I AM GRATEFUL to Shahryar’s children, Humayun, Saima and Faridoon, for allowing me to translate the poetry included in this book and for trusting me to write this biography. I am also grateful to Shahryar’s nephew, Parvez, for helping me gather details about Shahryar’s life. Munibur Rehman shared memories and ideas over email, as did Baidar Bakht and Gopi Chand Narang. Syed Muhammad Ashraf sent handwritten responses to my long questions on WhatsApp, answers that are long enough and serious enough to be published in a literary journal in due course. A Chinese meal with Hilal Fareed in a London restaurant became the first of many reminiscences about Shahryar and Shahryar’s Aligarh.
I am grateful to Gulzar sahab and Javed Akhtar for patiently answering my questions about the craft of Urdu poetry, its warp and weft, taana-baana. Two books have proved to be very useful and I acknowledge the writers of both with immense gratitude: Prem Kumar’s Baaton Mulaqaton Mein Shahryar and Sarwar-ul Huda’s edited volume titled, simply enough, Shahryar, but containing within its covers a wealth of information by some of the most influential writers of our time. My uncle Siddiq Ahmad Siddiqi, Shahryar’s friend and fellow traveller, helped fill the gaps in my understanding in his own uniquely cryptic way. My mother, Mehjabeen, proved to be an invaluable support as always in all my literary endeavours. For her I can only say: Jo kuchh kaha to tera husn ho gaya mehdood…
About the Book
Bechi hai sehr ke haathon
Raaton ki siyahi tumne
Kii hai jo tabahi tumne
Kisi roz sazaa paoge
(You have sold the ink of the night
To the morning
You will be punished some day
For the devastation you have wrought)
One ot the most important voices in contemporary Indian poetry, Shahryar (1936—2012) cast a mesmeric spell with the publication ot his very tirst collection, Ism-e Azam, in 1965. Over the next fifty years, he not only managed to remain topical, his poetry defining the times, he always seemed to have something to say that was timely and relevant without ever compromising on quality.
Shahryar: A Life in Poetry is as much a study ot a poet’s life — the father, friend, teacher and raconteur par excellence — as it is an attempt to write the literary history ot contemporary Urdu poetry. Tracing Shahryar’s journey as a poet, Rakhshanda Jalil demonstrates how he evolved a set ot symbols, images and metaphors that, while seemingly personal, transcended the self and the individual. She also evaluates his work in the light ot the two major literary movements that shaped his poetic sensibility — the Progressive Writers’ Movement and modernism — while he consistently refused to belong to any one group.
Including a selection ot some ot Shahryar’s best poems — ghazals, nazms and film lyrics — brilliantly translated by the author, the book introduces his poetry to a new generation while evaluating Shahryar’s considerable body ot work in the trajectory ot contemporary Indian writings and his extraordinary contribution to not merely modern Urdu poetry but, more significantly, modern Indian poetry.
About the Author
Writer, critic and literary historian, Rakhshanda Jalil has published over fifteen books and written over fifty academic papers and essays. She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi—Urdu literature and culture. Among her recent books are several published by HarperCollins: a translation of Premchand’s short stories entitled The Temple and the Mosque; her debut collection of original fiction in English, Release & Other Stories; a translation of fifteen short stories by Intizar Husain entitled The Death of Sheherzad; a translation of Intizar j Husain’s seminal novel on Karachi, The Sea Lies Ahead; and a translation of Gulzar’s Footprints on Zero Line: Writings on the Partition.
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First published in India in 2018 by
HarperCollins Publishers
A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India
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Copyright © Rakhshanda Jalil 2018
P-ISBN: 978-93-5302-030-9
Epub Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 978-93-5302-031-6
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
Rakhshanda Jalil asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.
Cover photo: Siddiq Ahmad Siddiqi
Title calligraphy: Nikheel Aphale
Cover design: Studio Em&En
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