Urdu Poetry: A Beginner's Guide
Jamil Ahmad
I like to share with other ALUPERS my layman's ideas on Urdu poetry.
When it comes to technicalities of Urdu poetry, I admit I know very
little. Yet I can enjoy it immensely; just as one can enjoy listening
to beautiful music without knowing anything about raags or surs, or
read a novel and understand it without knowing what a subjunctives is,
how to recognise a predicate clause or what is meant by morphology. I
hope others too would give their views about what fascinates them
about Urdu poetry.
Let's begin with the question: Why read Urdu poetry? The simple
answer is: For its beauty. In my opinion, there is very little else
that can match the beauty of Urdu poetry. The world has so much
ugliness, that we should be thankful there is Urdu poetry with which
we can counter some of this ugliness that we see around us. But we
will talk about the beauty of Urdu poetry, the novelty of thought, the
delicacy of expression, and the fascinating turn of the phrase that
Urdu poets use, later on. Right now I just want to deal with some
technicalities in a simplistic way. Of course the prosody (the
science of poetic forms) of Urdu has been treated comprehensively in
excellent scholarly articles already posted on ALUP by Amit Trivedi
Sahib, Irfan Abid Sahib and more recently by Sarwar Aalam Sahib. What
I am setting below is my own modest understanding of rhythm of verse.
Consider the sentence:
abhi saaghar o meena mere aage rehne do
Try to sing or hum this line. You can't. There is no rhythm to it.
Read this line aloud; there is no flow in it. While reciting this
line, you cannot avoid the minute pause between the words "meena" and
"mere" and again between "aage" and "rehne". Now just change the
word order ever so slightly to make the sentence:
rehne do abhi saaghar o meena mere aage
The line has a flow now, and we can read it without any break. We can
sing it or hum it. There is a regular rise and fall of the pitch of
the sound when we recite this line. The slight rearrangement of the
words has changed a sentence of prose to verse.
Urdu sentences are made of short and long syllables. Without conscious
effort, we pronounce some syllables as short and others as long. If
we write the sentence broken up in syllables and show the long
syllables in CAPITAL letters, and short ones in lower case letters, we
can rewrite the prose sentence as:
a-BHI SAA-ghar o mee-NA me-re AA-ge REH-ne do
The long syllables come at irregular intervals - syllable 2,3,7, 10
and 12 are long, the rest are short. Of course depending on which
meaning the sentence tries to convey, the length of the syllable will
change. If one wanted to convey the meaning "let these things remain
in front of ME rather than in front of HIM", we would elongate the
first syllable of ME-re". If we meant to say, "let these things remain
in FRONT of me, rather than BEHIND me", we would elongate GE of AA-GE
as well. But no matter what syllables we elongate, we don't have
rhythm
Now we can write the rearranged line (which is a verse) with a slight
alteration of the length of the syllables as:
REH-NE do a-BHI SAA-gha- RO-mee-NA me-re AA-ge
The long syllables come at positions number 1,2, then 5,6 and again at
8,9 and 12, 13. The pattern is regular: two successive long syllables
followed by two short ones, then again 2 long ones, followed by one
short one. This pattern (2 long 2 short, 2 long 1 short) is repeated
in the second half of the line, and indeed throughout the ghazal.
Admittedly the syllables which are elongated are somewhat different in
the verse version from what they were in prose. But which ones are to
be elongated and which ones are kept short, comes quite naturally
(after just a bit of practice). There is really no hard and fast
rule for this. The point is that it IS possible to adjust the length
of the syllables while reciting, to get the flow, rhythm and singing.
For the line in prose, no matter how you try to adjust the length, you
will not succeed as long as the word order is what it is.
It is important to remember that the same syllable can be short in one
verse and long in another, or indeed in the same verse. In the she'r
by Daagh Dehlavi:
vuh dushmani se dekhte haiN dekhte to haiN
maiN shaad huuN keh huuN to kisi ki nigaah meN
In the first line the two dekhte are pronounced as DEKH-te (long
syllable followed by short) and DEKH-TE (both long syllables)
respectively. In the second line, the first huuN is short, while the
second one is long.
