the great seraiki poet, Shakir Shuja'abadi, is on his deathbed and the Ministry for Culture is treating this with the same callous indifference it has perviously displayed towards all other intellectual greats who were not Urdu or Punjabi speaking. Be this as it may, Shakir's work clearly depicts the cultural mood of the Seraiki people, colored as it is by a feeling of disorientation and deprivation. i have been making frequent use of Shakir's works in my ramblings, but here are my all-time favorites.
bur koon dedhan, bah'r koon dedhan
dua'a koon dedhan, asar koon dedhan
kaheen de seenay te yaar sumdhin
kaheen dee sikdi qabar koon dedhan
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khoon dunya te peenda vada'een, khaaki thee ke punjeenda vada'een
ajab naseeb hayee ghareeb lut ke ghareeb parwar sadeenda vada'een
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kal tamasha ajeeb ditthem, te raah te kusda ghareeb ditthem
tarapda lasha haa begunaah da, te kol hunsda raqeeb ditthem
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aayee tarf asmaan toon und-chithi, meday aalhnde ne jhad jhad keetee
wal rul ke badal te badliyaan ne hik khauf bharee kud kud keetee
naee tars aya meday Malik koon, today haye haye te rud rud keetee
ghar sarda dekh ke Shakir da, jug taadiyan dee tud tud keetee
Although the mullah's God has traditionally been against the artistic expression that is poetry, I hope that the God of saner people would be a bit more compassionate towards a man whose life has been a bed of thorns and whose only crime has been that he has dared to ask why?
2 comments:
Hey,
I really appluaed you for coming up with this blog about shakir. no doubt he is a r8 poet. I am seraiki, but i cant really speak it fluenlty. I was born in Kot addu, living in usa for now.
I love Shakir's poetry although I am not by definition a "Saraiki", but I speak fluent Saraiki. I am basically from Sargodha, and now living in Canada. I always listen and watch Saraiki music as well as read Saraiki. I don't differentiate between Punjabi and Saraiki. The languages should not differentiate between human beings. Speaking about Shakir, he is one of the greats of his times.
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