Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Beena Sarwar
hether it be a
him, I feel like that driblet of water floatbeen reading over time. They had been
the way she has kept the cultural ethos of
droplet or a lake,
ing on the palm of his hand.
corresponding with each other, and Gulzar
Urdu intact. It's not only the meaning, she
water has a way of reThis is, after all, a poet writing about
had written for the Urdu literary journal
has carried the subtle shades of the words
flecting what it sees.
another poet.
Tasteer that Nasir edits. Due to the restricand phrases into English.
There is an ocean-laden
Ingressing Naseer Ahmed Nasir's
tive visa regime between India and PakDr Biswas writes that she embarked on
droplet called Naseer
poems is to wade through a stream, conistan, he was resigned to the thought that
this difficult odyssey of translating
Ahmed Nasir, says the actinues Gulzar. No rapid passage there.
they would never meet. He writes:
Nasir's Urdu poetry not just because many
claimed lyricist and writer
One has to stop frequently and till one has
And then time turned on its side and I
in Pakistan and India consider him the
Gulzar in his forward to the
not absorbed the verses, it's not possible
went to Lahore. After a five-hour journey,
greatest living exponent of this art in the
English translation of a collecto turn the page. I lay his poems on my lips
over Jehlum's bridge, I reached Dina to
country but also because of how deeply
tion of poems by the
and sip at leisure. This white-whiskered
see my ancestral home -- to touch the dust
his poetry appeals to her.
Rawalpindi-based Urdu poet.
friend of mine is a poet par excellence.
of the land of my birth. I was eight years
They touch me inside, in my heart,
A Man Outside History is a
Gulzar says he recognises Nasir
old when we left and I returned after sevwhere I live and love, in their rich and
slim, 173-page volume of the
through his idiom and locution, and cites
enty years! Went to Dina Train Station.
powerful but homespun imagery and their
poems of Nasir translated by Indian
a verse as an example:
Met some friends. A man stepped forward
extension of a tradition in poetry that is alwriter and professor of English Dr Bina
God! Turn my words into beetles
to grab my hand, 'imam Naseer Ahmed
ready extremely wealthy (Urdu)... to
Biswas (Hyderabad, Deccan). It includes a
God! May my
Nasir.' I was wonderstuck. He had
which it is really challenging to add any1994 tribute by the American poet Sandra
poems become floatthing new, deep or original,
Fowler eulogising Nasir, one of Pakistan's
ing flocks of birds
most respected modern poets, as a wordVoyaging towards
smith.
far-off lands
The book includes a postscript by
the Russian
scholar Yelena Sapranova, and several accolades
to Nasir by
readers from
India and Pakistan as well as
countries further afield like
Australia, the
United States,
Britain, South
Africa and Romania. Nasirs work
has been translated into various
languages besides
English, including
Nasir: d
eathless
Spanish, Russian,
poetr y
Romanian, Uzbek,
Hindi and Farsi, besides various reGulzar: fulsome tributes
gional languages.
yet he has done all of these three things.
icult odyssey
ff
di
A
:
as
w
is
A blurb on the Dr Bina B
I have enticed those
Nasir also pleads poetically for world
back cover quotes anbirds with seed to alight on my roof. I have
white whiskers on a bright face. I had
peace and unity as Dr Biswas puts it, not
other reputed writer Abdullah Hussein, aucaressed their feathers and kissed them.
never been handed such a lovely surprise
confining himself to Pakistan or by dethor of the iconic partition novel Udas
To Gulzar, Nasir talks like Siddhartha
before! How benevolent is life that blesses
fault it's 'big brother' India.
Naslein, on Nasir: His deathless poetry will
and he imagines him to be Gautam. They
us with such friends and such poets!
He is, in the best sense of the word, a
keep giving hope to generations whim we
are not really the same; one of them is a
Gulzar first visited Pakistan in 2004,
world poet. He speaks of Bosnia and Sodon't even know and will never ever see.
seeker and the other has already acquired
but due to visa restrictions was only able
malia or Damascus or a Buddha in his
But the most fulsome tribute to Nasir
suffering but I see them both in Nasir.
to visit his hometown Dina in 2013.
poems with the same compassion as he
comes from Gulzar in his preface. Nasir,
Modern Urdu poetry has nothing betBeing well versed in Urdu himself,
does of his own village...
says Gulzar, imbibes the smallest moter to offer than Naseer, writes Gulzar.
Gulzar must have read Nasir in the origiIt is such works of art and poetry that
ments and renders them into poems that
This is high praise indeed from the man
nal. This makes his commendation for the
remind us of our common humanity and
encourage, pass the whole of existence.
whom many consider as one of the greatEnglish translation by Dr Bina Biswas -provide an alternative to the dominant narHe pierces clouds with the tip of his pen
est living writers of Urdu -- prose or pomagnificent -- even more compelling.
rative overshadowed by hostility and deand causes raindrops to fall, then speaks
etry.
Nothing, says Gulzar, has been lost in
spair. And this is what gives hope that anto a driblet -- resting on a verdant leaf -- to
Gulzar says has always been a great
translation.
other world is not only possible, but worth
divulge complete jungle fables... Reading
admirer of Nasir's, whose work he has
The most amazing part of the work is
organising and fighting for.
An anti-national
friendship
By Saim Saeed
s a Pakistani, its easy to act friendly
towards Indians. You bring up familiar cultural tropes cricket, Bollywood have a couple of rounds of
expletives directed towards the
British, and talk about how great aloo parathas
are, and for the most part, youre set.
Yet Ive always been careful about dipping
my toe into political waters. Its a more awkward discussion to have when there are real disagreements about Kashmir, partition, 65, 71, or
even 26/11. People al-
We clicked.
Ultimately it had more to
do with the person he was
than the language he spoke.
Amey was kind, sensitive, and
responsive. He understood
people, and knew how to listen to them. He also had stories about how his greatgrandfather was from
Pakistans frontier areas,
had settled in Lahore, and
but had to move to Delhi.
As the generation that lived
through Partition dies out,
we only have their words
to count on; our histories
otherwise have been deliberately wiped out.
When he drank too
much, Id change his
sheets and put him to
bed. He would cook me
food, buy me a drink and
pat me on the back when
I went through one of
ey
ft) and Am
(le
im
my
many relationship
Sa
:
ily
pp
es ha
Crossing the lin
crises. We ate forbidden meats together.
lude to the post-partition stories
The transgression wasnt the India-Pakistan
the my old street in Lahore/Delhi, the neighfriendship; it was the lines we were too afraid
bours but few wish to recall their grandparto cross on our own. To admit to ourselves that
ents role, either as victims or perpetrators in
neither of us cared very much for Kashmir, that
the violence of 1947.
neither of us were particularly religious, patriBut those are the necessary conversations.
otic in the hyper-nationalist sense, or good at
We can talk about peace, and play down our difcricket. That we ceased to be what we were
ferences as much as possible, but ultimately it
supposed to be, was the transgression and the
comes down to whether we have the trust, the
salvation.
Saim Saeed is a Karachi-based journalist who studied for two years at the Mahindra
United World College, India, on a scholarship. This piece was adapted for Aman ki Asha by
Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein, an initiative to transform the long-standing
hostility between India and Pakistan by building on the power of cross-border friendships.
See: www.facebook.com/fabaaodostikarein
THE FIRST STEP
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Destination Peace: A commitment by the Jang Group, Geo and The Times of India Group to
create an enabling environment that brings the people of Pakistan and India closer together,
contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.