki jamaa’at ran mein
Jab pareshan hui maula ki jamaa’at ran mein
Har namaazi ko pasand aayi iqaamat ran mein
Qibla-e deen ne kiya qasd-e ibaadat ran mein
Shakl-e mehraab bani tegh-e shahaadat ran mein
Ghul hua, is ko Imam-e do-jahaan kehte hain
Teghon ke saaye mein Shabbir azaan kehte hain
Qudrat-e Haq se dareeche hue firdaus ke vaa
Daf-atan khul gaye dar-haa-e falak sar ta paa
Ek-ba ek uth gaye sab parda-e arsh-e aala
Ambiya-o-malak-o-hoor ko pahunchi ye sada
Qadr-daan is ka main hoon, mera shanaasa hai ye
Kyon na ho? Mere Mohammad ka navaasa hai ye.
Ye vo taa’at hai, ke tanhaa hi adaa karte hain
Mere aashiq tah-e shamsheer raha karte hain
Sar qalam hota hai, vo shukr-e khuda karte hain
Sadiq-ul vaada yoonhi vaada vafaa karte hain
Hum namaaz is ke janaaze ki jo padhwaaenge
Tum bhi jaana ke rasoolan-e salaf jaayenge
Saakin-e arsh-e bareen karne lage naala-o-aah
Shah takbeer yahaan keh chuke, Allah Allah
Aur iqaamat mein hue sarf shah-e alijaah
Jaan-e vaahid pe gire aan ke laakhon badkhwaah
Soora-e hamd nabizaada padha chaahta thha
Shimr khanjar liye seene pe chada jaata
Bhalaa gardish falak ki chain deti hai kise, Insha?
Ghaneemat hai ke ham-soorat yahaan do-chaar baithe hain
Ready to leave
My friends stand packed, ready to leave, determined, absolute
Some have left, the rest await departure, quite resolute
Bother me not, be on your way, O fragrant breeze of spring
I am at despair’s door, while you wish to gambol and sing
Prostrate before the cupbearer, with thoughts that reach the sky
The drinkers sway to strange rhythms, while I silently sigh
Insha, seek no solace in this mad whirlpool of the fates
Be grateful that, in this strange land, you’ve found a few soulmates
Mir Anees
Mir Babar Ali Anees (1803–74) bestrode Urdu poetry like a colossus in the early nineteenth century, which is remarkable considering the fact that his poetry dealt nearly exclusively with religious themes and more specifically with the passion play of Karbala which dominates the religious narratives of Shia Islam. His contribution to the marsiya (or elegiac poetry) genre was so breathtaking that it informed the entire broader corpus of Urdu poetry. The marsiya is an epic poem with between 100 and 200 stanzas of six lines each, where, typically, the first four lines rhyme, as do the last two. 1
For this volume, I have chosen to translate from two of Anees’s poems, both regrettably brief. I began by translating a six-line verse from a marsiya that I placed in the introductory discussion on poetic form
.
The second piece that I have placed below comprises five verses of a marsiya, which is quite regularly performed at Shia religious gatherings called
majalis.
I have heard this poem since my childhood, and can never read or hear it without tears spontaneously welling up in my eyes. The verses I have chosen provide a unique tableau, where the unfolding drama of Imam Husain’s sacrifice is being narrated to angels and prophets by God (indeed, to me it is metaphorically symmetrical that Anees has a God-like command over his language). God instructs his audience to see this moment of martyrdom as the ultimate expression of closeness between the creator and the subject. The last verse shifts the action back to the desert of Karbala, where Husain is on the ground, and his executioner readies himself for the final blow. In a few short verses Anees moves from grandeur to pathos, from the depiction of Husain’s power and stature to that of his helplessness, from his exalted position in the eyes of God to the utter hatred his killers exhibited toward him and his family.
Readers may please note the similarities in language and scene construction of Anees’s and Dabeer’s work to Brij Narain Chakbast’s verses about the Ramayana. The power of the musaddas shines in the work of this triumvirate, even more than in the hands of other exponents like Hali and Iqbal.
Jab pareshan hui maula ki jamaa’at ran mein
Jab pareshan hui maula ki jamaa’at ran mein
Har namaazi ko pasand aayi iqaamat ran mein
Qibla-e deen ne kiya qasd-e ibaadat ran mein
Shakl-e mehraab bani tegh-e shahaadat ran mein
Ghul hua, is ko Imam-e do-jahaan kehte hain
Teghon ke saaye mein Shabbir azaan kehte hain
Qudrat-e Haq se dareeche hue firdaus ke vaa
Daf-atan khul gaye dar-haa-e falak sar ta paa
Ek-ba ek uth gaye sab parda-e arsh-e aala
Ambiya-o-malak-o-hoor ko pahunchi ye sada
Qadr-daan is ka main hoon, mera shanaasa hai ye
Kyon na ho? Mere Mohammad ka navaasa hai ye.
Ye vo taa’at hai, ke tanhaa hi adaa karte hain
Mere aashiq tah-e shamsheer raha karte hain
Sar qalam hota hai, vo shukr-e khuda karte hain
Sadiq-ul vaada yoonhi vaada vafaa karte hain
Hum namaaz is ke janaaze ki jo padhwaaenge
Tum bhi jaana ke rasoolan-e salaf jaayenge
Saakin-e arsh-e bareen karne lage naala-o-aah
Shah takbeer yahaan keh chuke, Allah Allah
Aur iqaamat mein hue sarf shah-e alijaah
Jaan-e vaahid pe gire aan ke laakhon badkhwaah
Soora-e hamd nabizaada padha chaahta thha
Shimr khanjar liye seene pe chada jaata
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