Majaz Lakhnawi as he was known was born Asrar-ul-Haq into a highly educated family that boasted of a poetic lineage. Majaz studied in Agra and Aligarh Muslim University. It was in Agra and Aligarh that Majaz was exposed to the poetry of the likes of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jazbi, Sardar Ali Jafri and Sahir Ludhianvi. He spent most of his time, not in the classes but in attending mushiaras. As a result he was unable to complete his studies and obtain a formal degree, but what it led to was the sprouting of the poetic genius of Majaz. However, Majaz's personal life was very unhappy as he suffered repeated rejections in love, as a result of which the flow of poetry was often interrupted by bouts of depression and despondency leading him to indulge in heavy drinking. This book offers a selection of the best ghazals and nazms of Majaz, translated into English by Kuldip Salil. To help the reader enjoy the richness and beauty of the Urdu language, the original Urdu ghazals and nazms are transliterated and presented both in the Roman and Devnagri scripts.
Kuldip Salil was born on December 30, 1938 in Sialkot (Pakistan). He completed his post-graduate degree in English and Economics from Delhi University. He retired as a Reader in English from Hans Raj College, Delhi University. He has won a number of awards including the Sahitya Akaderni award for translating Urdu poetry into English and the Delhi Hindi Academy award for his poetry.
Starting with Meer and Ghalib and going on to Sahir and Majaz, these poets had a failed love affair which became a major source of their poetic outpourings. It is not so among Hindi poets though there is a lot of love poetry in Hindi too.
In English, I can think of only two major poets who had an unrequited love affair. One was John Keats whose failed love for Fanny Brawne is well known. But even in Keats's case the failed relationship does not become a major source of his great poetry. The other is W. B. Yeats, whose love for Mand Gonne made Yeats almost mad. He waited till the age of fifty-one for Mand to say `yes' to his marriage proposal. In Yeats's case failed love became a source of his major poetry.
Excessive drinking has been rampant among Urdu poets and has been the undoing of many of them. Jigar Muradabadi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Josh Malihabadi, Mirza Galib, Naresh Kumar Shaad, Adam and even Faiz Ahmed Faiz are the names that immediately come to mind in this context. Unfortunately, Majaz Lucknavi was a victim of both, unrequited love and alcoholism.
Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz Lucknavi was born in 1909, (some say 1911) in Radauli, Uttar Pradesh. His father Siraj-ul-Huq notwithstanding the fact that he was from a landed family, was the first person in Radauli who received higher education and took up a government job. Asrar thus, belonged to a family which while respecting old values of life aspired to be modern.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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