Ghaas kat ti hai ke din in ke kate jate haiN. HaddiaN seench ke phulwariaN mehkate haiN Yeh chaman band, jo guzre hue sultanoN ki Khurdre, maile, phate kaproN meiN boorhe maali His reaction to this beautifully historic sight is a deep sadness as he sees human beings (gardeners, people picknicking etc.) in this serene setting either struggling to get through the day or wholly oblivious to this fleeting existence. Notice the wholly different tone of Majeed Amjad's poem. I was particularly reminded of this reading the poem Raza has posted on his blog with an allusion to Shalimar.
I could go on but the last poem that I would like to quote in this piece is "Maqbara-e-Jahangir". Na jane liye apne dolaab ki aastinoN maiN kitne jahaaN us ki gardish Payape magar narm rau us ki raftaar, paiham magar betakan us ki gardishĪdam se azal tak, azal se abad tak badalti nahiN aik aan us ki gardish Īur ik naghma sarmadi kaan meiN aa raha hai, musalsal kunwaN chal raha hai KahiN beh gayi aik hi tund rele ki fayyaz lehroN meiN kayari ki kayari. KahiN khet sookha para reh gaya aur na us tak kabhi aai pani ki bari KunwaiN wala, gaadi pe leta hai, mast apni bansi ki meethi sureeli sada meiN Na shakhon ki bahein, na phooloN ke mukhre, na kalioN ke mathe, na rut ki jawani. KunwaN chal raha hai! magar khet sookhe pare haiN, na fasleiN, na khirman, na dana In the poem "KunwaN", the water wheel symbolizes the perpetual circle of time and the water carrier, symbolizing the divine, watches this passing of time and its ravages with complete detachment: Life's circle continues with unremitting regularity indifferent to what it leaves behind. Majeed Amjad feels the inexorable cruelty of time in his bones.
The persistent undercurrent of Majeed Amjad's poetry is a view of life that is essentially tragic (perhaps another reason why it is difficult for the young to embrace him compared to say Faiz's optimistic theme of 'we shall overcome'). He wrote a beautiful poem ("Harf-e-Awwal") as an introduction to that collection: "Shab-e-Rafta" was the only collection of his poetry published in his lifetime. However, on to some examples of his wonderful poetry (unfortunately I do not possess any talent for translation so my apologies to those who struggle with literary Urdu).
But, perhaps more importantly, Majeed Amjad was not an ideological poet affiliated with one or the other group of literary luminaries who could beat their partisan drums on his behalf (Progressive Writers Movement managed to turn everyone who knew the words 'mazdoor' or 'kisan' into literary giants). He lived away from the literary center of Lahore in small Punjabi towns like Sahiwal and Jhang and never had many influential advocates of his literary merits. In Majeed Amjad's case I think it was a confluence of factors: he was a quiet, reserved introvert with no inclination for self-marketing. Reading Majeed Amjad's magnificent poetry I have often wondered how it is that some literary reputations get created from meager contributions but some people forever struggle to gain just acclaim. Even amongst the lovers of Urdu poetry his name is least likely to be recognized. In the post-Iqbal era of Urdu poetry there are few greater poets than Majeed Amjad ( this is a link to a short bio of him in Wikipedia that I wrote and I would love readers familiar with his work to add to it). Inspired by my friend Raza's literary blog Jahane-e-Rumi, I have been meaning to post something on Urdu poets and poetry.
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