Scientific aspects in (urdu) poetry
Guru
By Hamid Ali
During my days as a student in the University of Aligarh in the forties, it
was a common belief that Urdu poetry, especially ghazal, is not only based
on flimsy imagination and unrealistic thoughts but it is also a half mad
literary exercise.
My study of the Urdu ghazal, however, indicates that some verses of Urdu
ghazal contain true scientific phenomena and thoughts. In Ghalib, and so to
say in Iqbal, a number of verses are based on scientific phenomena,
scientific formulae or scientific perceptions. On the other hand, poets like
Faiz Ahmed Faiz do not have a single couplet based on scientific perception.
In search of scientific perceptions in Urdu poetry, I deeply studies the
verses of more than hundred poets from Sauda to Ahmad Faraz. This study has
revealed that unlike other poets of Urdu, Ghalib and Iqbal have surprisingly
a substantial number of scientific verses. Both these poets belong to the
revolutionary class. In case of Ghalib, there are about ten per cent of his
Urdu verses with some scientific sense. In case of Iqbal, there is a
considerable number of such verses. Some of them carry the central theme of
his poems which are based on some scientific phenomenon or scientific
formula. They cannot be understood well unless the scientific sense they
contain is properly comprehended, and this can be done only after
understanding the scientific aspect which is involved in the verses. Thus,
it is the understanding of the scientific elements in such verses which
holds the key for the correct and comprehensive Ghalib and Iqbal shanasi
(acquaintance).
However, it is observed that the interpretation and elucidation made by
various noted literary figures of the verses of Ghalib and Iqbal which
contain scientific element is not proper. This is obvious that one cannot
become a true Ghalib and Iqbal shanas (acquaint) unless and until he
understands the scientific aspects also of their verses.
Examples of such verses with their scientific elucidation are given in the
following paragraph.
Zoaf say giryah mubaddal baadam-e-sard huawa
Bawar aya hamain pani ka hawa hojana.
This is a well-known verse of Ghalib generally quoted to express his
scientific sensibility. It simply means that due to infirmity tears change
into deep and cool sighs which makes us believe that water transforms into
steam or vapour. Evaporation is a natural physical process.
Yet, other such example from Ghalib is the following couplet:
Har qadam doori-e-manzil hai nomaayaan mujh say,
meyree raftaar say bhaagay hai bayaban mujhsay.
Ghalib, in this verse expounded, the theory of relativity. It is the common
observation that if something moves, its movement is exposed by the nearby
things which are stationary e.g. the movement of the train is noticeable by
the platform which is stationary, that of a car by the trees, buildings and
milestones on two sides which are static. Ghalib says that at every step he
can gauge the distance of the destination. Ghulam Rasul Mehr has no idea of
this scientific process, so he said that with every step forward the
destination becomes further away, whereas the actual fact is that when
Ghalib is drawing closer to the destination, the desert is getting left
behind.
The poet says that the pace of the desert behind him is determined by the
speed of the runner. If he moves fast the desert recedes at the same speed
and the destination gets closer to welcome him. Other interpreters also
could not understand the couplet properly.
Jaz nam nahein surat-i-alam mujhey manzoor.
Juz waham nahin hastiy-e-ashya mera aagey.
The form of the world here I accept but only in name. To me the existence of
all things is nothing more than conjecture. In his composition, Ghalib often
touches such scientific heights that an ordinary man of science may not even
be able to conceive. He says that the earth that is round in shape today may
at some later time become flat. Any solid thing can become reduced to dust.
This only confirms that nothing here is everlasting. Everything undergoes a
change, be it rivers, mountains, human beings, etc. Though matter is
permanent, it changes its forms. Contemplation is required with sagacity to
comprehend this situation.
No elucidator could comprehend the true sense of this couplet because of its
scientific complexity.
Ghar hamara jo na rota bhi to veeran hota
Bahr gar bahr na hota to bayaaban hota.
Dr Abdul Rehman Bijnori tried hard to understand the meaning of this
couplet. However, he could not arrive at a comprehensive conclusion. Those
verses of Ghalib which contain some scientific phenomenon or formula could
not be so far understood sufficiently by the interpreters. Even Maulana
Altaf Hussain Hali (yadgar-e-Ghalib) and Dr Yusuf Hussain Khan did not touch
such verses. But now people studying Ghalib desire that such intricate
verses of Ghalib should be thoroughly studied in all respects, understood
fully and interpreted properly. These days, when the scientific research has
advanced, enlightening the mind of even the common man, there are better
chances of encompassing the true meaning of the verses of complex
composition and intricate meaning.
