Iqbal Bano, Hum Dekhenge (We Shall See)

Listening to Iqbal Bano, the subcontinent's great ghazal singer. 

Hum Dekhenge

A protest poem written by her friend Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the darkest days of Zia's military dictatorship, she defied his ban on public music and Faiz's 'leftist' poetry by appearing in a concert at Lahore's Railway Stadium before a crowd of 50,000.

This song went on to inspire a whole generation of young activists on both sides of the Indo-Pak border; today you can even hear Hum Dekhenge chanted by protesters in Occupied Kashmir!

Her voice is sublime, with a range and power equivalent to great African-American spirituals. Even if you don't know Urdu, please listen.

This rekindled the love for Urdu poetry I developed in college, and the song is equal to "We shall overcome" imho.

(My translation)
"All crowns will be toppled/All thrones overturned/And rise to heaven/Like cotton fluffs/When the final days come/The invisible poor and oppressed/Will finally be visible/And all will see/The face of God/...

The refrain and closing verse Hum Dekhenge (We shall see) is from the Quran, the leftist poet is using Islamic verses to rebuke the dictator who used religion to divide the country

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This recording is from a performance the next year in Lahore's Alhamra Hall at the annual Faiz Festival. Iqbal Bano is said to have worn a black Sari in protest against the dictator's ban on the 'Indian'  garment (he even banned kite flying, the sale of musical instruments and celebrations of the Hindu holiday of Holi).

The audience sang along with her and roared the refrain Hum Dekhenge! And then she did a remarkable thing, against the conventions of ghazal (Indo-Persian Sufi poetry). The performance is supposed to be by seated musicians and singers, but at the final stanza, she stood up in silent protest! The crowd went wild.

Zia's goons went around the next day and confiscated all the tapes they could find but the original had been hidden away and smuggled to Dubai where it spread back to India and Pakistan. The rest, is history.

Sadly, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Iqbal Bano are no longer with us but their song lives on in the hearts of oppressed people of India and Pakistan.

Nature Loves You Back

#Haiku

 

Walking, neighbourhood

 

Looking for black walnut trees

 

By the door, waiting

 

Walking through the neighbourhood with our children, Chloe and I talked about the Eastern Black Walnut Tree Juglans nigra. We saw so many half eaten nut on the ground but couldn't locate the tree or trees. (It has medicinal and spiritual properties, makes lovely wood floors and furniture).

 

Then coming home, there was a whole black walnut fruit wedged into the bench by the door. Chloe recently lost her uncle, and, here was a message from spirit. Very likely, a squirrel carried it to our front door.

 

This is what the fruit looks like, though the picture above is of the actual walnut we peeled.

 

 

So used to these signs; we just register them and move on. 

 

 

 

 



The Joy of Hafez

The Power of Poetry to move us all

Poetry, like music, like art, can not only move us personally but also express the longing of a nation..

If I have a special place in my heart for the holy books the Quran, Bhagvad Gita, or Bible, it is because of the power of their poetry, and the poetry of Shakespeare, Lao-Tzu and Hafez also has a special place in my heart.

I remember with special fondness when a friend and I read the Diwan i Hafiz in the Persian by candlelight in Tehran during Nawrooz, the Persian New Year. It was a very difficult time for what I saw ahead, but also because the reading gave me a confirmation the path I choose would lead me to what I sought. Fal-e-Hafiz can be an oracle as well.

Nawrooz in Tehran 2007: A friend and i stayed up reading Fal-e-Hafiz http://www.hafizonlove.com/fal.htm

"Than eternal life, union is better

O God, give me that, which is better.

Cut me with a sword, and I said no word,

From foe keeping friend's secret is better.

In this path to die enslaved to the Lord

Than all the world, that Soul is better.

Ask healer of my painful discord

Will this invalid ever get better?

In shade of the spruce, the rose that was floored

Than ruby red blood, its dust is better.

O pious ones, with heavens I'm bored

Than paradise, this garden is better.

O heart, always, in His alley beg and hoard

He, who commands eternity is better.

O youth, with the advice of the old be in accord

Than youthful luck, old wisdom is better.

No eye has seen a gem that soared

That of the pearl of my ear is better.

Though from "Zendeh Rood" elixir of life poured

Than Isfahan, Our Shiraz is better.

Though friend's words sweetness stored

Than those words, Hafiz's is better"

© Shahriar Shahriari

I wish my friends peace.