Dareechah-e-Nigaarish

• Majeed Amjad (1914-1974) is arguably among the top 5 modern Urdu poets.  He has written poems, long poems, ghazals as well as geet  (songs).

        His poetry shows an amazing breadth of content ranging from personal love to the social problems facing an emerging Pakistan.

        His diction includes words from Hindi, Arabic, Persian and Urdu, all assimilated into flawless, rhythmic phrases which bring forth a very nuanced imagery.

       Sensitive to the human condition and always seeing the infinite in the infinitesimal, minute details of life around him, his poems are colorful canvases portraying his age and his unique view of the people and places he lived in.

      I started reading Majeed Amjad's poems in 1977 when I was a college student at Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan. The collection published after Majeed Amjad's death (Shab-e-Rafta Kay Baad) was one of the two poetry books (the other one being Muneer Niazi's "Maah-e-Muneer") which started me off on my journey of self-discovery.

Here she comes, onto her “rooftop-terrace,” smiling

With a muted message in her fleeting glance !

This hazy air tinged with dusky reflections,

This desolate path … deserted lane … quiet evening,

The low wall of a house at the street corner,

Upon which is gently laid

A diffuse and silent spell !

This rooftop-terrace … familiar

With the sound of someone’s soft step,

This secluded place … echoing

With the strains of songs

Someone hums to herself  !

The charisma of someone’s lips

Spreads dreamily on all sides

Like angel dust  . . .  light-specks of smiles,

Delirium raining down

From the sweet wine of someone’s gaze,

Someone’s slender, silver-bangled arm

Raised in a silent gesture of greeting !

With her elbows resting on the parapet,

And the air of a Diva,

Stands someone … coyly blushing and silent

With a muted message in her fleeting glance !

18^th June, 1938.

Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan.

Majeed Amjad (1914-1974).

Translated by Talat Afroze from the original Urdu text of the poem “Ser-ay Baam”; p. 69, “Kulliyaat Majeed Amjad,” (c) 1988 by Majeed Amjad, Ed. Khawaja Mohammad Zakariya, Maawaraa Publishers, 3 Bahawalpur Road, Lahore, Pakistan. 

A Twinkle in Her Eyes

Who can say

Why her eyes,

Those playmates of the hamlet where Beauty dwells,

Why her eyes smile that way ?

When notes arising from her soul,

That Temple-Palace of Music,

And traipsing through the land of glad tidings,

Mirthfully smothering the tinkling of their anklets,

Tip toe up, haltingly, secretively,

To the gates of her lips,

Why her gaze sparkles and smiles ?

Leaping over islands of silence

And wastelands of sealed lip pining,

When the silhouettes of desire

Come waltzing in

To nestle in an intimate moment’s nest,

Why her gaze sparkles and smiles ?

Her soul, that Sprite-Princess,

Neither lifts her veil

Nor voices her song

And when her heart’s ballad

Passes through distant, unexplored worlds

As the faint, lingering sounds of a flute …

Why her gaze sparkles and smiles !

8^th December, 1952

Sahiwal, Punjab, PAKISTAN.

Majeed Amjad (1914 - 1974)

Translated by Talat Afroze from the original Urdu text of the poem “Akhiyaan Kiyoon Muskaa-ain”; p. 230, “Kulliyaat Majeed Amjad,” (c) 1988 by Majeed Amjad,  Ed. Khawaja Mohammad Zakariya, Maawaraa Publishers, 3 Bahawalpur Road, Lahore, Pakistan. 

Icon !

Where is she … ?!

That girl who stood on these ramparts years ago

Statuesque … iconic …besieged by the world

A deity …  worshipped by the early glow of my dreams !

Where is she now ?

That crazy-headed rebellious Truth

With the restless, quivering eye lashes

Who came to refute the sham of this world.

Under these ramparts,

My breath is still patched and mended

By the soft breeze of her existence

Which once did battle against eternal stony walls

But I wonder where she rests now

That crazy-headed rebellious Truth ?

This is how young, unfolding lives

With their tinkling laughter

Are lost forever in a dark enduring slumber

What manner of sleep is this

Whose sea-waves slowly crumble and erode

All islands of the heart ?

What kind of dreams are these

That swim within this sleep

Floating back … returning again and again… forever in this deep slumber ?

Dreams ...  whose childhood glow never fades away !!

9^th June, 1970 

(32 years after writing “On Her Rooftop-Terrace”).

Sahiwal, Punjab, Pakistan

Majeed Amjad (1914-1974).

Translated by Talat Afroze from the original Urdu text of the poem “Moortee”; p. 559, “Kulliyaat Majeed Amjad,” (c) 1988 by Majeed Amjad, Ed. Khawaja Mohammad Zakariya, Maawaraa Publishers, 3 Bahawalpur Road, Lahore, Pakistan. 

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