Guest-Post by Jay
A poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, one of the most famous poets of the last century. During the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, he was arrested and taken to the police station in front of the public. In this context, he wrote ‘Aaj Bazaar Mein’.
This one is for Karachi.
‘Aaj Bazaar Mein’
The tearful eye, the noisy spirit is not enough
The accusation of the hidden love is not enough
Let’s go today to the bazaar in chains
Let’s go with hands waving, intoxicated, dancing
Let’s go with dust on our heads, blood on our sleeves
Let’s go to the city our love lives in
Everyone is watching
The city’s ruler, the general populace
The unhappy morning, the day with no purpose
The arrow of accusation, the stone of abuse
Who else beside us is their intimate friend?
Who now in our beloved city is still pure?
Who now is worthy of the executioner’s hand?
Pick up the burden of the heart
Let us go, heartbroken ones
We are the ones who have to be murdered again, my friends…
Ayman…the mistake is regretted and you are absolutely correct. Once again the error is regretted!
In the meanwhile the link provided by adnan is actually rather interesting and would allow you to hear the urdu original….Micropakistan is working on putting up the urdu text as well! Enjoy!
There is however one issue…Faiz was jailed in 1951. How could he have written it in Lahore jail in 1959 when he was only jailed for four years?
Who said he was jailed only for four years?
After he completed his jail term under the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case he was detained again by Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s military regime during 1958-60.
Faiz’s poetry from the first period of imprisonment appears in “Zindan Nama” and from the second period in “Dast-e-Tah-e-Sang.”
I hate to be dragged into an irrelavant argument…but as the reader has questioned the intelligence of our guest-author I feel I must step in.
First of all Ayman, I wish you would appreciate the relevance of the post and the poem to the situation in our country presently. It is no doubt a regrettable error, but even you have got your facts wrong.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz was jailed for a period of 4 years i.e. 1951-1955. Once released from jail he resumed his post as Editor of Adabe-Latif. In 1959, he was once again jailed under Ayub Khan’s Martial Law. And this is when he wrote the poem…Yet you made it seem that this poem was a result of his Rawalpindi Conspiracy jail term.
Furthermore I will quote Faiz Ahmad Faiz himself…”After spending some time in the Army, journalism, and trade-unionism I was in prison for four years. The two subsequent books Daste-Saba and Zindan Nama are records of jail life’. Prison life, like love, is itself a fundamental experience which opens up a new vista of thoughts and insight.” Yet he wrote this particular poem in his second jail term and it was published in Dast Tah-e-Sang.
Thus I would appreciate it if you could appreciate it the post and be a little less harsh on guest-post authors. Perhaps if we stopped being so negative as a nation and appreciated other’s efforts, we could actually progress….
Salahuddin,
Please read my second comment above. I say exactly what you have said regarding Faiz’s second arrest.
I do not think I was being negative. Why is setting the record straight and requesting that facts be respected construed as being negative? I began my first comment with the words “Without detracting from the beauty of the poem…” which was a positive statement.
Maybe appreciating others’ efforts must include the effort to make us all value a little fact checking.
Of course, the poem by Faiz is beautiful and the guest-post author deserves a pat on the back for drawing attention to it.