CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY OF FAIZ AHMED FAIZ Can poetry face the bullets? BY MANOJ KUMAR Is Faiz relevant today?

The question haunts me when I sit to pay tribute to this great poet on his centennial birthday. Faiz Ahmed Faiz was the poet who always inspired my generation during our dark moments and who always consoled us in our deep sorrows. But much has changed since those years. Now I am not the same boy who was smitten by the love and who was striving for a change. For that boy Faizs poetry was not only expression of his both longings, but there were also answers to all his questions. Neither there remains that ideology that Faiz believed in and that gave him the strength to face all the hardships. Nor it is the same society where dreams were sown in the eyes of people; where dissent of opinion was tolerated; and where people had courage to challenge the bigotry, lies, fears and tyranny. We are living under a society where people talk in whispers. We are now living in the menacing shadows of perennial and pervading fear. We are always afraid of a bullet that is following us and we are trying to save our skin and that of our loved one. This is a different time and different land. Do the words have same power to rouse the people? Can poetry face the bullets? Will the songs give the courage to caste away our fears? But before answering these questions let us look at the life and poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Our poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born on 13th February 1911 at Sialkot. He received his early education in Sialkot and later studied English and Arabic literatures at Government

College, Lahore. In 1935 he joined M.A.O. College Amritsar as a lecturer. It is here Faiz came under the influence of the leftist Progressive Movement. He joined Progressive Writers Association which was formed by veteran communist leader Sajjad Zahir and other leftist writers to create social awareness among the common man through literature. During World War II, Faiz joined Indian army to fight against Fascism of Germany and Japan. After Pakistan was created he came there with his family. In 1951 Faiz was arrested as a conspirator in the so-called Rawalpindi Conspiracy case. He spent four years in prison and was released in 1955. In 1962 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. During Zias dictatorship Faiz remained in exile. In his exile he edited the magazine Lotus in Moscow, London and Beirut. Faiz's first collections of poetry, Naqsh-e faryadi (1943), Dast-e saba (1952), and Zindan Namah (1956), show his earlier political motivation. Faizs book Sar-e-wadi-e-Sina contains his poems written between 1965 and 1971. Sham-e-Shehr Yaran is the next book. It carries various poems written during journeys abroad. His last two short books Mere Dil Mere Musafair (1978-1980) and Ghubare Ayyam (19811984) contain poems written in exile. He died in 1984. Faiz Ahmed Faiz was certainly greatest poet of our time. It was in Faizs poetry that a new voice was heard for the first time. It was a voice that was a blend of melody and cry; of whisper of a lover and scream of peasant; of clarion of revolution and soft symphony of beauty; of lullaby and thunder. Such a voice was never heard before. Before Faiz, there were poets who only pined for love but there was no

mention of sufferings of the masses; and there were also poets who had all the slogans but no soft caress of beauty. It was in Faizs poetry that sufferings of masses and that of love found a place together. Two loves personal and collective walked side by side in the poetry of Faiz. He refused to confine himself to only personal love. For him there were other sorrows to be bereaved as well. He declares very clearly: There are other griefs in this world apart from that of love And other pleasures apart from that of union. Though Faiz suffered a great deal of hardships but he never had any regret about both of his loves. He says: My heart repents neither this love nor the other, My heart is spotted with every kind of sorrow, Except the mark of repentance. For Faiz beauty and love were not only objects of pleasure. Rather they were sources that made him realize the other forms of beauty around. Faiz did not see the pain of love in isolation. Rather that personal pain made him feel the pain of the whole humanity. For Faiz love for beloved was a vehicle that expands his heart to embrace the love for whole humanity: The candle of a look, the star of imagination, All these illuminations have come from your gathering. Whichever be the source of pain, we ascribe it to you, Whatever complaints we have, are on account of you.

