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Dear Sohail;
Just finished reading an essay you wrote on Faiz (I'm not sure when, there is no date on it, its in Urdu and in the section on other poets). It is
very well written and I particularly like how you have related Faiz' personal and social view points as they evolved
and then illustrated it with appropriate couplets or stanzas from his
poetry. An idea that came to me as I read it was the evolution in Faiz' personality and poetry came about as a result of
his personal and family life. I am fascinated, as a student of human
behavior, by the reciprocal connection between the personal and
the social and how they interact. In the case of Faiz,
the fiery poetry of his early revolutionary ideas gave way, as you have
pointed out in the essay, to a more measured, calmer, sweeter poetry
that humanized even the 'enemies' and encompassed all of humanity. How
much of that was a result of his having married, settled down and having
two daughters? I realize that to try and understand it as an either/or proposition is fruitless but the
personal and the social are constantly molding and changing each other.
This might be a good area to explore in our work on Faiz and would be a new addition to the existing
literature.
I also noticed that you do not have an essay in that
section on the 'Poet of the East', Iqbal. I am
planning to write a paper to read at Faizghar
this summer on Iqbal, I am currently fascinated
by Iqbal's militant and revolutionary poems (Khizr-e-rah, Shikwa etc). I'm
sure it is a reflection of my own emerging ideas(thus
my liking for Azeem's unflinching revolutionary
writings) coinciding with the tragedy unfolding in Pakistan.
I will send you a copy of the paper.
Wassallaam,
Ali
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