Gift Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry to someone you love this Valentine's Day

Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz is renowned for his progressive and revolutionary writings and rightly so. The great poet also wrote on love — the universal theme that attracts all. And wrote extensively on it.

Faiz was a subtle poet who relied heavily on idioms, metaphors, and similes for effect and had a flair for imagery and symbolism.

However, he always used them in novel ways. Many consider Faiz’s love poems to be invested in elements of subversion and revolution. This is largely because Faiz — being a master craftsman of language — played with words and phrases, often imbuing them with meanings and nuances not thought of before.

And they are open for interpretation in different ways, often going with the thoughts in the minds of the readers. Well, that is what great poetry is all about.

Sample few of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s couplets, famous for their beauty and poignancy:

• 1. aur kyā dekhne ko baaqī hai
• aap se dil lagāke dekh liyā
• (What else is worth seeing,
• now I have been a witness to your love)  
•  

• 2. dil nā-umiid to nahīñ nākām hī to hai
• lambī hai ġham kī shaam magar shaam hī to hai
• (My efforts [at love] stand thwarted, but my heart is optimistic
• The evening of suffering goes on, but it too shall pass)
•  

• 3. Guloñ meñ rañg bhare baad-e-nau-bahār chale
• chale bhī aao ki gulshan kā kārobār chale
• (Let there be colours in flowers and the breeze of new spring
• Come soon, so the business of the garden (spring) can go on)
•  

• Qafas udaas hai yaaron sabaa se kuch to kaho
• Kaheen to bahr-e-Khuda aaj zikr-e-yaar chale
• (The cage is sad, dear friends, at least speak to the breeze,
• For God's sake, let there be a mention of the beloved today)
•  

• Jo hum pe guzri so guzri magar shab-e-hijraan
• Humaare ashq teri aaqibat sanwaar chale
• (What I have suffered on the night of separation shall pass too
• But I hope my tears and suffering bring you a better future)
•  

• 4. kar rahā thā ġham-e-jahāñ kā hisāb
• aaj tum yaad be-hisāb aae
• (As I began counting the pains and sufferings of the world, I couldn’t help but think of you infinitely)
•  

Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s technical superiority in Urdu and Persian grammar placed him in league with the best in the world. A wonderful example of how he engages rhyme without losing the essence of his longing: 

• maqām 'faiz' koī raah meñ jachā hī nahīñ
• jo kū-e-yār se nikle to sū-e-dār chale
• (There was no suitable stopover on the way
• After leaving the beloved's home, I headed straight to the gallows)

Faiz had realised that conventional Urdu poetry had a lot of potential to articulate romantic ideas, but in a new vein. He used expressions and words that had always been a part of the traditional vocabulary, yet filled them with new meaning.

Words such as qafas (cage), saba (morning breeze), raqeeb (adversary), laila, majnoon, and hawas (lust or greed) became his tools for romance as well as revolution.

Faiz’s love poems borrowed elements from another famous poet Mir Taqi Mir, who too wrote on love and longing.

Faiz, in another century, found inspiration in Mir's ideas and went on to articulate love, hope, peace, and beauty for generations.