Abdul Ahad Saaz’ nazm

Do you have patience to read this Nazm ‘Savaal-e-roz-e-hashr’!
Abdul Ahad Saz wrote it almost a decade ago.
It has several lines that got popular like…’Shyookh apnii atlasii qabayeN zebtan kiye buland gunbadoN tale, zamiin ka tel aakhirat ke daam bech kar jazaa kamaa chuke…’

Jo guzartaa hai khafaa lagta hai….Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi’s death is a big blow to Urdu literature. He was last of the great writers in the line of Majaz, Faiz, Jazbi, Sardar Jafri, Makhdum, Kaifi, Majrooh and many other of the generation of thirties that was a product of the Progressive Writers’ Movement.

Majaz died more than fifty years ago and Jazbi left us a couple of years back. Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi was perhaps the last of those who attained such fame across the Urdu world. Writer, poet, columnist, editor, Qasmi was almost 90 at the time of his demise. Perhpas Akhtar Saeed Khan is the sole poet of that generation alive in the sub-continent now. And Saraswati Saran Kaif also though the latter was not identified with Progressive Writers’ Movement.

सांस लेना भी सज़ा लगता है
अब तो मरना भी रवा लगता है

सरे बाज़ार है यारों की तलाश
जो गुज़रता है ख़फ़ा लगता है

मौसम-ए-गुल में सर-ए-शाख़-ए-गुलाब
शोला भड़के तो बजा लगता है

मुस्कुराता है जो इस आलम में
बख़ुदा मुझको ख़ुदा लगता है

इतना मानूस हूं सन्नाटे से
कोई बोले तो बुरा लगता है

नुत्क़ का साथ नहीं देता दहन
शुक्र करता हूं गिला लगता है

अंजुम-ओ-माह का क्या ज़िक्र नदीम
मेहर मोह्ताज-ए-ज़िया लगता है
(अहमद नदीम क़ासमी)

saaNs lena bhi sazaa lagtaa hai/ab to marnaa bhii ravaa lagtaa hai

sar-e-bazaar hai yarooN ki talaash/jo guzartaa hai khafaa lagtaa hai

mausam-e-gul meN sar-e-shaaKh-e-gulaab/sho’la bhaRke to baja lagtaa hai

muskuraata hai jo is aalam meN/ba-Khuda mujhko Khuda lagta hai

itnaa manuus huuN sannTe se/koii bole to buraa lagtaa hai

anjum-o-maah ka kyaa zikr nadeem/mehr mohtaaj-e-ziaa lagta hai