Of a bard who burned in his own fire

Shiv Kumar Batalvi remembered on his 41st death anniversary.

ISLAMABAD:

They did not have the words and were forced to borrow from the person whose 41st death anniversary they had gathered to commemorate at the Writers’ House at the Pakistan Academy of Letters on Tuesday evening.

Some two dozen die-hard fans of the Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi were crammed in a small room to pay homage to him. Batalvi died on May 6, 1973 in Batala, but not before, chronicling the flora, fauna and the culture and traditions of the Punjab.

He was our version of the romantic poets. In passion, fire and love of nature and the speed with which he produced quality literature, he was at par with Keats, Shelley and Byron. Interestingly, he matched them in the tradition of dying young.

The three romantic poets died between the ages of 25 and 36. Batalavi, who died when he was 36, had expressed a wish to die young. He wrote “Mainu Vida Karo” (Bid Me Farewell) in 1963, 10 years before his death.

Tariq Bhatti quoted a verse,“Joban rut jovee mare/ phul bane ya tara” (whoever dies young, either becomes a flower or a star) and “Asaan te joban rut marnaan” (I have to die young) which explains his wish to die young.

Qamaruz Zaman, another speaker said Batalvi fell in love with a girl who later died of typhoid and another one was married in the United States. This and the horrors of Partition that he witnessed at the age of 11 when his family migrated to India can be felt in his poetry.

His poetry is inspired by his love for the land, Zaman said.

When Batalvi went to England he is reported to have said in an interview with the BBC that he was happily married and it was the pain of the people who could not speak for themselves that he recounted in his poetry.

Poet and artist Farhad Iqbal said through his poetry one can see the Punjab of his times as he has immortalised the animate and the inanimate. “Shiv will live on till the last person who speaks Punjabi is alive.”

Batalvi was born in Barapind Lotian in Shakargarh tehsil, Narowal. Son of a revenue official, he worked at the State Bank of India as a clerk.

A matriculate, he penned “Loona” a play in verse of about 300 pages in 1965, which according to the short-story writer, Malik Mehar Ali was “enough to earn him space among the great poets of the language.”

“Piran da Paraga” (a container of agony) “Main Te Main” (I and I), “Dardmandan Dian Aahan” (cries of the bereaved) are some of his famous works.

Famous singers Muhammad Rafi, Jagjjt and Chitra SIngh, Jagmohan Kaur, Tufail Niazi, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sang his poetry. The song “Maye ni maye, mere geetaan de nainaan wich birhun di radhak pave” sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is testimony to the poetic genius of the legendary poet.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.