Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Poet of Pain & Esctasy

Gopi Chand Narang, Ajai Mansingh

Description

One of contemporary India’s most prolific Urdu poets, Firaq Gorakhpuri was well known for his ghazals, nazms, rubaais and qat’aa. His magnum opus, Gul-e-Naghma, won him the Jnanpith Award (1969), India’s first highest literary honour for literature. The other awards bestowed upon him include the Sahitya Akademi Award (1960), and the Ghalib Academy Award (1981).
In this personalized biography, Firaq’s nephew, Ajai Mansingh, tells the compelling tale of the poet's life, inspiration, and struggles – shedding light on the trials and tribulations of one of India’s greatest literary figures.

‘Firaq is a poet of the labyrinths of emotions, the sensuousness and transcendence of beauty, and the merging shades of pain and ecstasy. The softness and suppleness of his voice does not have a parallel in Urdu poetry.’
— Gopi Chand Narang

Sujets

• Poet
• Biography
• Firaq Gorakhpuri
• Nazm
• Mirza Ghalib
• Scholarly method
• Padma Bhushan
• Memoir
• Critic
• Writer
• Urdu
• Poetry
• Autobiography
• Ourdou
• Ghâlib
• OpenOffice.org Writer

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 25 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351940821
• Langue: English

Extrait

About the Author
”I felt blessed with cosmic bliss. I could see nothing but unity in the world – one source, one unity, pure divine bliss, not man made,” Ajai Mansingh (1931-2011). This poetic imagination may have been inherited by Ajai from Raghupati Sahai – ‘Firaq Gorakhpuri, who was his mother’s eldest brother.
Ajai went to Canada in 1960, completed his Ph.D. in Entomology, and spent over a decade there as a scientist and Assistant Professor, before moving to Kingston, Jamaica in 1973. During his 30 years of service to the University of the West Indies, Mona, Professor Mansingh made significant contributions to the academic community through teaching and research. He retired as the first Executive Director of the Natural Products Institute at UWI in 2003. He was also a consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, International Atomic Energy Agency, USAID, and Caribbean Environmental Trust. He was awarded the Musgrave Medal (silver) for contributions in the field of science in Jamaica. He published over 150 scientific papers in international journals, 15 journal articles on social anthropology and numerous articles on environmental pollution in Hindustan Times.
Ajai was passionate about Indian heritage and culture and dedicated 40 years to promoting an awareness of these in the Caribbean. His most extensive work in this area, the book Home Away From Home: 150 Years of Indian Presence in Jamaica which he co-authored with his wife, Laxmi Mansingh, received the National Trust of Jamaica Award for a heritage publication. On 2 October 1992, the Jamaica Council for Interfaith Fellowship was founded, with signatories from the Jamaican Council of Churches and the Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Bahai and Rastafarian communities. He served as its secretary for over 15 years.
Professor Ajai Mansingh studied Urdu during his school years and had a keen interest in Urdu poets and poetry. The biography of his ‘bade mama’ is based on his personal experiences with him as much as family and written history on this great Urdu Poet.
[Written by Professor abhai Mansingh on 6 November 2011, prior to his untimely death on 29 November 2011]

ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2015
First published in 2015 by The Lotus Collection An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Email: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
Copyright © Ajai Mansingh, 2015 Translation of Urdu verse into English by Arup K. Chatterjee
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
eISBN: 978-93-5194-082-1
Picture insert: Courtesy Mansingh family & Films Division of India Cover design: Nikheel Aphale
All rights reserved. This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Gopi Chand Narang
Introduction
1. The Sahais of Gorakhpur
2. Firaq’s Family Life
3. Firaq’s Professional Life
4. Firaq - The Person
About the Author
Dedicated to Firaq’s Sisters Chandra and Tara Mansingh and My Granddaughter Ashima Mansingh
Acknowledgements
The author and his associates are deeply indebted to Padma Bhushan Professor Gopi Chand Narang, the foremost authority on Urdu literature, and ex-President of Sahitya Academy, who is just as modest, humble, and humane as great is his academic stature, for his inspiration and encouragement in the writing of this book. Words cannot express my sense of pride in knowing him and gratitude for writing the foreword.
This book would not have been possible without the enormous contributions by Rama Kulshreshtha, Kanak Varma, and Suraiya Ahmad in the organization and analysis of information and selection of verses quoted in the book. Readers are urged to recognize these three ladies as my co-authors.
For the wealth of information on Firaq Saheb’s life, I wish to record the major resource persons, belonging to four generations of Firaq’s close family – Dulari Devi (Firaq’s mother); Raghupati Sahai Firaq Gorakhpuri; Chandra and Tara Sahai Mansingh (Firaq’s sisters); Sripati and Yadupati Sahai (Firaq’s brothers); Bahadur and Amar Mansingh (Firaq’s brothers-in-law); Prema and Pushpa Prasad (Firaq’s daughters); Arvind Sahai (Firaq’s nephew and the only male descendent of his family); Vishwa Ranjan Prasad (Firaq’s eldest grandson); Manu and Shantanu Sahai (Firaq’s grand nephews); Rama Kulshreshtha and Kanak Varma (Firaq’s nieces); and Vijay, Udai, Ajai, Vinai, Abhai, Ashok, Hemant, and Jayant Mansingh (Firaq’s nephews).
Haseen Ahmad and Zafar Iqbal Zafar Fatehpuri were of tremendous help in the selection and explanation of various poems and verses, and in extraction of vital information from dozens of articles and books published on Firaq. Professor Shamim Hanfi, a family friend who had lived with Firaq for a while in the mid-1960s and his affectionate wife, Sahibajz, had been of tremendous assistance in facilitating the procurement of literature on Firaq, discussing the organization and content of this publication, reading and correcting several drafts. Anil Srivastava and Virendra Srivastava Hamdam, directors of Firaq Academy, and Chote Lal Yadava were extremely kind and hospitable in enabling us to visit and gather information on Firaq from the people of Banwarpar (now Firaq Nagar) and Ardlapar in District Gorakhpur.
How can I record in words the continual inspiration from Vijaya Sadana, the great support and contribution of my wife, Laxmi, in the collection and compilation of references and bibliography, the patience and tolerance of my daughter-in-law Dr. Gunjan Mansingh in responding to my regular demands for assistance in computer technology, and the valuable logistic support of Khurram Ahmad and Mohammad Saif Ahmad! The continual interest shown by my son Akshai, and grandsons Abhijai and Atishai, my brother Ashok and his wife Manjula, in completing this project, is deeply appreciated.
Foreword
What pathos did fill your heart!
Gopi Chand Narang
Firaq Gorakhpuri was one of those poets of our times who appear once in many centuries. His poetry was fully in resonance with mystery-filled music of the universe. Not many poets can have the beauty and elegance that he could weave in words. He did write nazms 1 and rubais, 2 but basically he is a ghazal 3 poet. The Indian archetypal voice was always there in Urdu poetry, but the feat of Firaq is that he resurrected it from the tradition of the ‘God of Urdu Poesy‘, Meer Taqi Meer (1723-1810) and breathed new life in the age-old Aryan spirit and the concept of love to make it the heartthrob of millions of readers.
Raghupati Sahay was born in 1896 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. He received his education in Allahabad, and was later selected for the prestigious Indian Civil Service. If he wished, he could have easily become a Deputy Collector or a Collector, but he preferred to take part in the freedom movement and joined the All India Congress Party. He worked with jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), and went to jail for some time for his political activities. After receiving the master’s in English literature from Allahabad University, he started teaching in the same university, from where he retired in 1959. Several collections of his poetry were published, from which Rooh-e kaaenaat (The soul of the universe), Ramz-o kinaayaat (Expression and allusion), Ghazalisataan (The land of ghazals), Shabnamistaan (The dew-land), Gul-e naghma (The flower of melody) and Roop (Beauty) are especially worthy of note. There is hardly an Indian award or honour that he did not receive. The Sahitya Akademi award was given to him in 1962. From the Government of India, he received the Padma Bhushan, and later also received the highest literary award of India, the Bharatiya jnanpith Award. A few months before his death, he had gone to Delhi to receive the Ghalib Award and stayed on there for medical treatment. He passed away in Delhi on 3 March 1982.
Firaq has given a sensuous transcendental echo to the love poetry of Urdu. His ghazal resounds with the Indian tradition of many centuries. While on the one hand he was inspired with English romantic poets such as Wordsworth (1770-1850), Shelley (1792-1822) and Keats (1795-1821), on the other his sense of aesthetics was also deeply rooted in the tradition of Sanskrit poetics. He used to say that the lyrics of a poet are the hands that ring the bells of the temple of universe. His basic topics are love and beauty, the mystery of the web of human relationship, and nature and aesthetics. He is a poet of the labyrinths of emotions, the sensuousness and transcendence of beauty, and the merging shades of pain and ecstasy. The softness and suppleness of his voice does not have a parallel in Urdu poetry.
O Firaq, why hasn‘t the pain ebbed yet? His memory has already faded.
You are talking, and you are also close; I wonder if I look at you or talk to you?
It’s long since I recalled you; But neither have I forgotten you.
What could I achieve in matters of love? You at least were capable of being infidel.
In love, I did pass my days somehow: Either by remembering or by trying forgetting you.
The air was like the smile of the morning spring, Still my eyes became moist when I reached the destination.
My love discovered after ages The night of parting was truly the night.
The time has passed through here many times, The pathway of love still looks kind of new.
Firaq was not a political poe