The interpretation of the above couplet is as follows:
Ghalib says that whether he wept or not, his house was destined to desolate.
If the desolation would have not been in the form of desert, it would be in
the form of ocean or sea because, according to the theory of continental
drift, the earth surface must have two mantles - either the water body or
dry land. According to these theories, the land and sea interchange their
places. This theory has been expounded by the scientists recently and given
the above names. According to this idea the place where the Mount Everest
stands at present, in the geological past there was sea there . In the rocks
of Everest such fossils are discovered which are beyond doubt found in
marine rocks only. The Indo-Pak subcontinent was previously joined with
South Africa but drifting northwards to its present location.
As the scientific content of Ghalib's verses are discovered more and more by
the present and future generations, his real worth will no doubt be
discovered by them and they will truly enjoy his verses.
The above couplets are examples of the fact that the interpreters of Ghalib
could not do justice to the elucidation of his verses in which the
scientific phenomenon or formula is involved as they could not comprehend
their scientific aspect. Now, in the same way, we see the poetry of Iqbal.
As an example, we present the following three couplets of the poet.
Wahein say rat ko zulmat meli hay
Chamak tarey na paaee hai jahan say,
The night has got the darkness from the same phenomenon from where the star
received its brightness. It is not easy to comprehend the interpretation of
this couplet unless one understands clearly the scientific process involved
in it, i.e. the rotation of plant earth.
According to astronomy, all the small shining elements of solar systems are
rotating around the sun, which is in the centre of the system. The Sun gives
them light, when a part of the earth rotates facing the sun it shines, but
that part of the earth which is away and not in the front of sun is dark.
Thus night and the stars are visible to us due to the same phenomenon.
Kamal-e-wahdat ayaan hai aisa keh nok-e-nashtar say too jo cheray.
Yaqeen hai mujhko giray raq-e-gul say qatra insan ke lahoo ka.
Iqbal has mentioned in several of his couplets about the evolution of the
universe, and its modification and refinement. He emphasised that the
evolutionary source of animals and plants is the one and the same.
In this couplet Iqbal says that universe is one entity. The man and the
flower have evolved from the same source. In short if we see the
evolutionary tree and chart of the animals and plants we find their source
the same.
Mera veerana say koson door hai tera watana,
Hae magar darya-e-dil teri kash is say mojzan.
Here Iqbal tells the moon that though its abode is far away from his
desolate place, the river of his heart is oscillating due to its pull and
attraction meaning that it is very glad.
Here the scientific phenomenon involved is that of the pull of the moon on
the water of river, lake and ocean, producing waves and tides. In the second
part of the couplet the poet says that the river of his heart is producing
tides and waves due to the pull of its water because of the attraction of
moon. The phenomenon of tides and waves involved in the verse was not
understood and explained previously.
Therefore, the couplets mentioned above are the examples of verses based on
scientific phenomena. Such verses are not elucidated correctly and thus
their true meaning have not been brought out by the Ghalib and Iqbal
sanashs. It is essential to understand true meaning of such scientific
couplets of these great poets. But, unfortunately, I come across very few
people in the literary circle who understand the real significance of such
verses. It seem that it is because that the elucidators and researchers of
Ghalib and Iqbal were not properly acquainted with science and engineering.
----
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag11.htm
-Guru
UVR
> Scientific aspects in poetry
> By Hamid Ali
> ----
> http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag11.htm
Whaaa...t? What has Mr. Ali been smokin'? ;)
-UVR.
Surjit Singh
> Scientific aspects in poetry
> By Hamid Ali
>
> meyree raftaar say bhaagay hai bayaban mujhsay.
>
> Ghalib, in this verse expounded, the theory of relativity. It is the common
I believe there is a line of Gaalib in which he says something like
mai.n gaya vaqt naii.n jo vaapas aa na sakuu.n. I hypothesize that that
line expounds the profound Origins of the Time Irreversibilty which is a
central feature of the TOE (Theory of Everything) of Steve Hawkins et alia.
>
> -Guru
>
--
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
http://hindi-movies-songs.com/index.html
Vasmi Abidi
UVR wrote:
"dood-e-charaaGh-e-mahfil"?
