COMMENTS

SARDAR JAFRI

KISHWAR NAHEED

ZAHRA NIGAH

ASMAT CHUGHTAI

SIBT E HASAN

ADA JAFRI

MOHAMMAD ALI SIDDIQUI

ZAHIDA HINA

QAMAR JAMEEL

YOUSUF NAZIM

AKRAM BARELVI

ISHRAT MADE A QUIET IMPACT ON THE POETIC SCENE

BY IKRAM BARELVEI

Almost all the poetry of Ishrat Afreen burns with lyrical fire. This reminds me of Chekhov, the greatest of all writers of short stories, who said to Gorky, You are an artist…, you feel superbly, you are plastic… that is, when you describe a thing you see and touch it with your hands. That is the real art.

This is very true with Ishrat Afreen. She loves life, its instincts, realities and sensibilities with high ideals and enthusiasms, and all this remains fresh and active throughout her poetry with joyous confidence in herself and in her life. And in this field, she has hardly anyone, who reaches these heights.

Her poetry is, a rejection of capitalism and anguished cry against social injustice, and the decadent feudal system which has exploited man and woman alike. It is heartening that while brooding over this, she is neither distressed nor downcast. This awareness has, rather, created a sense of self-reliance and self-security. It is here that her ‘ego’ is awakened which she describes in unambiguous and unequivocal terminology in ‘Ta’aruf’ (Introduction and ‘Madfun’ (Mound). But this ‘ego’ is not engulfed in the murky mist of ‘egotism’

The tone and cadence of Ishrat Aafreen’s poetry is not only frank but candid too. She is singular and individualistic in her approach and treatment of her subjects. This singular and individualistic stamp on her poetry is, in fact, the charm of her intonations and the fragrance and flurry of her musical notes. The slight echo of these drops falling on tightened silk is prolonged in the memory by the sound of the phrases and unique coinage of language which is, at, once, soothing, natural, and, in a way, free from being ornate…

The poetry and poems if Ishrat Aafrein is resplendent with rare examples of euphony, imagery—visual as well as perceptual, metaphors, new symbols, mythopoeic sensibilities, and a style of her own, and all this lends grace and exquisite beauty to her poetry which is deeply dedicated to the common man and woman working in the fields, factory or the sweet, simple maiden picking cottonseeds from the plants. ‘Gulab aur Kapas’ (Rose and the cottonseed) is a good example in this context.

A good deal of Aafrein’s poetry and poems are, in a way, autobiographical. I feel Julian Symons has rightly said, “Art to the artist is an autobiographical game-which is true in the sense that every artist holds his own mirror up to nature.”

Ishrat Afreen has a great future ahead, and if she holds the flame and fire aloft no limit is too high for her. To conclude this, in her own words:

DR. BASHEER BADAR

AHMED NADEEM QASMI

SEHAR ANSARI

IFTEKHAR ARIF

INTEZAR HUSSAIN

Literary Notes

By Intezar Hussain

THE SILENCE OF A POET

A female poet brought up in Karachi with the experience of living in America arrived in Lahore with two of her poetry collections. She was kind enough to present these collections to me. I have gone through them and to my pleasant surprise I found that her poetry carries something indefinable, which lends a particular charm to it. I wonder what this mysterious something is which glows through her verses and distinguishes her from the contemporaries. Perhaps Ali Sardar Jafri, who has written the foreword to her first volume, knows the secret. He says that it is the fragrance of the soil of Oudh which permeates through the verses of Ishrat Afrin. Her soul has, after a long search, found this fragrance. This is her individual voice, which is Afrin’s identification. If so, we can conclude from his analysis that the poet, though brought up in Karachi under the care of her parents who had migrated from Oudh to Sindh in Pakistan, carries within her the memory of that soil.

 

Remaining faithful to this soil, she never attempts to fly high. Rarely does she talk about havailis and palaces. Instead, ordinary houses and their angan attract her attention.

RUKHSANA AHMED