See the script bar at the bottom of the page for viewing choices. I have corrected obvious calligraphic errors, and have adjusted the punctuation for clarity. The original long paragraphs have been numbered (#1# and so on) and then broken into shorter ones. Sectional numbers have been inserted. Qamar Ra'is, ed., pp. 236-237.
[(2) The best definition of literature]
#4# adab kī bahut sī taʿrīfeñ kī gaʾī haiñ lekin mere ḳhayāl meñ us kī bahtarīn taʿrīf tanqīd-e ḥayāt hai - chāhe vuh miṡāloñ kī shakl meñ ho , yā afsānoñ kī yā shiʿr kī - use hamārī ḥayāt kā tabṣirah karnā chāhiʾe - jis daur se guzre haiñ use ḥayāt se koʾī baḥaṡ nah thī - hamāre adīb taḳhaiyulāt kī ek duniyā banā kar us meñ man-māne t̤ilism bāñdhā karte the - kahīñ fasānah-e ʿajāʾib kī dāstān thī , kahīñ būstān-e ḳhayāl kī , aur kahīñ chandrakāñtā santatī kī - in dāstānoñ kā manshā maḥaẓ dil-bahlāʾo thā , aur hamāre jażbah-e ḥairat kī taskīn - liṭrechar kā zindagī se koʾī taʿlluq hai ? is meñ kalām hī nah thā , balkih vuh musallam thā -- qiṣṣah qiṣṣah hai ; zindagī , zindagī - donoñ mutaẓād chīzeñ samjhī jātī thīñ -
shuʿarā par bhī infarādiyat kā rang ġhālib thā ʿishq kā miʿyār nafas-parvarī thā aur ḥusn kā dīdah-zebī - inhīñ jinsī jażbāt ke iz̤hār meñ shuʿarā apnī jiddat aur jaulānī ke muʿjaze dikhāte the -shiʿr meñ kisī naʾī bandish , yā naʾī tashbīh , yā naʾī parvāz kā honā , dād pāne ke liʾe kāfī thā , chāhe vuh ḥaqīqat se kitnī hī baʿīd kyūñ nah ho - yās aur dard kī kaifiyateñ , āshiyānah aur qafas , barq aur ḳhirman ke taḳhaiyul meñ is ḳhūbī se dikhāʾī jātī thīñ kih sun'ne vāle dil thām lete the , aur āj bhī vuh shiʿr kis qadar maqbūl hai , ise ham aur āp ḳhūb jānte haiñ -
#5# be-shak shiʿr-o-adab kā manshā hamāre aḥsās kī shiddat ko tez karnā hai - lekin insān kī zindagī maḥaẓ jinsī nahīñ hai - kyā vuh adab jis kā mauẓūʿ jinsī jażbāt aur [[237]] un se paidā hone vāle dard-o-yās tak maḥdūd ho , yā jis meñ duniyā yā duniyā kī mushkilāt se kinārah-kash honā hī zindagī kā māḥṣūl samjhā gayā ho , hamārī żahnī aur jażbātī ẓarūratoñ ko pūrā kar saktā hai ? jinsiyat insān kā juzv hai , aur jis adab kā beshtar ḥiṣṣah isī se mutaʿlluq ho , vuh us qaum aur us zamānah ke liʾe faḳhr kā bāʿiṡ nahīñ ho saktā , aur nah us ke ṣaḥīḥ mażāq hī kī shahādat de saktā hai -
kyā hindī aur kyā urdū shāʿirī , donoñ kī ek hī kaifiyat hai -us vaqt adab-o-shāʿirī kā jo mażāq thā , us ke aṡar se be-niyāz honā āsān nah thā - taḥsīn-o-qadar-dānī kī havas to har ek ko hotī hai - shuʿarā ke liʾe apnā kalām hī żarīʿah-e maʿāsh thā - aur kalām kī qadar-dānī raʾūsā aur umrā ke ʿalāvah kaun kar saktā?