Satish Kalra
What I am going to express is, strictly, my very personal opinion.
"Guru" <gu...@india.not.com> wrote in message
news:001401c2ec67$ad10ef30$06040a0a@Nobody...
> Scientific aspects in poetry
> By Hamid Ali
...snipped...
> My study of the Urdu ghazal, however, indicates that some verses of Urdu
> ghazal contain true scientific phenomena and thoughts. In Ghalib, and so
to
> say in Iqbal, a number of verses are based on scientific phenomena,
> scientific formulae or scientific perceptions. On the other hand, poets
like
> Faiz Ahmed Faiz do not have a single couplet based on scientific
perception.
...snipped...
> However, it is observed that the interpretation and elucidation made by
> various noted literary figures of the verses of Ghalib and Iqbal which
> contain scientific element is not proper. This is obvious that one cannot
> become a true Ghalib and Iqbal shanas (acquaint) unless and until he
> understands the scientific aspects also of their verses.
>
> Examples of such verses with their scientific elucidation are given in the
> following paragraph.
>
> Zoaf say giryah mubaddal baadam-e-sard huawa
> Bawar aya hamain pani ka hawa hojana.
>
> This is a well-known verse of Ghalib generally quoted to express his
> scientific sensibility. It simply means that due to infirmity tears change
> into deep and cool sighs which makes us believe that water transforms into
> steam or vapour. Evaporation is a natural physical process.
My interpretation of this sher is that if the tears do not materialize
(infrmity...), they then turn into sighs, deep and cool. Another one would
be to say that when the sorrows of the heart come out by way of the eyes,
they turn into (warm) tears, but when they can't flow by way of tears, they
turn into deep and cool sighs.
[As an aside, scientifically speaking, anything coming out of the eyes or
the mouth, tears or sighs, have to be, by nature, warm to touch. So why
have the poets always called them "Tha.nDii saa.nses.n", has been beyond
my comprehension.] :-)
>
> Yet, other such example from Ghalib is the following couplet:
>
> Har qadam doori-e-manzil hai nomaayaan mujh say,
> meyree raftaar say bhaagay hai bayaban mujhsay.
>
> Ghalib, in this verse expounded, the theory of relativity. It is the
common
> observation that if something moves, its movement is exposed by the nearby
> things which are stationary e.g. the movement of the train is noticeable
by
> the platform which is stationary, that of a car by the trees, buildings
and
> milestones on two sides which are static. Ghalib says that at every step
he
> can gauge the distance of the destination. Ghulam Rasul Mehr has no idea
of
> this scientific process, so he said that with every step forward the
> destination becomes further away, whereas the actual fact is that when
> Ghalib is drawing closer to the destination, the desert is getting left
> behind.
On the other hand, what he was trying to say simply was that no matter what
his own speed, the 'bayaabaan" was keeping up with him; i.e., kahiin bhii
jaauun, bayaabaan mere saath merii hii raftaar se chalataa hai...". In
other words, he was destined to be in the bayaabaan irrespective of his
efforts to get away from it.
What the scholars are interpreting is because of their scholarly wisdom.
There is no harm in trying to connect poetry to the laws of physics or
interpret it from that angle. Who knows the poets, indeed, actually meant
it that way. After all, progress in science and humanities does not come
without research and different interpretations. I wish it was as simple as
to teach Physics by that medium, poetry.
...Rest snippped....
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra
Surjit Singh
Sorry, I thought I had put the smiley somewhere. Looks like I forgot.
I was completely kidding. I do not believe in this kind of stuff at all!
> Happy Listenings.
>
> Satish Kalra
Jameel Faraz
With all due respect to you, yeh arz karna chahta hooN ke Ghalib ke
kalaam meN scientific propositions talaash karna kuchh aisa hi hai
jaisa ke baaz log Quraan ki aayat meN relativity, Vedas me quantom
physics, Tao meN uncertainty principle, aur Genesis meN irteqaa ke
saare maraahil dekh lete haiN.
deevan-e Ghalib jo adabi nuqta-e-nazar se ek azeem kitaab hai,
scientific nuqta-e-nazar se kahiN ek Ghatya si kitaab na ban jaaye.
