HE IS NIDA NAWAZ, A BRILLIANT HINDI POET FROM KASHMIR ...........
“ Nida is certainly one of the best Hindi poets from Kashmir. You have rightly compared him to Paash. Your translation too is powerful.” Shashi Shekhar Toshkhani noted Hindi Scholar from Kashmir wrote these comments after reading English translation of some Hindi poems of Nida Nawaz .
Nida Nawaz ( Born 1963 ) is a brilliant Hindi Poet from kashmir valley . He lives in Pulwama . When I met him he gave me his Poetry book "AKSHAR AKSHAR RAKT BHARAA " ( every word is Blood soaked ) . The Book has a beautiful forward by Padam Shri Prof. Ram Nath Shastri . Prof Shastri concludes his forward as under :-
“ Nida Nawaz ! mein Tumhaaray Liye Praarthanaa kartaa huun .. Tumhaaray iss Safar Mein Raahein Baadhaa rahit Hon ( Nida Nawaaz ! I pray for you . May almighty keep all paths free of any trouble for you in this journey !) . ” I liked almost all the poems of this book. Poems on Migration of his friends, neighbours and teachers . Poems on wanton death and destruction . Poems on dehumanization and loss of culture and tradition.
During discussions with the poet , it transpired that Punjabi poet Paash (1950-1988 ) or Autar Singh sandhu was well known to him. Paash was a famous revolutionary cultural poet from Punjab who combated communal terrorism through his poems. Paash fought ideologically till the last breath against militancy in Punjab . He was killed in militancy related violence at Jalandhar in 1988.
I present some Hindi poems of Nida Nawaz . The poems have been rendered/ translated to simple English by me in August 2012.. I intend to add more poems for my readers .Till then enjoy these poems of Nida Nawaz .
(1)
(Like the grass , I shall grow all over )
Let me be a pallbearer to his body too,
For I prized him more than my own life.
The irregular rhythm of his heartbeats
Was clearly audible in his smiles.
His heart laden with sorrows ofEvery struggler ,
His language ,
Their pain and miseries .
He knew he shall be felled
For he was out to show mirror to people .
Who likes to see himself over here ?
And yesterday when I saw his dead body ,
For a moment I thought “ How could it be ? ”
“ Is he really no more ? ”
But his poems are his body and soul.
Doesn’t truth sprout from the soul ?
Soul that never dies .
And Looking at his body I felt
As if there is a movement in his lips .
And as if he was proclaiming to his killers
“ I am just grass .
I shall swathe everything .
I shall grow all over .
I am grass .
I have to vegetate .
I shall grow and engulf all your deeds as well . ”
( This poem has been written on the Death of Punjabi Poet Paash )
(2)
(CURSE )
Weep not my darling child ,
I too am doing the so called evil deeds
that your father did .
I too shall endure
this curse of my time .
Tomorrow , come and
Weep to your heart’s fill
with my children ………..
( Dedicated to the siblings of Paash and Prof . Mushir Ul Haq . Prof. Mushir Ul Haq was VC university of Kashmir . He was kidnapped and killed by Armed Militants )
( 3)
(Ideal )
Should you visit this city of ours ?
Then please......
Gouge your eyes
And trample them underneath your feet
The way you deal with burnt cigarette bits.
Burn all these pages of your book on idealism
The way you burn sun dried timber.
And then sever the nib of your writing pen
The way someone chops the head of the candid amongst us.
Now in this city of ours;
It is a curse
To have a vision,
Follow your thoughts
And use your pen...
(This Hindi Poem 'Aadarsh " was Written In Early nineties when terror and darkness ruled kashmir valley .)
(4)
(Every word is blood soaked)
Every word is blood soaked,
Yes every word ,
That appears on the black pages of our
disgraced History Book.
(5)
(Neel Kanth )
Listen ! A handsome visage of this existence
Is surely to gulp down the entire venom on this earth
And grow to be a *NEEL- KANTH .
