Saturday, January 14, 2012

A Few Shaharyar Couplets

Now that we are talking about Shaharyar Sahab it will be appropriate to analyze a few of his couplets. As late Dr Farhan Mujib had asserted the poetry by Shaharyar Sahab is about feelings. Feelings are a way more difficult to grapple with. Even psychologists are accepting that it is much more difficult and crucial to manage feelings then ideas and intellectual thoughts. Here is one, very popular and  liked by himself, couplet

Justju jiski ki thi usko to na paya hum ne
Is bahane se magar dekh li dunya hum ne

Whom I wanted, I did not get
But with this excuse, I saw the world

This couplet is a strange mix of a complete life experience. In the first line there is shattering implosion of unfulfilled love. On the other hand the second line makes a statement about an achievement that declares a life fulfilled. This shaking you out of smugness and contentment is perhaps what makes a Shaharyar.

Then there is another one.

Har qadam par mod the, har mod par manzar naye
Umr ki eik eik sa-at sar pe hairaani huyee

Every step had a turn, every turn came with new vistas
At each and every moment of life waited a surprise

Here the word equivalent for surprise has an element of not fathoming the events of life. A person who finds himself in this situation will identify with this puzzlement. And too many of us find ourselves in such situations and at too many times - hence the appeal of Shaharyar poetry.

Finally,

Is natije pe pahunchte hain sabhi akhir mein
Hasil-e-sair-e-jahan kuchh nahin hairani hai

This is the conclusion that everyone reached at the end
The achievement of life is nothing but puzzlement

This one is self evident and potent enough to reach every heart. And that is what his poetry has done. Yours truly finds it difficult to capture a lot of Shaharyar poetry and it is therefore clear that those who have a feeling for poetry might indeed be getting affected in a much more profound ways. Some of these things can be expressed and some not. One of those who was capable of reaching to the required depths of his poetry is no more with us. That was Dr Farhan Mujib.