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Book Review: Translations of Death and Dream in Ghazals of Safeer Siddiqui

By Wasim Ahmad Alimi

Khokhli Awaz de jati ha ab dastak Mujhe

Kha Gayi Yun Dheere Dheere Zeest Ki Deemak Mujhe

(The life, like a kind of canker has slowly eroded me in such a way that, even a meaningless call surprisingly knocks me.)

Young, energetic, enthusiastic, and emerging Safeer Siddiqui is a poet of death and dream.  A student of just M.A. Urdu in Jamia Millia Islamia has gained so much mastery and maturity in poetry that his seniors like me think that Safeer is a time traveler who is travelling in past. The elements of death and metaphors of dreams are looming large in his ghazals that have been recently printed as ‘Khawabon ke Marsiye’ [Elegies of Dreams]. This anthology of 72 ghazals beautifies emotions of self-killing in an artistic way that some of his fellow poets has started to call him ‘the ambassador of death’. Interestingly his name, ‘Safeer” also means ‘the ambassador’.

Before we examine his nihilistic and poetic approach, let’s have a look at the significance of solitude, grief, darkness, dreams, and despair in already written literature of the world.

It is as clear as the sunshine that we will die any day. None can deny the fact that our timespan on this planet is not deathless. Then the question arises here, how we deal with the knowledge that we will die. American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker in his book ‘The Denial of Death’ (1974) discusses this theory in detail. He says that we do not try to recognize our death because this is a terrible thought to live with, we cannot enjoy the life with this thought, hence we do not take it seriously. The book won the Pulitzer Prize of the year 1974. Author, Ernest Becker says in his book:

“It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours.” [Becker, 1973: 56].

In the light of above-mentioned theories, this couplet of Safeer Siddiqui gets complete meaningfulness:

Marte Rahte Hein Har Ek Pal Ki Na Mar Jaein Kahin,

Jeene Walon Ka Ajab Ishq Hai Mar Jane Se

(We die every now and then with the fear of death, living people have a wonderful affair with mortality.)

This is exactly what our terrible death demands from us. Death is not a final episode, its indeed a continuous process that develops throughout the life. The legendry Iranian Fictionist and the founder of modern Iranian Short Stories, Sadeq Hedayat explains the same in his world-renowned novel, The Blind Owl:

“Many people start dying just from the age of twenty.”

“My one fear is that tomorrow I may die without having come to know myself.”

“If there was no death, everyone would wish for it.”

These three different excerpts from Sadeq Hedayat’s novel, validate Safeer’s affair with the elements of mortality when he says the followings:

Maut Ki Dhun Pe Tharaktey Hein Haqiqat Ke Qadam

Zindagi Jeetey Hein Bas Khawab Dikhaye Huwe Log

(The life dances with the rhythm of death, alive are only those living in dream.)

Khokhli Awaz de jati ha ab dastak Mujhe

Kha Gayi Yun Dheere Dheere Zeest Ki Deemak Mujhe

(The life, like a kind of canker has slowly eroded me in such a way that, even a meaningless call surprisingly knocks me.)

Ek Zara Dam Leney Ki Qeemat mein Jaan Deni Padi

Zindagi Ka Tajruba Mera Bada Mehanga Pada

(Had to taste the death just for the sake of ordinary life, the business of living costed a lot to me.)

Look at the components of thought process that Safeer has taken into account in order to create his base of Ghazals. Dancing with the rhythm of death, living in dream, slowly eroded life, getting surprised by meaningless calls, lightness of life and tasting the elixir of death for the sake of low-priced life. Perhaps this maturity of Safeer Sddiqui in an immature literary career has stirred up a great fiction writer, critic, poet, translator, educator, professor, and orator of our time like Khalid Jawed to write 11-page appreciation for this anthology of Safeer Siddiqui. Professor Khalid Jawed pens in his foreword:

“This is to be noted that death or dream or suicide does not come in Safeer’s ghazals in a romanticized form, they come very straightforward just like a fine aspect of standard existence, this is not like scolding restfulness nor the despair or helplessness, this is the insanity that according to Pascal, has been written only in the fate of artists, poets and writers.”

But beautifying death and dream is no new in long and rich tradition of Urdu poetry. The theme has a well-connected chain from Mir, Ghalib to Fani Badayuni, Nasir Kazmi and of course Jaun Elia. All of them have already described death and dream in their own way of creative art. Mir Taqi Mir says:

Ibteda Hi Men Mar Gaye Sab Yaar

Ishq Ki Kon Inteha Laaya

(Every lover died just in the beginning; none reached the climax.)

Ghalib outlines the lifelong process of death in his own style:

thā zindagī meñ marg kā khaTkā lagā huā

uḌne se pesh-tar bhī mirā rañg zard thā

(Entire life was disturbed by fear of death, even before flying my color was cadaverous.)

The Urdu poet ofisolated perspective and most celebrated Shayer of late 20th century, Jaun Elia marks out the fear of death in such a simple way that it also can be the best example of ‘multum in parvo’ (a great deal in a small space) which is the first and foremost saliant feature of Urdu Ghazal:

kitnī dilkash ho tum kitnā dil-jū huuñ maiñ

kyā sitam hai ki ham log mar jāeñge

(How pretty you are! How joyful am I! irony is that we shall die.)

Then what is the relevance of Safeer Siddiqui’s poetry creation? The answer lies within the question itself. His art is taking forward the unique tradition of Urdu Ghazal. After going through the couplets of Mir, Ghalib and Jaun Elia, read this couplet by Safeer, you will find him a true successor of his forerunners:

Dhali Jo Shaam to Sab Apne Apne Ghar ko Chale

So Hum Bhi Maut Ka Darwaza Khat-Khatane Lage

(As evening falls, everybody returns back to home, what do I do, so I started ringing the doorbell of death.)

Note: All poetic and other translations in this review are done by reviewer himself.

The Reviewer, Wasim Ahmad Alimi is a translator and a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi.

About the Book

Book Name:   Khawabon Ke Marsiye (poetry collection)

Author:          Safeer Siddiqui

Pages:             126

Published by:            Creative Star Publications

Price:              160 Check out the book on Amazon:       http://surl.li/bqpip