Time, Love, Desire and Other Musings: NM Rashid’s, Hassan Koozagar
N. M. Rashid wrote what is arguably the greatest free verse poem in the Urdu language and a glorious statement to love and creativity. His poem, Hassan Koozagar (Hassan the Potter) tells the story of the unrequited love of a master craftsman. Moving from art, artist, and a creator’s relationship with work to love and longing, this four part monologue moves across time, geographies and themes of human life with effortless ease and bejeweled language. Through the poem he addresses Jahanzad, daughter of the world, who he claims to have loved through nine years of separation.
There are many things one can pick from the poem yet we pick two: an eloquent and eerie description of passing time, and his ponderings on love.
vaqt kyā chiiz hai tū jāntī hai?
vaqt ik aisā patiñgā hai
jo dīvāroñ pe ā.īnoñ pe
paimānoñ pe shīshoñ pe
mire jaam o subū mere taġhāroñ pe
sadā reñgtā hai
reñgte vaqt ke mānind kabhī
laut ke aa.egā hasan kūza-gar-e-soḳhta-jāñ bhī shāyad
//
Time
Is the moth crawling,
On the walls, mirrors, cups and glasses
On my jars, pitchers and pans
Like crawling time perhaps,
Hassan the potter will return, his soul burning.
And the despondence in his language when he talks of why we love:
Mere is jhoñpade meñ kuchh bhī nahīñ
khel ik saada mohabbat kā
shab o roz ke is badhte hue khokhle-pan meñ jo kabhī khelte haiñ
kabhī ro lete haiñ mil kar kabhī gā lete haiñ
aur mil kar kabhī hañs lete haiñ
dil ke jiine ke bahāne ke sivā aur nahīñ
harf sarhad haiñ jahāñ-zād ma.ānī sarhad
ishq sarhad hai javānī sarhad
dil ke jiine ke bahāne ke sivā aur nahīñ
dard-e-mahrūmī kī
tanhā.ī kī sarhad bhī kahīñ hai ki nahīñ
//
In this, my cottage there is nothing
A game of simple love
We play
In the growing hollowness of night and day,
Crying, singing, laughing,
Together,
Just an excuse to keep the heart alive, no more
Love, youth, tears and smiles,
All have limits
(Have then the pain of loss
and isolation, no limit, no end?)
And finally, that resounding, universal question:
tamannā kī vus.at kī kis ko ḳhabar hai jahāñ-zād
//
Who knows the expanse of desire Jahanzad?
You can read the full poem and translation here, read it in the Roman script here, and listen to quite possibly its best rendition here.