The Poetry of Syed Hassan Raza Gardezi
By
Hassan N. Gardezi
This concludes our two part series on Siraiki poetry by Professor Hassan Gardezi. This article is an introduction to the 'Tenements on Sand' : an English translation of Syed Hassan Raza Gardezi poems published by Maktaba, Lahore.
The poetry of Hassan Raza Gardezi represents a major departure from the older forms and themes of Siraiki poetry to the new and the modern. There are two somewhat exceptional circumstances that characterize the emergence of modern Siraiki poetry. One of these is its relatively recent appearance on the literary scene. Secondly, one is struck by the fact that almost all eminent modern Siraiki poets happen to be progressive poets, within the broad sense of that term, with sharply developed socio-political consciences.
New Direction
It was not until the later part of the decade of 1960S that modern Siraiki poetry began to appear noticeably in publication, although some Siraiki speaking writers had already made their mark in modern Urdu literature. Urdu in North India, including Punjab, had gained considerable acceptance as a language of formal education and literary expression under official patronage from the last days of the Mughal Empire. After independence in 1947 it was declared the official language of Pakistan. The "national literature" of Pakistan promoted at home or projected abroad also became synonymous with Urdu literature. Thus, anyone who aspired to be counted as a national literary figure was inclined to write in Urdu. Another reason for the late appearance of modern Siraiki poetry can be attributed to the continued popularity of traditional verse forms, the Kafi, Seherfi and Dohra which inhibited the exploration of new styles and modes of poetic expression better suited to articulate concerns and experiences of life very different from the days of the pioneers such as
Farid.
Socio-Political Changes
However, this situation began to change rapidly with the transforming political and social realities as a succession of crises shook the very foundation of Pakistan's nationhood. The rise to power in the 1950's of a bureaucratic military oligarchy, and its collaborators among the landed gentry and emergent bourgeoisie, witnessed the dismantling of Pakistan's provincial federal structure. Sindh, Balochistan, Sarhad (NWFP) and Punjab were amalgamated into 'one unit.' The 1958 Martial Law and it's continuation produced conspicuous class and regional inequalities, tied Pakistan to Western powers through neo-colonial alliances, brought the press under government control, and led to the secession of East Bengal after the staging of a brutal military action against the people of that province in 1970.
All these repressive measures and subservience to the interests of imperialist powers promoted by the country's rulers, after a prolonged struggle for independence from British rule, intensified the process of collective self-awareness in Pakistan at different levels. People began to develop a new and keener appreciation of their ethnicity, history, class and cultural values as well as their relationship to their national and international community. The restoration of democracy in 1970 under the populist Peoples Party rule of Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Sindhi . also gave a boost to this rekindled social awareness. People of different nationalities within Pakistan began to express themselves in their own languages with renewed confidence.
It was in this social historical context that a new generation of Siraiki poets began to write, exploring new styles and forms more appropriate to face head-on the contemporary issues and challenges posed by their immediate environment and the universal condition of humankind. The modernity and progressivness of their poetic creations was not a matter of following the fads and fashions established earlier in the Urdu and English literary trends. Their search for and adoption of new modes of poetic expression was based on the necessity to reflect in their art a radically changed existential situation that deeply touched their personal and collective lives. Apart from the political changes and repression noted above, life in the Pakistan of the second half of 20th century was characterized by the breakdown of subsistence economics, burgeoning city populations, industrialization, expansion of mass communication, along with the problems of uprootedness, unemployment, exploitation of wage labor, poverty and ecological devastation. It is no surprise, therefore, that when Siraiki writers did turn to composing modern poetry they did it with a sharply developed sociopolitical consciousness. They wrote freely and candidly, choosing as their themes the simplest experiences of the surface of life to the more profound interpretations of the human condition around them. Their subjects encompassed a wide range; life in prison, the plight of the poor and the unemployed, capitalistic and feudal exploitation, hunger of the body and the soul, neocolonial domination, human alienation and so forth. To reflect upon and interpret these living realities, a close following of the traditional verse forms, vocabularies and symbolisms was clearly inadequate. As a result, these writers express themselves in a rich variety of poetic forms ranging from poetic prose to blank verse.
Of these modern Siraiki poets, Hassan Raza Gardezi is truly a path blazer whose poetic imagination and creativity has established new directions for his contemporaries and successors to follow. Before turning to composing poetry, he spent a long time in the outlying districts of Multan, observing closely the folk traditions of ordinary workers and peasants in the heartland of the Siraiki speech area. He also devoted this period to a serious study of literature and history. Thus while he writes modern poetry in innovative styles and forms, dealing with contemporary themes, he draws freely from the best traditions of the past with which he is well acquainted. His poems retain the musical rhythm of the 'Kafi', the contemplative quality of the 'Seherfi' and the elegiac mood of the 'marsia'. He has explored deep into the diction and phraseology of the Siraiki language to articulate a wide range of emotions and modern subjects. As he writes effortlessly on any subject from the anthropological origins of humankind to the conquest of space, his poems seem to add to the enrichment of the Siraiki language. Gardezi also turns, at times, to the same folktales immortalized in the poetry of Sufi masters such as Farid, but he invests them with new symbolic meanings. For example, there is his version of the legend of Sohni who drowned while crossing the river Chenab to meet her lover. Sohni was going to use a 'ghara', a round earthen pitcher made of baked clay, as a buoy. On a dark and stormy night Sohni picked up her pitcher and jumped into the river, little suspecting that her treacherous relatives had replaced it with an unbaked one. What happened next is pictured by Gardezi in his characteristic style of mixing natural imagery with mystery. To quote from 'The Tides of Chenah':
Then the pitcher begins to break, to fall apart
As do the false friendships of this world
The rising and falling body slows
Begins to lose its strength
is soon consumed by the mighty Chenah
Now the winds begin to cry
The shrill wailings grow louder and louder
The spirits scream like cranes and take flight
And their shadows form a black shroud
Cover the face of Chenah,
And the trees on the river's banks
Frightened and subdued drop their heads
Love and Lover now receive their requiem
Carpets of Jasmine appear
And teardrops that drop from dark clouds
Ruffle the surface of the water
And moonlight mist floating in the air
Soon carries Sohni's soul out away to a gilded land of dreams
But even there, Sohni's soul finds no peace, no rest
There is no gambling with life in this land
There are no victories, no defeats
No tears to create pearls of faith and wisdom
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