پر چهر همگي ذرق هے کچهه مت ) عاشقی شرق هے کچهه مت پوچھو ه ھے ایک خسرو و فر هاد هي پرے وھم سے یہ تازه خیال (۴) عشق کی چال کرے ہے یا مال It must be borne in mind that the Urdú poetry was born and bred in the laps of the Persian poetry. It was therefore natural that it derived its inspiration from the latter. At the birth of the Urdu poetry the Persian poetry had undergone a complete change in its dictions and thought. The Persian poets had, in order to produce new effects and to give new colours to their verses, taken to use subtle, grave, high and remote metaphors and similes. In their eagerness to court applause they were ready to sacrifice originality and to give the obscure preference over reality, which meant the stretching out of the shadowy in order to weave a new idea with the warp and woof of unsubstantial things. Hence no foreigners can thoroughly appreciate their verses through mere translation. Many a gap between various words in a verse have to be filled up before it can be intelligible. The Urdú poets of the time tried to walk in their footsteps and fell in the same trap. Mir, Durd, Sauda, and, almost all the famous poets of the age did not fare better. Rásikh could not have been then an exception. Living at the time of these poets it was natural for him to be impressed with the prevalent ideas of the time. We find hence perceptible marks of this in his 'ghazal'. The following will bear me out : (ه) نه بها وینگے ھمارے بعد اُسے دلہاے بے نسبت اک عمر رو نیگا مزا دل کی اسیری ھمیں (1) Love is an attraction-Do not question about it (i.c., it is unexplainable). Love is an allurement-Do not enquire of it (i.c., it is undefinable). (2) Love is a delight of the Soul. Love is an ecstatic elation. (3) In love the contrariety of nature is similarity. The ranks of Khusro and Furhad is the same. (4) The method of love is crushing, This fresh vision is beyond the comprehension of imagination. (5) After me no unsympathetic hearts will please it. The pleasure of incarceration of heart will weep for me long. (1) جواني هنس کے کا تي اب پاک پر اشک چمکے ھے جو رات آخر هوئي نكلا ستاره صبح پیری کا (۲) گرانا چاھتا ھے عجب دانش مجھکو رتبه سے جنوں آ بھی یہی تو وقت ھے اب دستگیری کا Rasikh was a copious writer. In every branch of Urdú poetry he has left us enough to judge of him as a poet. There are many Quasidas (4), Ruba'is, (5), Quta's (6) and Musnavies (7) besides ghazals' (8) which he has left as his legacy to the Urdú-speaking public. But the volumes of his But the volumes of his ghazals' and 'Musnavies' eclipse the others, and of these two the latter is more voluminous than the former. In the printed edition of his work there are to be found 14 Musnavies.' They are as follows : 6 (i) (Beauty and Love.) (ii) (Coquetry and Supplication.) (iii) (Means of Salvation.) حسن و عشق (v) (Attraction of Love.) (iv) (Magic of Love.) (vi) (Absorption of Love.) (vii) (Miracle of Love.) (viii) (Light of Eye-sight.) (ix) (Treasury of Beauty.) (xi) (Love Letters.) (xii) (Details of Circumstances.) (xiii) (Ruin of a City.) (xiv) (Eulogium.) Some of them had been written to orders and some by the necesssity of the occasion, but none of them seem to be laboured. In them he had not to play the part of a didactic poet, but that of a tentative one and so he gathers as he goes, (1) I passed my youth merrily, now tear shines on eyelashes. When night closed, there appeared the morning star of old age. (3) Eulogiums or long odes, (4) Quatrains. (5) Stanzas. (6) A poem in which couplets rhyme regularly. (7) An ode or ematory poem, each step he makes. diction, so as to give and enlarges the scope of his vision at He does not go back upon and recast his his composition those lineaments of truth and nature on which its effect as a whole depends. For in such a work, that which, above all things, the reader ought to see is the progression of effect, which the study of subject, exhibited in the actual tissue of the poem, has had upon the mind of the poet. In language and finish they are superb, and fully establish his mastery over the matrical language. The "Beauty and Love" was written to be presented to Vazirul-Momalik Raf'at-ud-Daula Rafial-Múlk Ghazi-ud-din Hayder Khan Bahadur Shahamat Jung of Lucknow. The "Attraction of Love" was written to be presented to Vazirul-Momalik Asif-ud-Daula Bahadur of Lucknow. The "Details of Circumstances" was presented to Maharajah Jagurnath Bahadur at Calcutta wherein the poet details his own straitened circumstances and appeals to the sympathy and generosity of the Maharajah. The "Treasury of Beauty" was written at the instance of the poet's patron Mir Mehdi 'Ali Khan, who was Nail of Mir Quasim Khan in Patna and who figured so prominently in the battle of Patna against the English. In this poem Rásikh gives an eulogistic description of a songstress and dancing-girl named "Shurfu" who appears, from the tone of the poem, to have been under the protection of Mehdi 'Ali Khan and with whom the poet himself was in love. He says: (1) دل اپنا اس صنم کا ہے فقط رام که شر فو جسکا ھے نام خدا نام (۲) آسي گل کي هوا هے دل میں اپنے ا تش آب و گل میں اپنے يهي (1) My heart is enchanted only of that idol. Whose name, God save her, is Shurfo, (8) Love of none but that flower exists in my heart, This very fire is burning within my body. In the "Mirror of Beauty" he gives in a very charmingly interesting manner description of a party given at the house of one Amin-ud-din Ahmad in Calcutta, whereat the poet was present. The reader gets a glimpse into the state of Society that prevailed in Calcutta in those days. The dancing-girl and songstress who danced and sang there has been drawn with a deft hand and her attraction has been depicted in a skilful manner, and invested with a considerable charm. In "The Ruin of a City" he laments over the ruin and decay-economic, social and moral- which had overtaken Patna in the poet's time. He gives a very pathetic account of all classes of people and professions. The "Light of the Eyesight" was written in imitation of Jami's (Subhat-ul-Asrar) and Khusro's Matl-a ul Anwar (b). This is rather the first and the last of its kind written in the Urdú language, and it is no exaggeration to say that Rásikh has acquitted himself in it very creditably. He has divided the poem into various Munzers (landscapes )- each with a small opening for looking through at the stories he gives under each Munzer, The "Coquetry and Supplication" is the best of Rásikh's Musnavies-rather the best in the Urdú Language. In language, in diction, in style, in rhyme, and in pathos and emotion it is peerless in the whole range of the Urdú literature. In several of his Musnavies he incidentally describes some of the Indian cities, such as Benares, Faizabad, Lucknow, Patna and Calcutta, and the descriptions given are worth reading. He wrote many Quasidas mostly in praise of the Umarás of his time which are of very high water-mark and which place their author in the front rank of the Urdú poets. From them one can easily know which of the Umarás of those days commanded political and social influence in the province or in the neighbouring Subás and ruled over the hearts of the afflicted and the poor. There is a Quasida in praise of Nawab Shums-ud-Daula Mr. Henry Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, too. In this Quasida even after making allowance for poetic exaggeration, there is much to indicate that the English Nawab was held in high estimation by the people. Besides Quasidas there are to be found in the Collection of Rásikh's works "Vasokhts Mursiahs," "Mosudduses," "Turjibunds," "Quit'as," "Ruba'is", etc., etc., but these, though prove versatility of the poet's pen, are too numerous to be dealt with separately and with any length. |