And Another gorgeous truth of this life is to
be like NECTAR ,
Gulp down the pain and sorrows
And grow to be a human being.
(* Neel Kanth is another name of Shiva kown as Shambhu , Mahesha , Mahadeva or Sankara as well . As per Puranas Lord Shiva drank the poison that emerged from the ocean churning. With TANDAVA dance , the effect of this poison was nullified but the neck part of Lord Shiva turned blue . Accordingly shiva is also know as NEEL- KANTHA..)
(6)
( A Poem )
A shadow ,
A sudden cry in the dead silence of the night ,
Consciousness of some mishap somewhere ,
The flickering lamp inside this temple that my heart is ,
An earthquake ,
Last moments of a women in labour pains ,
Last wish of a person sentenced to death,
Or a Poem.
( Nida Nawaz )
And the Opening lines of his poem “ Jis se Pyaar Ho “ or “ The one whom you love ” go as under
( 7)
(The one whom you love )
You should move away with
The one whom you love.
Yes move away ,
Before this sun rises
Move Far Away
From this city of Bunkers ,
And cross that bridge ,
That bridge Built on the river of emotions ,
The bridge of trust and faith ,
Which now faces the punishment of demolition
Decreed by the gods of our present time
Who now sit on Pulpits .
( Nida Nawaz )
8
HAMAARI AMMA KI ODINI….
(OUR MOTHER'S HEAD SCARF )
When they visit us at night ,
Never do they knock at our doors,
They just break them open to enter .
Dragging our fathers by their Beards ,
Pulling away the headscarf of our Mothers ,
They ask us to stand naked before each other ,
shame sobs ,
mutual relations get strewn….
What if they hide their faces?
We identify them
from the pages of some old Books ,
From the childhood memory of time spent together in the playground ,
From the chair lying in the office,
From the shared swing rides of childhood,
And From amongst the students of the classroom .
Snakes just creep and move in our childhood playground .
The man sitting in the chair in our office ,
looks like YAMA (The lord of death ) now.
The rope of our childhood swing too has burnt itself in the blaze .
Sometimes under that dark cloth covering their faces ,
We see the face of that boy as well,
The boy whom we had taught
When he entered the school.
When they come ,
they just drag any person ,
Drag him far away from his house ,
Drag him away from the family ,
And later for all to see ,
Nothing more than his dead body hanging from an
Apple tree ,
The body dumped near some crossing,
With their names engraved on the back
Before killing ,
Names engraved in the language of terror ,
Written in words of fire ,
Written with red hot iron rods.
When they visit us at night ,
Never do they knock at our doors,
They just break them open to enter .
They come to trample
our culture ,
our honour
and
our relations
underneath their feet ……………..
( Nida Nawaz )
9
( Vitasta !Be Witness ..)
Vitasta ! Be my witness ,
Look ! The dark Kohl of my eyes,
The red colour of my lips ,
Has washed itself with your water .
The tall shady chinars of my bosom,
That gave shelter to the weary Travellers,
That enthused them again for future journeys ,
Have now been uprooted.
The heads of my children,
Have been cut like a plentiful crop ,
Be witness to it Vitasta !
The blushing faces of my daughters
That bore apple like colours ,
Look simply black
In this gun powder smoke all over .
The boats that glide on your surface now
Are eagerly looking forward to listen
To the love filled conversation of newly wed couples .
Be witness to it Vitasta !
Every drop of Your clear water,
That would sometimes reflect Hari Parbat
along with Shankracharya temple ,
Is just red blood now.
Vitasta be witness to this fact as well
That this mother of yours ,
This wounded valley ,
Has now lost its identity ,
After being walked over
By some unfamiliar and Marauding people …..
with heavy boots .
( Nida Nawaz )
So long so much for this post .
Monday 3rd Sep. 2012 , Time 10.45 PM…
Good Night………..
( Autar Mota )
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
