Friday, December 14, 2007

Immortal Couplets of Moin Ahsan Jazbi: Famed Urdu Poet's Life and Poetry

Moin Ashan Jazbi
Renowned Urdu poet late Moin Ahsan Jazbi never cared for fame or critics' attention.

Though his Nazms and Ghazals were more popular than many of the well-known poets, he preferred to remain in the background. Jazbi had a tough life, especially because of stepmothers' harsh treatment.

Jazbi suffered financial problems and remained unemployed for long. A reflection of these frustrations, as well as the lack of love [which he mentions openly in interviews, publicly and in his poetry] are visible clearly in his couplets.

It was after he got a job in AMU that he got financial security. He wrote less than his contemporaries but his couplets have more poetry and lyricism, as well as the poetic strength to survive time. Once he settled in life, he took great care of his stepmother, who had made life hell for him in his childhood.

Moin Ahsan Jazbi was born in 1912. A close of friend of Asrar Ul Haq 'Majaz' Lakhnawi, he initially kept 'Malaal' as his pen name but later changed it to Jazbi. Among the last of the poets of Progressive Writers' Movement, along with Wamiq Jaunpuri, he nurtured young talent till his old age.

Jazbi He passed away in 2005. Read Moin Ahsan Jazbi's eight immortal couplets here. In order to read them in Urdu script and Devanagri Hindi, CLICK HERE:

na aaye maut Khudaayaa tabah-haalii meN
yah naam hogaa Gham-e-rozgaar sah na sakaa

tere karam kii bhiik le aisaa haqiir Gham nahiiN
jaa O sitam-sh'aar jaa, aarzuu-e-karam nahiiN

tuu giraa degii mujhe apnii nazar se varnaa
tere qadmoN pe to sajdaa bhii ravaa hai mujhko

ho na ho dil ko tere husn se kuchh nisbat hai
jab uThaa dard to kyuuN maiN ne tujhe yaad kiyaa

jisko kahte haiN mohabbat jisko kahte haiN Khuluus
jhopDoN meN ho to ho, puKhtaa makaanoN meN nahiiN

terii nazar meN rah ek raaz ban gayaa thaa
gir kar terii nazar se afsaanaa ho gayaa maiN

aah kii dil ne na phir shikva-e-bedaad kiyaa
jab se sharmiilii nigaahoN ne kuchh irshaad kiyaa

daastaan-e-shab-Gham qissa tuulaanii hai
muKhtasar yah hai ki tuu ne mujhe barbaad kiyaa

Past posts on Jazbi:
1. Jazbi's famous nazm 'Maut' in Roman and Devanagari scripts
2. Obituary and the circumstances when he wrote Maut
3. Read his ghazals, couplets and poetry in Urdu, Roman and Devanagari scrips AT THIS LINK