:-))
raaqim ... Jameel Faraz
Vasmi Abidi
'relativity', 'gravity', 'multiple universes', 'black holes', jaisi
'scientific' baateN, DhooNDhne par mil hi jaati haiN. lekin kyaa aap
ko pata tha k Mirza Saahib ke kalaam meN 'technological' baateN bhi
haiN?
maslan, unka ye she'r dekhiye:
"tujh se qismat meN miri suurat-e-qufl-e-abjad
tha likha baat ke bante hi juda ho jaana"
Here, "qufl-e-abjad" means "a combination lock", or number lock.
He's saying: Just when we appeared to be getting in sync, like a
combination lock, the hands of fate separated us!
hai na maze ki baat!
Vasmi
Raj Kumar
> Scientific aspects in poetry
> By Hamid Ali
>
>
Guru ji mahaaraaj:
maiN aap ka ati abhaari hooN k aap ne janaab-e-Haamid Ali Saahib ka
yeh pur-maGhz mazmoon ham sabhi tak pahuNchaaya. huzoor, maiN to is
mazmoon ko paRh kar aur is ki baareekiyoN se mustafeed ho kar
mahaa-prasann hu'aa hooN --- albatta, haif-sad-haif k hamaare bahut se
dostoN ne is mazmoon par naak-muNh chaRhaaya hai aur, apni kam-fehmi
ka ehsaas na karte huye, is ka mazaaq bhi uRaaya hai! yahaaN par, mera
ishaara Khusoosi taur se janaab-e-UVR aur janaab-e-Vasmi se hai jinhoN
ne k, is mazmoon ki taih tak pahuNchne ki bajaaye, ise aadhe-aadhe
fiqroN hi meiN bhugtaa diyaa hai! yeh hazraat apne aap ko na jaane
kyaa samajhte haiN? magar maiN to yihi kahooN ga --- "baalishtiye"
kaheeN ke! LOL
magar ziyaada ta'assuf to mujhe Surjit Singh Saahib par ho rahaa hai
jinhoN ne pehle to, janaab-e-Hawking ka havaala de kar, aap ke is
mazmoon par vaah-vaa kii magar jab dekha k fazaa saaz-gaar naheeN hai
to fauran paaNsa palaT liyaa aur bole k "maiN to ThaTTha kar rahaa tha
--- bas, Ghalati yeh hu'ii k aek nannhi-munni 'smiley' Daalna bhool
gayaa"!
are miyaaN, tum "professional physicist" ho --- kuchh to
diyaanat-daari se kaam lo aur kam-az-kam, apni naheeN to, apne
buzurgoN ki izzat ka to paas karo! LOL, bal-k ROTFL
> My study of the Urdu ghazal, however, indicates that some verses of Urdu
> ghazal contain true scientific phenomena and thoughts. In Ghalib, and so to
> say in Iqbal, a number of verses are based on scientific phenomena,
> scientific formulae or scientific perceptions. On the other hand, poets like
> Faiz Ahmed Faiz do not have a single couplet based on scientific perception.
>
Wrong, wrong, wrong! kaun maa'ii ka la'al keh sakta hai k Faiz ke haaN
"scientific perception" ka aek bhi she'r naheeN hai? maiN chaahooN to
aap ko Faiz ke kalaam meiN se laa-ta'adaad she'r aise dikhaa dooN k
jin meiN "scientific perception" gaNgaa-jal ki tarah nirmal dikhaa'ii
deti hai!
chooN-k vaqt ki qillat hai, is liye aap ki Khidmat meiN fil-haal Faiz
ka sirf aek she'r haazir hai:
jo chal sako to chalo k raah-e-vafaa bahut muKhtasar hu'ii hai
maqaam hai ab ko'i na manzil, faraaz-e-daar-o-rasan se pehle!!!
huzoor, aap is she'r ke pehle misre ko dekhiye --- shaa'ir ka kehna
hai k agar musaafir tez-gaami se chalta rahe to us ke liye raasta
muqaabiltan chhoTa ho jaata hai! Guru ji mahaaraaj, yeh aek misra hi
laakhoN pe bhaari hai, kyooN-k is aek misre meiN Faiz ne voh baat keh
di hai jo k Holland ke mash_hoor-e-zamaaN physicist janaab-e-Lorentz
ne, mahaa-sir-khapaa'ii ke ba'ad, 1904 meiN kahi thi! ham log ise
'Lorentz contraction' kehte haiN --- aur agar Khaaksaar ka bas chale
to, kal hi se, ise 'Faiz contraction' kehne lage! :-))
> In search of scientific perceptions in Urdu poetry, I deeply studies the
> verses of more than hundred poets from Sauda to Ahmad Faraz. This study has
> revealed that unlike other poets of Urdu, Ghalib and Iqbal have surprisingly
> a substantial number of scientific verses. Both these poets belong to the
> revolutionary class.
