The Hidden Garden by Gopi Narang (phonics books txt) 📕

how sad, you did not hear

his traumatic tale and went to sleep!

A River Roaring and Gushing

turfa sanaa’ hain ae Mir y mauzon tab’aan

baat jaati hai bigar to bhi bana dete hain

What an over-flowing poet Mir is!

A wonderful creativity on display!

Even if something goes wrong,

he fixes it right away and moves on.

When we talk about Mir, the conversation straightaway moves to his easy and fluent style and the simplicity of his verse. Even Ghalib mentioned this in one of his letters. But in reality, it is not something easy to put into practice. We know that metrical poetry has its own limitations. The poet has to work within a set of constraints. But Mir’s artistry lies in the fact that even if the theme is intricate or thought is complex, with his wizard like creativity, he successfully delivers free-flowing verse while maintaining the basic structures of common spoken speech. Words seem to be like kneaded clay on a potter’s spinning wheel and he is able to mould and shape them in any way he likes. In the couplets given below, Mir uses simple speaking nodes. If the first line of a couplet contains a statement and the second line provides a justification for that statement, then a couplet ordinarily has one or two nodes. But in Mir’s poetry we find three, four or even more nodes in one couplet. Maulvi Abdul Haq admitted that Mir’s poetry is effortless and fluent, yet it was not easy to specifically point out the secret of its distinctive qualities.

There is an interesting account in Tazkirah-e Khush Ma’reka-e Zeba that when Mir was young and passionate, he engaged in the poetry of name-calling. In those days, it was common to attack others and engage in the gamesmanship of notoriety, disgrace, scandal, blame, and condemnation. Khane Arzu once mentioned that disapprobation of loved ones is better than good vibes from undesirable others. The words used for an insulting outburst were transformed into creative expression in another context. One can feel a hidden surge and bitterness in Mir which indicates there is some truth to the account. Mir exhibited strong feelings and strong beliefs coupled with gushing creative ability. We cannot deny the fact that there is a strong relationship between passion and creativity. Inner commotion often leads to outer turmoil. Let us look at some of effusive and rapturous metaphoric expressions used by him.

lahu mein nahaana (bathing in blood)

khuun mein haath rangna (dipping your hands in blood)

aansuuon ka sailaab (the flood of tears)

aa’shiq ka baguula (the flaming of a lover)

dhuuaan ya ghuubaar ban-na (disappearing in a cloud of smoke)

saayaa-e divaar mein baithna (sitting in the shade of an enclosure wall)

dil ke ujre nagar mein akele charaagh ka jalna (sole lamp burning in the heart’s desolate dwelling)

dhuaan sa hai kuchh us nagar ki taraf hona (burning smoke of a distant human habitat)

dhuuein ka dil o jaan se uthhna (smoke to rise from burning heart or self)

ustakhwaan kaanmp kaanmp jalna (the bones to crack and burn)

khaak se phuul ban kar namudaar hona (arising from the dust as a fresh flower)

The notion that Mir is a poet of seventy-two lancets is an unfair judgment. The statement, that some ascribe to Shefta, became famous giving rise to the impression that there is nothing more to Mir beyond the count of seventy-two so called lancet couplets. In fact, this claim was a misrepresentation of what Sadar-uddin Azurdah had stated: ‘Mir’s bad couplets are bad, but his best are beyond excellence.’

Mir often spoke of an uncontrollable gush and surge in his verse. Let’s look at some of these verses.

dekho to kis ravaani se kahte hain she’r Mir

dur se hazaar chand hai un ke sukhan mein aab

Look, with what a flow of words

Mir recites his couplets.

There is more lustre in his verse

than in pearls.

jalvah hai mujhi se lab-e dariaaye sukhan par

sad rang meri mauj hai main tab’a-e ravaan huun

All the marvels

on the lips of the river

owe their origin to me.

My tide has a hundred colours.

I am always surging and

creatively flowing.

In the opening couplet of the following ghazal, Mir explicitly compares his verse to an overflowing river.

Mir dariya hai sune she’r zabaani us ki

allah allah re tabiiyat ki ravaani us ki!

Mir resembles a river.

We have heard him recite.

By the grace of God,

his temperament

is a gush of creativity.

baat ki tarz ko dekho to koi jaadu tha

par mili khaak mein kya sehr bayaani us ki

The style of his conversation

was really enchanting.

But his magical capabilities

dissolved into dust.

sar-guzasht apni kis andoh se shab kehta tha

so gaye n suni aah kahaani us ki

Last night,

he was telling his story

with great grief.

But you fell sleep.

Alas, you didn’t hear his tale

of heart-rending woe.

marsiye dil ke kaaii kah ke diye logon ko

shahr dilli mein hai sab paas nishaani us ki

He composed heartfelt elegies

and gave them to his friends.

In the city of Dilli everyone

has them as his imprint.

aable ki si tarah thes lagi phuut bahe

dard mandi mein gaaii saari javaani us ki

He was hit like a blister

and the wound leaked.

He spent all his life

in distress and suffering.

Natural Flow of Smooth Structures

duube uchhle hai aaftaab hanuuz

kahien dekha hai us ko dariya par

The sun is leaping and vaulting today.

Maybe, it saw her bathing on the river.

The verbal structures of Mir’s poetry, as elaborated above, reveal his latent talent of writing with a natural flow. His verse is very close to basic conversational patterns. Words and phrases used by him show his preference for a conversational style, but it is not mere conversation as we would see later. If he made any changes anywhere to this basic mode, the purpose was to reinforce the essence. The first few couplets in this section are mystical but are written in an intimate style.

sarsari tum jahaan se guzre

varna har ja jahaan-e diigar tha

You passed through the world

rather casually.

There was a world

within the world that you missed.

gosh ko hosh se tuk khol ke sun shor-e jahaan

sab ki aavaaz ke parde mein sukhan saaz hai ek

Open the ears of your consciousness for a while

and hear intently with deep attentiveness

to the subtle