Oxford University Press, Walon Sit, Oxford 0x2 GbE Oxford New York cen Qing “igi Torence. Hong Kong tsanbal Rasch ais tampar Mii Madd Mefbourpe Mesico City Narobi Pare Singapore Tape! Tokyo. "Toronto on cd compara Oxford is a trade mark of Oxfrt University Press © Introduction, Tariq Rahman © Oxford Universiy Press, 1997 Alright teers No pat ft publication may be repoced, sored ina etre sem, or wane, any frm by ny mea ‘tout the pir peemiaion in wing of Oxford Univeriy Pres ‘This book std abject tm the coniton ta it shall wt by way trae or aero resl, hr oto erie evened ‘thou the pblers pri conen a any lo fing eae snr than Hatin nicht pueda out sana onion “inching ths condition beg pane on the subegen pach Isny 0 19 577812 x Some ofthese poms hie fst appeazed in Aims (170), le Be Wid (198) a tig), eid er Det hin Po ‘Nama Tran Seeral ofthe unpublished poems are om he pera aitorial Cosultant ‘Adrian A. Hosa Printed in Pakian a Muri Packages, Karachi Published by ‘Ameena Said, Oxford University Press ‘Bangalore Town, Sharae Fail P.O. Box 13088, Karachi 75880, Pakistan, A SELECTION OF VERSE DAUD KAMAL Katachl Oxford University Press Oxford NewYork Deli 1997INTRODUCTION ‘Tariq Rahman, Daud Kamal (1935-1987) wrote thus about death, We all die ven those teho've not yet ve Two seams distro ofeach other, meet Night opening her mouth torake the bite. (Canflucc) And night took its bite in the winter of 1987 when he was in America giving readings of his poetry. He was in his prime both asa man and a poet. His first collection of poems, The Compass of Love, appeared in 1973 anel he was included in some of the best anthologies of Pakistani poetry in English soon after that.! After Reeagnitions (1979) and A Remote Beginning (1985) he was established in the world of letters in Pakistan and his work had THis work appear in dhe following anthologies ‘ine Voie (Poe) ed, Tham Azam, (Dace Kamal, Hamil Kartal and Thram Azam}, Narang-e-Khayal Publications, Ravalpinl, 1985; The Blae Wind, el, Peter Dont, Interim Pres, Budleigh Salterten, Devon 1984; and jowrnal ofthe Engl ily Chub ELC) et, Mb Rahman, Department of English, University of Peshawar, 1988, dedicated wo the memory of Dad Kamal Single poeme are scattered in many ether publications, started getting appreciated abroad? It was then that death laimed him for its own, In his own words: “Those who have gone ‘The sn drags his eet anda tethered horse hiss the los ois back i his Water does not tel eles it reflects only hat tees (Outsiders) But the critic, unlike water, cannot reflect what he sees without also telling tales. The ‘tales’ to explain the ‘metaphor, are the skills and values one brings to criticism, Since both may be faulty, there is always room for other approaches, other points of view, other critical perspectives. This, therefore, is not a final judgement nor, indeed, should there ever be one which claims to be that auld Kamal’s style can best be appreciated if one approaches it with the imagist poetry of Hilda Doolittle and other imagists in mind. The images are like pictures drawn with precise words in a style which combines economy with clarity. ‘Achill plays with a broken toy. is widowed mother swan someone eles clothes. (Shadow Bis) Almond blossoms fall and a ero 3 ie was a Rockler Foundation resident a Bellagio (tay the summer of 1987, After his death be wa awarded he Fa Abad Fate ‘ward in 1987 sd the Presidential Award of Peformance in 1990 vcared out of ebony— ste ite drought ran Fa seraping the ras off my anclent coins (Reprducins) The images are not necessarily linked to each other ina narrative or logical sequence. The syntax deviates from, that of prose cutting out linking words. Yet, when the poem is read as a whole it conveys meaning and each Image takes on a symbolic significance as a unit of ‘meaning in a pattern of discourse which is {quintessentily poetic. This ilosrated by the Following examples: ow does one forgive the treachery of bind iver and waterbullaloes Atsolsng in the mud? [ihe army lef camp, the brideo-be covers her hea hile her parents Took the ater way, (od In this pocm the image of the water-buffaloes caught helplessly in the muddy water is the key for the parallel situation of human beings in the second stanza, Here is another poem in which several images contribute 10 the meaning: Laticed windows and a winter sunset trapped in narrow lanes, Ral puddles, unspent Hives, Don't wat shat you ae wating for pall never come young woman walks past— Ties gold braceles, tes brighter than the pulsing sts Tira the wavering cele taf memory around het fae, That each