I am astounded to note that Haamid Saahib did not care to go back to
Khudaa-e-suKhan Meer! huzoor, Meer ke haaN to 'scientific perception'
ke itne nageene maujood haiN k kisi ko --- "ginte na bane"! Once
again, vaqt ki qillat ke maare, Meer ke haaN se sirf aek nageena
haazir hai:
jo tuu Meer raatoN ko rotaa rahe ga
to hamsaaya kaahe ko sota rahe ga???
ab aam log kaheN ge k yahaaN Meer saahib apni aah-o-zaarii ka ronaa ro
rahe haiN! [yes, UVR Saahib, pun intended!]
vaastav meiN, aisa naheeN hai --- haqeeqat to yeh hai k Meer yahaaN
yeh keh rahe haiN k "mera hamsaaya bhi kaisa kam-nazar hai k jab us ne
apna makaan banvaaya ya Khareeda to us ne yeh naheeN socha k us ke
paRos meiN aek aisa dil-soKhta aashiq rihaa'ish-pazeer hai jo k
din-raat rota rehta hai. agar us ne aisa socha hota to kam-az-kam apne
ghar ki 'insulation' ko to 'check' karta --- ya phir kisi kaari-gar se
'check' karvaata! magar, haif-sad-haif, k us moorakh ki is kotaahi ka
ab yeh nateeja hai k use raat bhar neeNd naheeN aati"!
huzoor, is she'r se saaf vaazeh hai k hamaare Meer Saahib sirf aek
bulaNd-paaya shaa'ir hi naheeN the balke aek qaabil-e-qadr "acoustical
engineer" bhi the!
:-)
----------
Raj Kumar
Surjit Singh
> magar ziyaada ta'assuf to mujhe Surjit Singh Saahib par ho rahaa hai
> jinhoN ne pehle to, janaab-e-Hawking ka havaala de kar, aap ke is
> mazmoon par vaah-vaa kii magar jab dekha k fazaa saaz-gaar naheeN hai
> to fauran paaNsa palaT liyaa aur bole k "maiN to ThaTTha kar rahaa tha
> --- bas, Ghalati yeh hu'ii k aek nannhi-munni 'smiley' Daalna bhool
> gayaa"!
>
> are miyaaN, tum "professional physicist" ho --- kuchh to
> diyaanat-daari se kaam lo aur kam-az-kam, apni naheeN to, apne
> buzurgoN ki izzat ka to paas karo! LOL, bal-k ROTFL
Pathria saahib, ab to na Kudaa hii milaa na visaal-e-sanam, kahaa.N kii
profesaari aur kahaa.n kii fiziks!
>
> Raj Kumar
Zafar
article. Some comments:
This is definitely not the first time anybody has tried to eke out
some scientific connotations of Ghalib's poetry. For instance, in a
landmark article, "mahaasin e kalaam e Ghalib", Dr. Abdur Rehman
Bijnori (the article begins with one of the most famous quotes about
Ghalib, "Hindustan kee ilhaamee kitaabeN do haiN: muqaddas Ved aur
Deevaan e Ghalib") asserts that the she'er
aaraa'ish e jamaal se faariGh naheeN hanooz
paish e nazar hai aa'eena daa'im naqaab meN
actually describes the theory of Darwinian evolution (incidently,
Darwin and Ghalib were contemporaries!). He gives similar explanations
of many other ash'aar as well. But then, there are several other
people also who have sought to approach Ghalib from the same angle,
one of those, of course, is our own author of the article in question,
Dr. Syed Hamid Ali Khan. This article actually is taken from his book
of 152 pages on the subject, "Ghalib kaa saa'insee sha'oor".
I don't have anything against any of the explanations offered here; in
my opinion, while reading a poem, every reader "writes" his/her own
poem. But the thing I can't come to terms with in the article is that
the author seeks to persuade the reader into believing that the
ash'aar that have a *scientific* background are better than those that
don't have such a feather in their caps. Or at least, the *scientific*
explanations are somehow "better" than the *unscientific* ones.
