Amrita Pritam wrote in her autobiography - Raseedi Ticket :-
"I recall - many years ago when Sahir had come to Delhi, he invited me and Imroz to the hotel where he was staying. We were there for a couple of hours. Sahir had placed an order for whisky and there were three glasses on the table. We returned deep into the night.And when it was almost midnight - Sahir called me up saying : " There are still three glasses lying on the table, and by turn I am sipping from each of them, and writing '' These Empty Goblets Are My Companions." ( Mere Saathi Khaali Jaam )
Dooj ka Chand(1964): Roshan
Mehfil se uth jane walon tum logon par kya ilzaam
Tum abaad gharon ke baasi main awaara aur badnaam
Mere Saathi, mere saathi, mere saathi khaali jaam
Do din tumne pyar jataya, do din tumse mel raha
Aachha khasa waqt kata aur achha khasa khel raha
Ab us khel ka jikr hi kaisa, waqt kata aur khel tamaam
Mere saathi...
Tumne dhoondhi sukh ki daulat, maine pala gham ka rog
Kaise banta kaise nibhta ye rishta aur ye sanjog
Maine dil ko dil se tola tumne maange pyar ke daam
Mere Saathi ...
Tum duniya ko behtar samjhe main pagal tha khwaar hua
Tumko apnane nikla tha khud se bhi bezaar hua
Dekh liya ghar phoonk tamasha jaan liya apna anjaam
Mere saathi...
Bezaar: angry, disgusted, out of humor
Khar: angry, thistle/thorn,
Mehfil se uth jane walon... the sense of being suddenly abandoned, it is a very dramatic and visual beginning. The word "abaad" is suggestive of being peopled, flourishing, whereas the opposite of that would be "barbaad" which is not actually used in the song to describe the poet's situation. Instead the opposting term is "awaara" "badnaam" suggesting his disassociation from any social moorings...
The only companions he has are -and it is in the repetition and brilliant rendition of Rafi's "mere saathi, mere saathi, mere saathi...khali jaam", that the song really packs the emotional punch...and it is this word "Khaali" that finally opposes the earlier analogies of mehfil and abaad.
That emptiness seeps into the following stanzas. He rejects any sense of fulfilment in their relationship, it has been a futile time offering nothing, "waqt Kata aur khel tamam".
The opposing images that he chooses for the lover and the girl who left him are unique in that they do not form what I can only call parallel oppositions. In the same way as "abaad" is not pitted against "barbaad" in the second stanza, in response to"tumne dhoondhi sukh ki daulat" the poet is not saying he has chosen "pyar ki daulat" but uses the much more galling "maine pala gham ka rog" ... It is definitely not a positive emotion that he pits against his beloved's materialism... There is nothing heroic or defiant but something very dreary about this image, it is a sickness that he has nurtured...Only in the last line does he allow himself an accusation: "Maine dil ko dil se tola/tumne maange pyar ke daam" but in the next stanza the tone lapses back into despair.
A situation where the beloved has chosen someone else over the lover/poet and is obviously in a better position is often accusatory in tone but in this song the dominant emotion is that of exhausion. He agrees that she understood the world better, she is a survivor, he is the crazy one who ended up getting angry and disillusioned. The second line is an ironic look at himself, rare in disappointed lovers... "tumko apnane nikla tha khud se bhi bezaar hua" he was looking to support her in a relationship and has ended up alienated from himself. The self criticism continues, he has ended up with nothing, his "house" blown up into dust, becoming a mere spectacle of the moment and he knows where he is headed...
Now take a look at another song from a drunk lover once again in Rafi's magical voice(I cannot imagine any other singer singing this song)
Whereas the first song emerges out of personal disappointment at the breaking up of a relationship the self ananlysis, depairing though it is,still functions from within the parameters(social/material/emotional), drawn by society. The second song is much more nihilistic. Emerging out of the same situation, it goes on to incredible, iconoclastic denunciations, a coalesing of perhaps a lot of the questions and emotions that one feels/or might feel across the span of a lifetime, or some of those at least...
Vaasna (1968): Chitragupt
Aaj is darja pila do ke na kuch yaad rahe
Bekhudi itni badha do ke na kuch yaad rahe
Dosti kya hai wafa kya hai mohabbat kya hai
Dil ka kya mol ahsaas ki keemat kya hai
Hamne sab jaan liya hai ke haqeeqat kya hai
Aaj bas itni dua do ke na kuch yaad rahe
Muflisi dekhi ameeri ki ada dekh chuke
Gham ka mahaul mussarrat ki fiza dekh chuke
Kaise phirti hai zamane ki hawa dekh chuke
Shama yaadon ki bujha do ke na kuch yaad rahe
Aaj is darja...
Ishq bechain khayalon ke siwa kuch bhi nahin
Husn berooh ujalon ke siwa kuch bhi nahin
Zindagi chand sawalon ke siwa kuch bhi nahin
Har sawaal aise mita do ke na kuch yaad rahe
Aaj is darja...
Mit na payega jahan se kabhi nafrat ka rivaaz
Ho na payega kabhi rooh ke zakhmon ka ilaaz
SUltanat zulm khuda vahm museebat hai samaaj
Zehan ko aise sula do ke na kuch yaad rahe...
Musarrat: joy
Zehan: mind
Erasing memories...
He begins by attacking the three mainstays of human relationships...Dosti, wafa and mohabbat...He has realised what those concepts mean...just as he knows the truth about the value of the heart and the value of emotions.
In the second stanza, he rejects not just the lifestyle of the rich , but also that of the "muflis", an identity he sought to don in so many of his other poems, he has experienced both happiness and despair...and rejects both in the context how how fickle the mood of the world is vis-a vis both. In this poem too he uses repetition as a tool to drive home a point, in the first stanza he uses the word "Kya hai" to underscore his questioning, in the second stanza he uses the ironic "dekhi/dekh chuke".
The mood of the poem builds towards rejection of some of the most cherished subjects of his own poetry...
Love is nothing but restless imagination
Beauty is nothing but soulless light
Life is nothing beyond a few questions...
It is impossible to erase the culture of hatred in this world and impossible to cure the wounds of the soul... and finally moves to articulate some of his most iconoclastic metaphors in poetry...
Sultanat zulm, khuda vehm, museebat hai samaaj
And then ...
Let the mind sleep in such a way that the memories don't haunt...
Sahir has palpably moved away from the personal disappointment in love that the song begins with, moving to a sweeping rejection of everything that he has held dear uptil now. If the first poem is despairing, the poet disappointed in love coming face to face with the fact that his affair, his ideals and his life have been in vain, the second song is much vaster in scope, his personal disappointment quickly moving on to a rejection of all relationships, lifestyles, ideals and ideologies...The second poem is no less despairing but the scope of the despair is much wider, not just encompassing the poet and his life but all human endeavour...And yet the beauty and power of the poem lies in how personal he makes that rejection...
2 comments:
This is one great article. Thanks for sharing. I am a great admirer of Sahir's poetry and it's really insightful to know what inspired such lovely poetry, intense with powerful emotions. Thanks for sharing it.
Sahir was a magician of words
Post a Comment