depavtue’s final and slide s perpetual ream “Time now to measure you loses— all hove bidges that wene pin lames “This ce, black ee iewill 0ot mek Nor wil the night rave tel Tor you. (Endurance) Such a poem is an organic whole. It has a rich and ‘complex significance when itis read as such though the spatial arrangement of stanzas may suggest otherwise. Thus, while the stanzas can be understood separately they contribute to the theme together. The theme is that ‘emotional life is stunted in poor localities which confine fone in the squalor of a ghetto. This is conveyed by a number of images: latticed window; a winter sunset; rartow lanes; rain-puddles; burning bridges; and black ice which never melts. All these images convey one impression—thac of being trapped, of loss, of dreariness, of deteat, The only image whieh does not fit in is of the young woman who walks past with ‘eyes brighter than the pulsing stars’. But she is departing and the poet remembers her, or someone like her, in his permanent state of solitude. Her very vivaciousness and colour highlights the absence of these qualities in the life of the poet. And in the end the poet says ‘Nor will the night/ tease itself for you' just as the ice ‘will not melt The overall impression of deep despair is conveyed with great power by these laconic lines because of the semantic power of the images which come together now in their full meaning. viiSuch a style makes for brevity which ean sometimes be construed as terseness. Daud Kamal’s major themes are nostalgia and a sense of loss. These are archetypal romantic themes and it is difficult wo use them with success simply because they have been used so often that they are greatly in danger of appearing hackneyed. Indeed, these are the themes of the ghazal which Daud Kamal enjoyed very much. He translated the ghazals of Ghalib and the poems of Faiz which use the dietion and the symbolism of the ghazal for other purposes. This is what he said about the ghazal 1 do belong wo this culere, the Urdu cultue.the clture of culated Muslims in the subcontinent Tay not be deeply verse in Urdu poetry, but Ihave inherited love fo the casi Mir, Ghalib, Dard, Zafar, ee. 1 can't sown the tradition. My Feelings are deeply ted in this eleue, but ofcourse write in English? Like the ghazal poets, Daud 100 enjoys the voluptuous ness of tender emotions, the soft melancholy of regret and the subtle pleasure of nostalyia. But he writes in the modern idiom and uses none of the clichéd jargon which lesser poets find so inevitable. Indeed, he uses imagery with @ comment or two hinting at his emotional response, One of the best poems of this kind is as follows: another pain— have anerered ny inguisitor. of eat could have Been, Mooaburst 0n thighs of snow month and years Thave paid the wll (igh Bride) ‘There is no verbal description of the poet's regret at having loved and lost. The pain is movingly conveyed. through the laconic comments: ‘I have answered/my inquisitors’ and ‘months and years/I have paid/the toll. ‘The real force comes from the evocative images—one of ‘moonburst/on thighs of snow’ and the other of ‘virgin forest’ and ‘silhouettes in water’. The first two images are erotic. And we find that they are dreams, They are like ‘silhouettes in water’, The pleasures of love are illusory: Such a powerfull poem on the loss of love could hardly have heen produced through the use of narrative alone in English. The words used to describe intense feelings would appear so clichéd that the poem would be a ghost of the ghazal and the English Romantic poems. Daud smal has saved the poem from that fate by using moving imagery. But, justas the ghazal used the symbolisin of mysticism which gave it another dimension—that of the ‘unknowable—Daud Kamal’s poems too have another dimension. In a revealing passage hee explains this as follows: ‘For me, a poem is a subterranean ereature; it has a preexistence at the subconscious (or is it the unconscious?) level. The agony is in extracting it from those depths and in giving ita shape." The other dimension, then, is about the unknowable. Iis elusive and one can only hint at its presence. One might describe ic in terms of Daud'’s effort to apprehend, reality in an extra-rational way. It is expressed, as mentioned earlier, in terms of images and symbols. And, ar its best, it is evocative of that sense of mystery whieh is part of the poetic experience. In a crtie’s words: ‘He 83 Tarig Kahan, ‘Tmerview with Daud Kamal, The Nation 10 me 1987, pis viii {T Salecm wr Rabin, “An Tneriew with Dal Kaaval Te Poison Ties, 6 September 1985 ix