MIDNIGHT MOON AND POET FIRAQ GORAKHPURI

                           

                                      

MIDNIGHT MOON …Oil on Paper by Amanda Hoskin ( UK ).

To this painting, I am adding some lines from Firaq Gorakhpuri’s  celebrated poem Aadhi Raat ( Midnight ) 

‘Khunuk fazaaon  mein  raqsaan  hain  chaand ki Kieren 

Ki  aabgeenon  pe padti  hai narm narm  phuhaar 

Ye mauj-e-ġhaflat-e-maasoom  ye ḳhumaar -e-badan 

Ye saans neend mein  doobi ye aankh madhmaati 

Ab aao meray  kaleje se lag ke so jaao 

Ye palkein  bandh  karo aur mujh mein kho jaao’

( Firaq Gorakhpuri )

“ In the cool atmosphere, moonbeams interplay,

As if a crystal bowl is getting soft sprayed,

This spell of innocent languor, the body whelmed with sleep,

The sleep craving breath, the eye drunken deep,

Come, slip into my bosom, lie down to sleep,

Close your gentle eyelids, lose yourself in me .”

 I need to say two things about Firaq’s poetry.

(1)

Firaq brought  Ramayana , Mahabharta , Bhagwat Geeta , Shiv Puran and  Upnishads   to Urdu poetry.  In his poems , one  finds references to Shiva, Rama, Sita, Ravana, Sri Krishna, Radha, Saraswati    and many more deities.    He brings names from ancient scriptures and epics of  India  like Shakuntala, Savitri , Vasudev, Ahalya, Padmini , Sidhartha, Vashisht, Valmiki, Vishvamitter, Manu, Kapil , Vyas, Chaitanya , Ramanuj, Agastya and Draupadi in his verses. He makes use of Hindi and Sanskrit words. I find words like Agni-kund , Deepshikha, Kalika, Maangbhari, Kanya, Devlok,Jagatmaata, Amrit, Kumudhini and many more in his poems, quatrains and Gazals.

(2)

Influence of English poets is visible in Firaq’s poetry. I quote some  instances 

Firaq Says:-

“ Insaan ke Haathon se jo  insaan pe guzri ” 

Wordsworth says:-

“ What man has made of man? ”

Firaq says:-

“Zindagi Kya hai isse aaj Aey dost

Soch lein aur Udaas ho Jaayein ”

Keats (  Ode to Nightingale ) says:-

“ Where but to think is to be full of sorrow ”

Then again Firaq’s poem ‘ Aey Baad e Khizaan ’derives its name from Shelley’s   ‘ Ode to the west wind ’. Firaq is also influenced by Coleridge and William Blake.

Possibly these aspects of Firaq's poetry  have not been fully explored by his critics.  

( Avtar Mota ) 

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