Book Review: "Mah o Saal e Ashnai" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Faiz needs no introduction, a poet, true man of letters, loved equally by the masses on one hand and the intellectual breed on the other, a truly genuine soul. I often wonder about the strange phenomenon that caused those tender, intense and extremely profound emotions which exist in Faiz's poetry to survive in the eventful, continuously happening and practical-to-the-level-of-boring modern life. It makes me wonder even more when I consider that Faiz was a socialist.
One can disagree with his political views and inclinations; but it's impossible to doubt him as an artist. His poetry is just so beautiful that even if a poem contains the concepts that you don't agree with, you still cannot not love it. Because who can hate art after all, that too so serene, so amazing and so colorful as Faiz's.
This book "Mah o Saal e Ashnai" ( literal meanings "The months and years of acquaintance") is unique as it is a prose + poetry work by Faiz. In my opinion, for a better and enhanced understanding of someone's poetry, you must read his prose ( this is applicable only if you or the poet , both aren't a post modernist"). The rationale behind my opinion is that , it often becomes impossible to get complete hold of ideas, personality, inclinations, emotional status and a life theory ( if there is any) of a poet due to uncertain, abstract, kind of absurd and relative nature of poetry. But the prose, on other hand is very understandable, well concluded and explanatory, unless it is a symbolic or post modernist text which usually isn't the case with poets.
Well, I got a little distracted but I'm not writing an academic essay or a letter, right ? So, this book is a collection of memoirs, travelogues, meetings & interviews with a few literary giants of the time and a small portion of translated poems from various languages. The book is basically about Soviet Union, it's geographic locations and socialist states such as (Moscow, Tashkent, Samarkand & Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Dagestan, Siberia etc) . There's a focus on presenting a picture of the first modern socialist society of the world, the impacts of socialism on culture ( Arts , literature particularly), post-war scenario and other natural elements. It is a must-read for all Faiz lovers, rather all Urdu poetry and literature lovers, as this book is a priceless. Faiz has presented an astonishing and appealing overview of Soviet society, the interactions between a huge diversity of Languages (only Dagestan has more than 36 languages and respective literatures as well) and cultures ( From Uzbek to Siberian) , how they grow together and how they develop themselves.
The cultural observations made by Faiz, his unique humble style of writing, the way he tells about Tolstoy Gorki & Dostoevsky, the tortures of Czar russia, the blood-boiling moments of red revolution, the heart-wrenching tales of war, the imagery of snowy mountains and village life of a very undiscovered part of the world ; all of it together made me love this book. There were many moments when I just held the book closed in my hands and stared at the wall, re-imagining and creating cinematic pictures of it ( maybe it was because of my affiliation with Faiz but that doesn't make much difference).
Faiz travelled USSR as a literary figure, to attend various literary/cultural conferences and events , there he met the people who had influenced complete generations. I really felt jealous of faiz when I read about his meetings with those people, it's a very lucky thing .
This book contains Faiz's discussions with Pablo Neruda (Chilean poet) , Nazim Hekmat ( the great Turkish writer and poet), Rasul Gamzatovich Gamzatov( a popular Avar poet) , Chinghiz Aitmatov (Kyrgyz author), Omaruli Suleimenov ( Kazakhstani poet), Jean Paul Sartre (who doesn't know him) and many more. You can well imagine what Faiz ( being a great poet) would have talked about with the greatest poets/writers of the century and how valuable those talks would be.
At the end of the book, the best part, there are poems that Faiz wrote while he was in Russia. It must be noted that these poems were written while in company and influence of those poets, so they are unique and have a high experimental value. To give it a final touch of perfection, there are some poems by Nazim Hekmat, Rasul Gamzatovich and Omaruli Suleimenov which Faiz translated in his own style. :)
I wish everyone reads this book, because I want everyone to feel the way I feel after reading.
