Description

Introduction

Arab sailors were visiting Indian sub-continent much before the birth of Islam in Arabian peninsula. As Islam rapidly spread in the Arabic speaking part of the Middle East majority of these sailors also converted to Islam and some of them also settled in the coastal areas of the Indian sub-continent especially the Malabar Coast in the South East of the Indian sub-continent.

With the conquest of Sindh and some parts of Punjab by Muhammad Bin Qasim in early seventh century A.D and later extension of the Muslim empire of Mahmood Ghaznavi from Ghazni and Kabul to Multan (with Headquarters at Lahore) Muslim scholars from Afghanistan also permanently settled in Lahore, Multan, Delhi and Ajmer. Majority of these scholars had studied religious literature in Arabic but mostly being from the Persian speaking areas of Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan spoke Persian language and wrote in the same. Kashful Mahjub written by Saint Syed Ali Hajveri (commonly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh of Lahore) is one such example. He had come to Lahore from Hajver, a small town near Kabul, in Afghanistan, much before the conquest of Lahore by Mahmood Ghaznavi. These scholars and saints remained pouring into the sub-continent almost upto the end of the Mughal empire in Delhi and preached to their followers in the local languages and dialects spoken in different parts of the sub-continent.

The earliest of them who wrote in the local dialect alongwith Persian is Masood Saad Salman who served the Lahore Kingdom (in the 12th Century A.D) of the Ghaznavid princes, (who had been expelled from Afghanistan but continued to rule Lahore for more than a century after the death of Mahmood Ghaznavi). Unfortunately his local dialect poetry has been lost. However, the next intellectual and saint of the Chishti Order of Moeenuddin Chishti of Ajmer, near Delhi is Baba Farid ud Din Ganj Shakar of Pakpattan near Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan. He was a mystic believing in purification of soul through penance and prayers (worship). The form in which he expressed his poetic thoughts was known to the locals (mostly Hindu poets) as “bait” (i.e. couplets) and “Ashloks” (poetic pieces comprising two or more poetic lines). His poetry was preserved by Baba Guru Nanak (founder of the Sikh religion) who himself also wrote “baits” and “Ashloks”. The subject of his “baits” and “Ashloks” is mainly his experiences during penance and worship and his thoughts over the essence of life he had arrived at. The very first poetic piece found in collections of his poetry and included in translation in this collection contains a representative example of the subject of his poetry.

The next scholar in this very tradition of mystic poetry in Punjabi dialect of the times is Shah Hussain of Lahore who lived during the times of the Great Mughal Emperor of India Akbar the Great (1556 to 1605 AD). He was a scholar teaching in a Lahore madrassa (religious school) when he turned to mystic thoughts and started living the life of Malamati Soofis (self-accusing and self-effacing mystics) who were in fact the intellectuals revolting against the strict almost tyrannical interpretations of religion (Islam) being done by the common religious scholars who were associated with the royal courts as administrators and judges (Qazis). Shah Hussain of Lahore and later Bulleh Shah of Kasur belonged to such tradition of sufis but strangely, while Bulleh Shah is loud in his expressions of such revolt, Shah Hussain, though he is reported to have lived a life of almost a renegade from Islam (drinking wine and living a life of total denial of Islamic way of life like offering the prescribed prayers and keeping fast etc.), does not express his rebellious thoughts in his poetry. Rather his poetry consists of his broodings over life and his supplications to his God for his spiritual uplift.

Both these poets wrote in the form known in Punjabi poetry as ‘Kafi’ which inherits the tradition of expressing spiritual thoughts as were expressed by Hindu saints and poets in the genre called Bhajan (Hymns in praise of gods and the creator God Brahma or Bhagwan).

The next great Punjabi mystic poet I have translated is Sultan Bahoo of Jhang who lived in the seventeenth century A.D. He also wrote poetry in Persian language but the subject matter of that poetry is stale thoughts found in religious literature of the times. But his poetry in the Punjabi language contains his broodings over the existence of life and religious and moral preaching.

Khawaja Ghulam Farid lived in Southern Punjab in the later part of nineteenth century and succeeded to the Pir Khana (saint house) of Chachran Sharif in the then state of Bahawalpur. He wrote in the genre called Kafi both in Sindhi and Punjabi (Saraeki or Multani accent of the same) and made many experiments with its form and content. Although he basically is a poet of pain and sorrow but has expanded the field of his expression to descriptions of his native land Rohi and its natural phenomena.

I felt attracted towards this genre (Kafi) of poetry from almost the age at which I myself started writing poetry. As stated by me in the introduction to the collection of my Punjabi poetry I myself started writing in this genre from the age of 17 when in the second year of my college studies. It was this love of the genre which prompted me to translate this great heritage of Punjabi poetry into the English language.

Let me admit that although most of great classical poetic writings in different languages have been translated from their original language to other languages, I firmly believe that poetry of any language cannot be translated into other languages with all its beauties as poetry consists of not only the subject matter but also its form (rhythm, music, similis and metaphors etc) which cannot be recreated in translation because it is special to the language and culture in which it is written. Any effort at doing the same results in original poetic writing as happened with Fitzgerald’s translation of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. That is why I have tried to convey only the thought content of the verses and poetic pieces I have translated and frankly admit that I have not at all tried to convey all the other beauties of that poetry like the music, cadence and other beauties of form which these poetic pieces contained. The form chosen by me for the English language rendering may be called rhythmic prose and may not meet even the standards of blank verse.

Latif Qureshi