Now, at a considerable risk of repeating myself over and over again
:), I must reiterate here that it's an established principle in both
the Western and Eastern poetics that the plurality of meaning in a
text is one of the foremost trademarks of greatness. Therefore, IMHO,
insisting on any *single* interpretation and throwing others out of
the window is actually as good as actually *damaging* the text one is
trying so hard to eulogize!
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the mere fact that a she'er
contains some scientific principle does not automatically place the
she'er at the pedestal of grandeur. A she'er or nazm might expound the
"color" of the Superstings or the number of codons in the Human Genome
and yet be boringly mediocre (in fact, a year or so ago, this
Khaak-saar had written a poem trying to explore some relationship
between the "love unrequited" and the Second Law of Thermodynamics ...
and managed to get a hasty thumbs-down by most critics. LOLOL).
Conversely, a she'er on as *mundane* an affair as the chirping of a
sparrow or the rustling of a leaf -- not to mention a fleeting glance
of "another human being" at the corner of the street :) -- can be
everlastingly extraordinary.
Thirdly, poetry and science are, almost by definition, mutually
incompatible disciplines and attempting to understand one by using the
tools of the other is walking on marshy grounds. Science, for
instance, ventures to discover how the world *is* like, whereas poetry
yearns to describe how it *should be* like!
And lastly, the most *scientific* Ghalib she'er -- as far as I'm
concerned -- is in his Persian deevaan. This she'er points out that
how, when seen from a distance, the sun appears like a star. But even
this she'er is an echo of Nasikh's dazzling Urdu she'er:
martaba kam hirs e rif'at se hamaaraa ho gayaa
aaftaab oonchaa huvaa aisaa k taaraa ho gayaa
Look how Zauq has picked up the mazmoon:
naam yooN pastee meN baalaa-tar hamaaraa ho gayaa
jis tarah paanee kun'veN kee teh meN taaraa ho gayaa
Simply amazing!
Thanks Guru ji for posting a very interesting and thought-provoking
article. Some comments:
This is definitely not the first time anybody has tried to eke out
some scientific connotations of Ghalib's poetry. For instance, in a
landmark article, "mahaasin e kalaam e Ghalib", Dr. Abdur Rehman
Bijnori (the article begins with one of the most famous quotes about
Ghalib, "Hindustan kee ilhaamee kitaabeN do haiN: muqaddas Ved aur
Deevaan e Ghalib") asserts that the she'er
aaraa'ish e jamaal se faariGh naheeN hanooz
paish e nazar hai aa'eena daa'im naqaab meN
actually describes the theory of Darwinian evolution (incidently,
Darwin and Ghalib were contemporaries!). He gives similar explanations
of many other ash'aar as well. But then, there are several other
people also who have sought to approach Ghalib from the same angle,
one of those, of course, is our own author of the article in question,
Dr. Syed Hamid Ali Khan. This article actually is taken from his book
of 152 pages on the subject, "Ghalib kaa saa'insee sha'oor".
I don't have anything against any of the explanations offered here; in
my opinion, while reading a poem, every reader "writes" his/her own
poem. But the thing I can't come to terms with in the article is that
the author seeks to persuade the reader into believing that the
ash'aar that have a *scientific* background are better than those that
don't have such a feather in their caps. Or at least, the *scientific*
explanations are somehow "better" than the *unscientific* ones.
Now, at a considerable risk of repeating myself over and over again
:), I must reiterate here that it's an established principle in both
the Western and Eastern poetics that the plurality of meaning in a
text is one of the foremost trademarks of greatness. Therefore, IMHO,
insisting on any *single* interpretation and throwing others out of
the window is actually as good as actually *damaging* the text one is
trying so hard to eulogize!
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the mere fact that a she'er
contains some scientific principle does not automatically place the
she'er at the pedestal of grandeur. A she'er or nazm might expound the
"color" of the Superstings or the number of codons in the Human Genome
and yet be boringly mediocre (in fact, a year or so ago, this
Khaak-saar had written a poem trying to explore some relationship
between the "love unrequited" and the Second Law of Thermodynamics ...
and managed to get a hasty thumbs-down by most critics. LOLOL).
