This one comes from Pranav Jani over at ScarletGuju. He writes:
“Subh-e Azad” (“Dawn of Freedom”) by the brilliant Urdu Marxist poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, best expresses to me the sense of tragedy and possibility of 1947 for ordinary people caught in the worldwind of historical events: an independence brokered through ethnic cleansing, refugee crisis, communalism, rape, and horrors of partition.
An excellent counterpoint–ideologically and symbolically–to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous “Tryst With Destiny” speech, “Subh-e Azad” reminds us, on this 60th anniversary of Indian/Pakistani independence, that while we all must keep seeking the “dawn of freedom,” today’s South Asian dawn for nuclear testers and global corporations, for car-owners and the wealthy with their bloated bank accounts while farmers commit suicides and poverty rates rise–this is not really what freedom was supposed to be about.
But pay attention to the last line: this is not just about despair…
“Dawn of Freedom” (August 1947)
–Faiz Ahmed Faiz, translated from the Urdu by Agha Shahid Ali
These tarnished rays, this night-smudged light– This is not that Dawn for which, ravished with freedom, we had set out in sheer longing, so sure that somewhere in its desert the sky harbored a final haven for the stars, and we would find it.We had no doubt that night’s vagrant wave would stray towards the shore that the heart rocked with sorrow would at last reach its port.
Friends, our blood shaped its own mysterious roads. When hands tugged at our sleeves, enticing us to stay, and from wonderous chambers Sirens cried out with their beguiling arms, with their bare bodies, our eyes remained fixed on that beckoning dawn, forever vivid in her muslins of transparent light. Our blood was young–what could hold us back?
Now listen to the terrible rampant lie: Light has forever been severed from the Dark; our feet, it is heard, are now one with their goal. See our leaders polish their manner clean of our suffering: Indeed, we must confess only to bliss; we must surrender any utterance for the Beloved–all yearning is outlawed. But the heart, the eye, the yet deeper heart– Still ablaze for the Beloved, their turmoil shines. In the lantern by the road the flame is stalled for news: Did the morning breeze ever come? Where has it gone? Night weighs us down; it still weighs us down.
Friends, come away from this false light. Come, we must search for that promised Dawn.
12 responses so far ↓
leftyprof // August 15, 2007 at 7:42 pm
A brownie awaits anyone who can get me the original “Subh-e Azad” in Devanagiri script (seeing as how I can’t read Urdu).
A second brownie awaits the person who can tell me how to transport a brownie digitally.
Pranav // August 16, 2007 at 12:43 am
First, I made a mishtake. The real title of the poem is “Subh-e Azadi.” Figures.
Second, here’s an English transliteration of the Urdu: wretched to read but, hey:
ye daG-daG ujaalaa, ye shab-gaziidaa sahar
wo intezaar tha jiskaa, ye wo sahar to nahii.n
ye wo sahar to nahii.n jiskii aarzoo lekar
chale the yaar ke: mil jayegi kahii.n na kahii.n
falak ke dashth me.n taaro.n kii aakhirii manzil
kahi.n to hogaa shab-e-sustmoujh kaa saahil
kahi.n ti jake rukegaa safiin-e-gam-e-dil
jawa.N lahuu kii pur asraar shahraaho.n se
chale jo yaar to daaman pe kitne haath paDe
dayaar-e-husn kii be-sabra khwaabgaaho.n se
pukaarti rahii.n baahe.n, badan bulate rahe
bahut azeez thii lekin ruKh-e-sahar kii lagan
bahut karii.n tha hasiinane noor kaa daaman
subuk-subuk thi tamanna dabi-dabi thi thakan
sunaa hai ho bhi chukaa hai firaaq-e-zulmat-e-noor
sunaa hai ho bhi chukaa hai wisaal-e-manzil-o-gaam
badal chukaa hai bahut ahal-e-dard kaa dastoor
nishaat-e-wasl halaal-o-azaab-e-hijr-e-haraam
jigar kii aag, nazar kii umang, dil kii jalan
kisii pe chaar:e-hijra.N kaa kuchch asar hii nahii.n
kahaa.N se aayii nigaar-e-sabaa kidhhar ko gaii
abhii chiraaG-e-sar-e-rah ko kuchch khabar hii nahii.n
abhii garaanii-e-shab me.n kamii nahi.n aaii
nazaat-e-deed’h-o-dil kii ghadii nahi.n aaii
chale chalo ki wah ma.nzil abhi nahi.n aaii
Pranav // August 16, 2007 at 12:45 am
Here’s the source for the previous transliteration: http://members.tripod.com/~SundeepDougal/Faiz.html#subhe
Another can be found here: http://www.urdupoetry.com/faiz08.html
Half a digital brownie, then?
leftyprof // August 16, 2007 at 9:17 am
Double brownie for effort.
readerswords // August 16, 2007 at 7:01 pm
here’s one in devnagari:
http://dhaiakhar.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_15.html
Don’t know how the transport part…
Crimson East // August 17, 2007 at 12:47 am
Damn, I got here too late.
leftyprof // August 17, 2007 at 9:24 am
Hence the virtues of subscribing, Crimsonji!
Renegade Eye // August 18, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Liberation includes national independence, but not as the final goal of a society. It takes destroying the institutions of colonialism, not only occupying them.
Snehal // August 18, 2007 at 10:42 pm
FYI: Khuda ke Liye is now available entirely online:
http://www.muft.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13360&Itemid=69
Pranav // September 3, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Renegade Eye
Yes — but when we simply recite this like a formula it’s so detached from the real dynamics of anticolonial struggle.
Faiz is saying the same thing: that this dawn of “freedom” (from Britain) was not really a dawn of freedom. We need to keep searching for it.
But Faiz demands a greater liberation without minimizing, for one second, the independence struggle.
animal fact // November 23, 2007 at 7:12 am
Really makes you think, doesn’t it?
Vidrohi // December 9, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Good blog you have there, Prof. And, Faiz Sahib ke tu kiya he baat hey.
Inqilab Zindabad!
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