Mere kol sirf nazmaan nen
Mere kol ik kaar vi honi chayedi ae
– Chan naal hasrat di ik gal, 1981
(I only have poems
I should also have a car
– A Talk of Desires with the Beloved)
Ahmad Salim, the Punjabi poet, historian, anthologist, archivist, researcher and compiler born 77 years ago today is an ideological writer; he propagated progressive thought all his life. His just published Punjabi Kulliyat (Collected Works, Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore, 2021, 495 pp) edited meticulously and lovingly by Dr Humaira Ishfaq is a fitting testament to the poet’s more than half a century of poetic journey. One finds the harmony of the bitterness and loves of life in his writings.
The period that the poet has endured can be not inaccurately called the immature period of our politics. From the first martial law to the idea of ‘Naya Pakistan’ of the current period, Salim knows every single page of history by heart.
He is unhappy with a society where there is class discrimination between rich and poor. He wants the creation of a society where there is equitable distribution of resources irrespective of colour, race and religion and where the law should be the same for the high and low; the doors of justice be open for everybody. But the tragedy is that an honest and straightforward writer like him always has to face resistance from the bourgeois class in society. He was subjected to the travails of imprisonment and even lashes for the crime of raising the banner of truth. But Salim kept standing strongly upon his feet, and never accepted defeat before any dictator. And despite witnessing the darkness of oppression all around, he does not lose hope.
While paying tribute to the father of Pashtun nationalism and non-violence Bacha Khan he writes,
Te phullan di rut har vaari aaoni
Te geetaan di daal kadi nai sukni
Te kaalakh de pair kadi ne jamne
Te chaanan di leek kitte nai mukni
(And the season of flowers will come every time
And the branch of songs will never dry
And the feet of blackness will never become firm
And the line of light will never end anywhere)
Salim’s poems are an authentic reference of social and political life. Every song is a cry within which there is a pang of that unseen pain, separation, the values and desires made extinct by time; because he is sure that “the age of night is not greater than the night itself”. He does not fashion his disappointments and pains into his songs but a dream of a bright morning keeps him moving.
The poetry of Ahmad Salim also touches the song of love. This love is joined to the beloved together with every person who has thought of the betterment of man. The concept of the beloved too is of a strange colour where the image is not of the traditional beloved; but he calls the beloved his friend. Everything which can be said to a friend, he says it before the beloved openly. Instead of emotional expression in his dialogues whether he mentions political or social problems or including the beloved in his pains:
Jad dost nai honda
Peer vi mar jandi ae
Hanjuvan te unglan te honthan vich
(When a friend is no more
The pain also dies
Within tears, fingers and lips)
The international political landscape has been presented fully in Salim’s writings. Vietnami Aatma Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (A Vietnamese Spirit Nguyễn Văn Trỗi), Siraj-ud-Duala da Dhola (Sheikh Mujibul Rahman de Naan!) (Punjabi folk-song of Siraj-ud-Daula (To Sheikh Mujibul Rahman)), Sada Jive Bangladesh (Long Live Bangladesh) and many numerous poems like this are the best example of this.
For example, in his poem Neruda Wapis Aave Ga (Neruda Will Return) written in 1981, written eight years after the great Chilean poet’s death, Salim writes:
O cheek cheek ke aakhdi ae
“Main Pablo Neruda di mehboob kurri
Ohda picha nai chaddan gi
Kameena daur gaya si ik din
Mainoon kalyaan chad ke
Te ja lukiya ae ik khandaq vich
Jang mukaa taan main ohnoon
Khandaq vich ja pharaan gi
Dharoh ke baahir liyaavan gi”
Pablo Neruda di mehboob kurri
Bolde bolde
Achanak sofe te dig paindi ae
Te haari hoi aavaaz vich puchdi ae
“Par jang kadon muke gi?”
(She says screaming
“I am Pablo Neruda’s beloved girl
I will not leave him alone
The scoundrel ran away one day
Leaving me alone
And hid away in a trench
End the war then I will
Bail him out from the trench”
Pablo Neruda’s beloved girl
While talking
Suddenly falls down on the sofa
And in a defeated voice asks
“But when will the war end?”
Ahmad Salim is a great writer who supports humanity beyond time and space. May he live long and keep serving the cause of poetry and research as has been his wont.
*All the translations from Punjabi are by the writer*
