The Poet FAIZ Ahmad Faiz : Friday is/was this 25th Death Anniversary

Photo found at the site: here The Poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born on 1911.

Here's a couplet which was on my face book site from a Pakistani friend, Asim Ghani Sahib who says that this "couplet is never quoted, although it's so applicable to South Asian society" : "bajuz deevaangi vaaN aur chaara hi, kaho, kya-hai,/jahaaN aql o khirad ki Ek bhi maani naheeN-jaati?"

Translated: What alternative is there to insanity - Where rational thought is prohibited?

And then he posted this related one - "unhi ke faiz-se baazaar-e aql raushan hai,
jo ikhtiar junooN gaah-gaah karte haiN gaah-gaah=kabhi-kabhi, now and then, once in a while. And here faiz is used as a word, not as the poet's takhallus (poetic nom de plume).

Roughly:

The world of wisdom is illuminated by those
Who, now and then, turn to madness.

"baazaar" is "bazaar", he tells me, "with both a's long in both spelling and pronunciation. I avoided the word in the first line," he says, "because it would have made the English paraphrasing idiomatically awkward."

Well, thanx, Asim Sahib! I (Connie) would say this is also applicable around the world these days! Yet in a universal state of conflict - where we often can't afford but moments of insanity - may both our sanity and our insanity be FREELY chosen.

This photo is obviously from Pakistan Links - thanx to blogger-friend at "My Page on Web" Here's a wonderfully surprising Intro to Faiz on that site: "He was the man and the poet that captivated my imagination all my youth. His poetry cast a spell and showed me the path in utter serenity of love for humanity. Faiz not only raised Urdu poetry to new heights of perception and eloquence but also filled it with the sensibilities of human touch. As it is said there is no final view of things in Faiz; he is supremely aware of man’s vulnerability and yet he believes in the possibility of happiness."

LOVE’S CAPTIVES

Wearing necklaces of the hangman’s noose
The singers kept on singing
Tinkling the ankle-bells of their fetters
The dancers merrily jigged their dance.
We in neither one group, nor the other
Stood by the roadside
Watching enviously
And wept silent tears.
On returning home
The erstwhile red flowers
Had turned deathly pale
And where there was once a heart
Now there was only pain.
Round our necks hallucinations of a noose
And on our feet the dance of chains.
Then one day came Love
And like the others haltered and enchained
Dragged us into the same caravan

Translated by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Posted by Akhtar Wasim Dar Sahib

To find this blogsite, first go to Republic of Rumi blog and then look for My Page on Web! You will most likely be delighted with not only Akhtar Sahib's blogs but all the others as well.

Or you could go directly to the website:
here

And here's just a little more sampling from the famous poet from anindianmuslim.com in June, 2008 "...Faiz achieved international fame...It was after reading his Nazm 'Raqeeb Se', that I fell in love with his poetry. It was an overwhelming experience to read the Nazm, every time I read it. Raqeeb is your competitor in love.

'And here the poet recalls how both of them had fallen in love with the same woman, and only they can understand each other's pain and passion. How failure in love becomes an inspiration for the poet to understand the pain of others and it becomes a mission for him to fight for the poor and underdog.

'Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in Sialkot (Punjab, Pakistan)...he emerged as the most outstanding voice among the poets of Progressive Writers' movement...

'I specially love his verses on Palestine, the nazm he wrote on his return from Bangladesh, Sar-e-Vaadi-e-Sina, Karbala-e-Beirut etc. Faiz's poetry is now easily available in Hindi. Every poetry lover must have a collection of Faiz. Get it if you don't have one."

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One more item, this time a special video from a most beautiful friend of Asim Sahib's: see the documentary by Sharjil Baloch and S.M. Shahid, for Faiz Sahib's death anniversary last year, broadcast on BBC:

Jab Tujhe Yaad Kar Liya
here