Conversely, a she'er on as *mundane* an affair as the chirping of a
sparrow or the rustling of a leaf -- not to mention a fleeting glance
of "another human being" at the corner of the street :) -- can be
everlastingly extraordinary.
Thirdly, poetry and science are, almost by definition, mutually
incompatible disciplines and attempting to understand one by using the
tools of the other is walking on marshy grounds. Science, for
instance, ventures to discover how the world *is* like, whereas poetry
yearns to describe how it *should be* like!
And lastly, the most *scientific* Ghalib she'er -- as far as I'm
concerned -- is in his Persian deevaan. This she'er points out that
how, when seen from a distance, the sun appears like a star. But even
this she'er is an echo of Nasikh's dazzling Urdu she'er:
martaba kam hirs e rif'at se hamaaraa ho gayaa
aaftaab oonchaa huvaa aisaa k taaraa ho gayaa
Look how Zauq has picked up the mazmoon:
naam yooN pastee meN baalaa-tar hamaaraa ho gayaa
jis tarah paanee kun'veN kee teh meN taaraa ho gayaa
Simply amazing!
Thanks Guru ji for posting a very interesting and thought-provoking
article. Some comments:
This is definitely not the first time anybody has tried to eke out
some scientific connotations of Ghalib's poetry. For instance, in a
landmark article, "mahaasin e kalaam e Ghalib", Dr. Abdur Rehman
Bijnori (the article begins with one of the most famous quotes about
Ghalib, "Hindustan kee ilhaamee kitaabeN do haiN: muqaddas Ved aur
Deevaan e Ghalib") asserts that the she'er
aaraa'ish e jamaal se faariGh naheeN hanooz
paish e nazar hai aa'eena daa'im naqaab meN
actually describes the theory of Darwinian evolution (incidently,
Darwin and Ghalib were contemporaries!). He gives similar explanations
of many other ash'aar as well. But then, there are several other
people also who have sought to approach Ghalib from the same angle,
one of those, of course, is our own author of the article in question,
Dr. Syed Hamid Ali Khan. This article actually is taken from his book
of 152 pages on the subject, "Ghalib kaa saa'insee sha'oor".
I don't have anything against any of the explanations offered here; in
my opinion, while reading a poem, every reader "writes" his/her own
poem. But the thing I can't come to terms with in the article is that
the author seeks to persuade the reader into believing that the
ash'aar that have a *scientific* background are better than those that
don't have such a feather in their caps. Or at least, the *scientific*
explanations are somehow "better" than the *unscientific* ones.
Now, at a considerable risk of repeating myself over and over again
:), I must reiterate here that it's an established principle in both
the Western and Eastern poetics that the plurality of meaning in a
text is one of the foremost trademarks of greatness. Therefore, IMHO,
insisting on any *single* interpretation and throwing others out of
the window is actually as good as actually *damaging* the text one is
trying so hard to eulogize!
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the mere fact that a she'er
contains some scientific principle does not automatically place the
she'er at the pedestal of grandeur. A she'er or nazm might expound the
"color" of the Superstings or the number of codons in the Human Genome
and yet be boringly mediocre (in fact, a year or so ago, this
Khaak-saar had written a poem trying to explore some relationship
between the "love unrequited" and the Second Law of Thermodynamics ...
and managed to get a hasty thumbs-down by most critics. LOLOL).
Conversely, a she'er on as *mundane* an affair as the chirping of a
sparrow or the rustling of a leaf -- not to mention a fleeting glance
of "another human being" at the corner of the street :) -- can be
everlastingly extraordinary.
Thirdly, poetry and science are, almost by definition, mutually
incompatible disciplines and attempting to understand one by using the
tools of the other is walking on marshy grounds. Science, for
instance, ventures to discover how the world *is* like, whereas poetry
yearns to describe how it *should be* like!
And lastly, the most *scientific* Ghalib she'er -- as far as I'm
concerned -- is in his Persian deevaan. This she'er points out that
how, when seen from a distance, the sun appears like a star. But even
this she'er is an echo of Nasikh's dazzling Urdu she'er:
martaba kam hirs e rif'at se hamaaraa ho gayaa
aaftaab oonchaa huvaa aisaa k taaraa ho gayaa
Look how Zauq has picked up the mazmoon:
naam yooN pastee meN baalaa-tar hamaaraa ho gayaa
jis tarah paanee kun'veN kee teh meN taaraa ho gayaa
Simply amazing!
--Zaf