It might be of interest to see how Urdu poetry differs in rhythm from
English poetry. In English it is the pattern of STRESS on the
syllables that gives rhythm to verse, just as it is the LENGTH in
Urdu. If we read the following familiar nursery rhyme, we achieve a
rhythm only if we put stresses as shown.
JACK and JILL went UP the HILL
to FETCH a PAIL of WAter
What gives this line its rhythm is the regular pattern of stresses: on
syllables 1,3,5,7 in the first line and 2, 4, 6 in the second line.
If we were reading these lines for the very first time, we would still
be able to put appropriate stresses and achieve a rhythmic reading on
the second or third try. It is even easier in Urdu poetry, since the
pattern of rhythm (or meter) throughout a (traditional) poem is the
same in line after line, unlike in English where it can change from
line to line.
Later on I will deal some of the other characteristics of Urdu poetry,
that I mentioned above.
Jamil
Sarwar Alam Raz
> A Beginner's Guide to Urdu Poetry
>
> I like to share with other ALUPERS my layman's ideas on Urdu poetry.
> When it comes to technicalities of Urdu poetry, I admit I know very
> little. Yet I can enjoy it immensely; just as one can enjoy listening
> to beautiful music without knowing anything about raags or surs, or
> read a novel and understand it without knowing what a subjunctives is,
> how to recognise a predicate clause or what is meant by morphology. I
> hope others too would give their views about what fascinates them
> about Urdu poetry.
Jamil saaheb aadaab!
Thanks for a very interesting article. It just shows how people may
understand something from different perspectives and points of
vantage. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to your other articles.
Sarwar Raz :Sarwar:
abida123
Part 1 of your beginner's guide to Urdu Poetry was awesome. Very well
written and really easy to follow and understand. I am sure for someone
like you with such a vast knowledge of the language, coming down to a
beginner's level and writing this must have been pretty difficult.
Its so true there is very little else in the world today that can match
the beauty of Urdu Poetry. No wonder so many non-urdu speaking people in
this world are eager to learn Urdu and understand Urdu Poetry.
Will definitely stay tuned for your future articles.
Thanks in advance for your time and devotion.
Cheers!
Abida
Sana Ali
Nihayat umdah post thi aap ki :-)
Please keep up the good work.
khair andaish
Sana
Raj Kumar
> A Beginner's Guide to Urdu Poetry
>
> I like to share with other ALUPERS my layman's ideas on Urdu poetry.
> When it comes to technicalities of Urdu poetry, I admit I know very
> little. Yet I can enjoy it immensely; just as one can enjoy listening
> to beautiful music without knowing anything about raags or surs, or
> read a novel and understand it without knowing what a subjunctive is,
> how to recognise a predicate clause or what is meant by morphology. I
> hope others too would give their views about what fascinates them
> about Urdu poetry.
Jamil Saahib:
yaqeen jaaniye, ALUP par aap ki jalva-saamaanii, aur phir aisi
be-paayaaN suKhan-taraazii, aap ko to kyaa --- ham sabhi ko mubaarak
ho!
aap ne achchha kiyaa jo seedhe-saadhe alfaaz meiN Urdu shaa'iri ke
nau-mashq tulabaa ko (aur taalibaat ko) dars-e-avvaleeN se navaaza.
aap ki karam-farmaaii se pehle, hamaare aur adab-dost bhi is kaam meiN
baRh-chaRh kar hissa le chuke haiN. maiN ummeed karta hooN k aap sabhi
as_haab ki kaavishoN se hamaare nau-Khez shaa'iroN ko (aur shaa'iraat
ko) zaroor faa'ida pahuNche ga.
maiN aap ke is aalimaana mazmoon par kuchh ziyaada to naheeN keh
sakta, bas aek-aadh 'comment' kar sakta hooN --- aur voh bhi sirf yeh
jataane ke liye k maiN ne aap ka mazmoon sar-taa-paa paRhaa hai!