What made Faiz unique among his contemporary poets, was his commitment towards his cause. Faiz was not a poet of empty words and high sounds. He was a deeply committed to the ideology he believed in. He was ready to face every hardship for his commitment. Long stints in prison, exile in strange lands, mental and physical tortures nothing could deter Faiz from his arduous journey. For the love of your flower-like lips, We were sacrificed on the dry branches of the noose, For the desire of the candles of your hands We were killed on half-dark paths. He walks on that difficult path with a noble and revolutionary dignity: On our lips the words of the ghazal, And the torch of misery in our hands, Gather our banners from the place of murder, Caravans of other lovers will emerge, For whose path our feet have shortened the distances of pain. Due to his political and ideological commitments Faiz remained many years in exile. During those years he suffered a great deal of pain. Faiz has expressed that suffering in his poetry in a very elegant style. My heart, my fellow traveler It has been decreed again That you and I be exiled,

go calling out in every street, turn to every town. To search for a clue of a messenger from our Beloved. To ask every stranger the way back to our home. In this town of unfamiliar folk we drudge the day into the night Talk to this stranger at times, to that one at others. How can I convey to you, my friend how horrible is a night of loneliness It would suffice to me if there were just some count I would gladly welcome death if it were to come but once. The poets of the status of Faiz are never confined to their land and people. For them the whole world is their sphere. They feel the agony of every human being. They fight for injustice in every corner of the world. They find themselves relieved if anywhere a chain is broken. It is the reason we find in his poetry an expression of sufferings of many lands and people. It was Palestinian anguish or Iranian students struggle or oppression in Africa all these find voice in the poetry of Faiz. Just read this poem and you will see how beautifully Faiz paints the agony of African people:

Come, that I have heard the sounds of your drum Come that my blood flows to its rhythm Come, Africa. Come, for I have raised my forehead from the dust Scraped away the hide of grief from my eyes Broken away from the grip of pain Torn away the web of helplessness Come, Africa! The earths heart beats with mine, Africa The river dances while the moon keeps time I am Africa, for I have taken on your form I am you, and my gait is your lion-walk. Come, Africa Come with a lion-walk Come, Africa!

Similarly when Arabs forces were defeated in the June 1967 war, his poem Sar-e Vaadi-e Seena urges The Arab people to cast off the chains of theocratic exploitation: Yet again, lightning shimmers atop the Sinai valley O seeing eye Ask the hearts to line up again That between you and me, a new promise may descend For now, the elite of the earth have decreed Tyranny to be normal

Let us now come to the question again that we asked in the beginning. Is Faiz relevant today? In my opinion Faiz is as relevant today as he was relevant in his era. It is because Faizs poetry is not specific to particular period or situation. Faizs poetry contains a universal message of hope and optimisms that is relevant in every age and in every situation. For all of us who have lost our voice in this gloomy time, Faiz gives us courage to speak. His poem is as much as source of inspiration today as it was in yester years. He says: Speak your lips are free Speak it is your own tongue Speak it is your own body Speak your life is still yours See how is the blacksmiths shop The flame burns wild, the iron glows red The locks open their jaws And every chain begins to break Speak this brief hour is long enough Before the death of body and tongue Speak cause the truth is not dead yet. Speak Speak, whatever you must speak Faiz asks us not to abandon our hope in the face of momentary defeats or failures. He gives us consolation that this dark period is fleeting and bright days will come: Though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed In rooms where lovers are destined to meet, They cannot snuff out the moon, so today, Nor tomorrow, no tyranny will succeed,

No poison of torture make me bitter, Faiz also tells that we should be brave and carry that struggle with dignity. If we have to suffer in the hands of tyranny, we should bear it with smile on our face. He asks to be ready to give sacrifices: A wet eye, a shaken life is not enough, The accusation of a hidden love is not enough, With feet in chains, Let us go in public today. Let us go with palms exposed, with a song and dance, with dirt in our hair, with blood on our chest, Let us go while the entire city of lovers watches. For the warden of the city, and the crowd of the commoners, And the arrows of accusation, and the stones of abuse, And the glum morning, and the failing day, Who is there to give them life except us? Who is ready in this city except us? Who is honorable enough for the killers hand except us? Pack up your belongings O Injured heart ones! Let us go friends and get killed once again.

For Faiz is sure that day will come when the victory will be of those who are on correct and righteous path. He makes us believe that we shall see that day.

We shall see Certainly we, too, shall see that day that has been promised to us When these high mountains Of tyranny and oppression turn to fluff and evaporate And we oppressed Beneath our feet will have this earth shiver, shake and beat And heads of rulers will be struck With crackling lightening and thunder roars.