#6# hamāre shuʿarā ko ʿām zindagī kī sāmnā karne aur us kī ḥaqīqatoñ se mutāṡir hone ke liʾe , yā to mauqaʿ hī nah thā , yā har ḳhāṣ-o-ʿām par aisī żahnī pastī chhāʾī huʾī thī kih żahnī aur shuʿūrī zindagī rah hī nah gaʾī thī - ham us vaqt ke adīboñ par is kā ilzām nahīñ rakh sakte - adab apne zamāne kā ʿaks hotā hai - jo jażbāt aur ḳhayālāt logoñ ke diloñ meñ halchal paidā karte haiñ , vuhī adab meñ bhī apnā sāyah ḍalte haiñ - aisī pastī ke zamānah meñ yā to log ʿāshiqī karte haiñ , yā taṣavvuf aur virāg meñ maṣrūf ho jāte haiñ - chunāñchih us daur kī shāʿirī aur adab donoñ isī qism ke haiñ - jab adab par duniyā kī be-ṡabātī ġhālib ho , aur ek ek lafz̤ yās aur shikvah-e rozgār aur maʿāshiqah meñ ḍūbā huʾā ho , to samajh lījiye kih qaum jumūd aur inḥit̤āt̤ kā shikār ho chukī , aur us meñ saʿī aur ijtihād kī quvvat bāqī nahīñ rahī , aur us ne darjāt-e ʿāliyah kī t̤araf se āñkheñ band kar lī haiñ , aur mushāhide kī quvvat ġhāʾib ho gaʾī hai -
[(2) The best definition of literature]
#4# Many definitions of literature have been made, but in my view its best definition is 'criticism of life'-- whether it would be in the form of examples, or stories, or poetry. It ought to comment on our life. The era through which we have passed had no discussion of life. Our authors made a world of the imagination, and always used to cast delightful spells. On every hand were the dastans of Fasanah-e 'Aja'ib, of Bustan-e Khayal, and of Chandrakanta Santati. The purpose of these dastans was to divert us, and to fulfill our desire for astonishment. Does 'literature' have any relation to life? About this there was no doubt; rather, it was accepted-- a story is a story, life is life. Both were considered opposite things.
Over the poets, too, a style of individualism prevailed. The standard of passion was desire-nourishment and the adornment of beauty. In expressing these sensual emotions, poets used to show off miracles of inventiveness and acumen. In poetry some new artifice, or new simile, or new flight of fancy, was sufficient to earn praise-- no matter how remote from reality it might be. Moods of despair and pain, the nest and the cage, the lightning and the harvest, were imagined and shown so excellently that the hearers pressed their hands to their hearts, and even today how popular that poetry is, we and you know very well.
#5# Undoubtedly the intention of our poetry and literature is to sharpen the intensity of our feelings. But human life is not only sensual. Would it be limited to literature in which the theme would be sensual feelings and the pain and despair created by them, or in which only avoiding the world or the difficulties of the world would be considered the fruit of life? Can it fulfill our mental and emotional needs? Sensuality is a part of humanness, and the literature of which the greater part would be related to this alone cannot be a cause of pride to that community and that era; nor can it testify to their correct taste.
Whether it would be Hindi or Urdu poetry, both have just the same mood. To be detached from the taste of the literature and poetry of that time was not easy. Everyone has a greed for praise and critical appreciation. For the poets, their compositions were their chief means of livelihood. And who besides the elite and the rich could appreciate poetry?
#6# For our poets to confront common life and be influenced by its realities, either there wasn't even any occasion, or else everyone, high and low, had become pervaded with such a mental lowness that mental and intellectual life hadn't remained at all. We cannot blame the authors of that time for this. Literature is a mirror of its time. The feelings and thoughts that create turmoil in people's hearts, also cast their shadow in literature. In a time of such lowness either people practice lover-ship, or they become absorbed in mysticism and asceticism. Thus both the poetry and the literature of that era are of this very kind. When literature would be dominated by the instability of the world, and every single word would be drowned in despair and complaints about the age and about romance, then consider that the community has fallen prey to rigidity and decline, and no power for effort and struggle has remained in it, and it has closed its eyes toward lofty levels, and its power of vision has vanished.
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