:-))
>
> Let's begin with the question: Why read Urdu poetry? The simple
> answer is: For its beauty. In my opinion, there is very little else
> that can match the beauty of Urdu poetry. The world has so much
> ugliness, that we should be thankful there is Urdu poetry with which
> we can counter some of this ugliness that we see around us. But we
> will talk about the beauty of Urdu poetry, the novelty of thought, the
> delicacy of expression, and the fascinating turn of the phrase that
> Urdu poets use, later on. Right now I just want to deal with some
> technicalities in a simplistic way. Of course the prosody (the
> science of poetic forms) of Urdu has been treated comprehensively in
> excellent scholarly articles already posted on ALUP by Amit Trivedi
> Sahib, Irfan Abid Sahib and more recently by Sarwar Aalam Sahib. What
> I am setting below is my own modest understanding of rhythm of verse.
yeh 'rhythm' ka mu'aamila to kuchh zaroorat se ziyaada hi gambheer
hai, Jamil Saahib. aap ne achchha kiyaa k aek jaane-pehchaane misre ko
pehle nasr meiN raqam kiyaa aur phir, us meiN rhythm paidaa karne ke
liye, use nazm meiN Dhaalaa! I sincerely feel that this was a very
smart way to initiate the un-initiated!
---------------
>
> It is important to remember that the same syllable can be short in one
> verse and long in another, or indeed in the same verse. In the she'r
> by Daagh Dehlavi:
>
> vuh dushmani se dekhte haiN dekhte to haiN
> maiN shaad huuN keh huuN to kisi ki nigaah meN
>
> In the first line the two dekhte are pronounced as DEKH-te (long
> syllable followed by short) and DEKH-TE (both long syllables)
> respectively. In the second line, the first huuN is short, while the
> second one is long.
aap ne yahaaN par jo 'short' aur 'long' syllables ki baat ki hai, maiN
us par do-aek baateN kehna chaahooN ga --- ba-shart-e-k aap ke
'masnad-e-aalii' se apni jaan-e-muzmahal ki amaaN paaooN! :-))
I sincerely hope, I do! LOL
pehli baat to yeh k aap ka matlab yahaaN par 'short vowel' aur 'long
vowel' se hai --- kiyooN-k 'consonents' ki aavaazoN meiN to koi
'short' ya 'long' naheeN hota. maiN ne yeh baat faqat 'clarification'
ki roo se kahi hai, 'criticism' ki roo se naheeN!
doosri baat yeh k aap ka yeh kehna k, maNdarja-baalaa she'r ke pehle
misre meiN, jo do baar lafz "dekhte" aayaa hai, un meiN se pehle vaale
ka vowel 'short' hai aur doosre vaale ka 'long'.....bilkul saheeh hai.
albatta, maiN, isi baat ki, aek aur misaal dena chaahooN ga aur voh
hai Maulaanaa Hasrat Mohaani ka mash_hoor-e-aalam misra:
chupke chupke raat din aaNsoo bahaanaa yaad hai
aihl-e-nazar Ghaur farmaayeN k yahaaN par lafz "chupke" --- jo k do
baar saath saath aayaa hai --- un meiN se pehle vaale ka vowel to
'short' hai magar doosre vaale ka 'long'!
I thought this was a rather cute example to corroborate your point ---
in fact, too cute for me to gloss by!
teesri baat yeh k aap ka yeh kehna k, is she'r ke doosre misre meiN,
pehle "hooN" ka vowel 'short' hai aur doosre ka 'long' --- saheeh
naheeN hai. agar aap Ghaur se dekheN to yahaaN par dono "hooN" long
vowel liye huye haiN!
In any case, I (along with everyone else) thank you very much for
posting so beautiful an article on the "fundamentals of Urdu Poetry"
--- and I earnestly hope that this is NOT the end of your take on this
pertinent subject!
Khair-aNdesh, Raj Kumar
Yogesh Sethi
vintage Bordeaux course (of poetry writing) from our erudite Sarwar
sahib, you show up with the most delicious sauterne course of it to
sweeten our poetic palate. What can I say but to quote the following:
na may me.n kuchh kamii rahe, qadaa se hamadamii rahe
nishast ye jamii rahe, yahii hamaa hamii rahe
...
har ik lab pe ho sadaa na haath rok saaqiiyaa
pilaae jaa pilaae jaa, pilaae jaa pilaae jaa
abhii ...
Looking forward to the next round ...
Regards,
Yogesh
deh...@yahoo.com (Jamil Ahmad) wrote in message news:<bd55b457.02060...@posting.google.com>...