Reading Himayat Ali Shair’s ‘Lament for the Motherland’ on his first death anniversary

Today marks the first death anniversary of one of Pakistan’s most versatile writers – poet, lyricist, playwright, broadcaster, prose-writer, teacher and journalist Himayat Ali Shair. His 94^th birthday also passed by a couple of days ago on July 14^th. Though he belonged to the Progressive Writers camp and also contributed some eternal lyrics to the Pakistani film industry in its prime, somehow Shair could not become a household name like his Pakistani peer Qateel Shifai, or Indian ones like Majrooh Sultanpuri and Sahir Ludhianvi. Alongwith film lyrics and immaculate poetry along the lines of the more classical trope, Shair’s verse also reflected political and social concerns. One of his oft-quoted, evergreen couplets regarding the socio-political malaise in Pakistan goes like:

“Raah zan ke baare mein aur kya kahoon khul kar

Mir-e-kaaravaan yaaro! mir-e-kaaravaan yaaro!”

(What more openly can I say about the robber

Friends, the caravan leader! Friends, the caravan leader!)

A very good example of Shair’s Progressive concerns is his short poem “Madar-e-Vatan Ka Nauha” (Lament for the Motherland), which was written in 1958 as a response to the first military coup in Pakistan’s history led by Ayub Khan. In this poem, he compares his beloved country to a “tablecloth of savages”, where opportunist and corrupt politicians gradually bite off every living organ of the country. In the poem the benighted poet’s own self is a metaphor for Pakistan.

So much so that towards the end of the poem, Shair is forced to question the Two-Nation Theory – upon which Pakistan is purportedly based – wondering aloud whether the birth of Pakistan was indeed necessary if such loot and plunder was to be its fate. The original translation of this poem, written just before the completion of the first decade after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, is thus a sobering and familiar reflection on the state of the country just a month before we celebrate our 73^rd Independence Day on August 14^th and a means to remember Himayat Ali Shair, a master poet who deserves to be immortalised in the annals of Urdu literature.

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A Lament for the Motherland by Himayat Ali Shair

“The vultures sitting over my body

Are snatching every piece of my meat

My eyes, the nest of beautiful dreams

My tongue, the mirror of pearl-like words

My arms, the guarantors of the interpretation of dreams

My heart, in which every impossible, becomes possible

My spirit is watching this whole spectacle

Thinking

Was this entire game

(My corpse over the table-cloth of savages)

Meant for the pleasures of eating and drinking?”

~

“Mere badan par baithe hue gidh

mere gosht kī botī botī noch rahe haiñ

merī āñkheñ mere haseeñ ḳhvāboñ ke nasheman

merī zabāñ motī jaise alfāz kā darpan

mere baazū ḳhvāboñ kī taabeer ke zāmin

merā dil jis meñ har nā-mumkin bhī mumkin

merī rooh ye saarā manzar dekh rahī hai

soch rahī hai

kyā ye saarā khel-tamāsha

(ḳhūñ-ḳhvāroñ ke dastar-ḳhvān pe merā lāsha)

lazzat-e-kām-o-dahan ke liye thā?”