The Aesthetics of Communication

FINDING ITS SOUL in an embrace of melancholy and nurtured by “emotions recollected in tranquillity”, poetry has forever been a language of the heart and as Milan Kundera reminded us, “when the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object”. A moving medium of expression that explores the deep recesses of our being, poetry awakens us to suppressed emotions. It rouses sensitivities to a point where grief becomes music of the soul and moments of happiness, a cherished interlude in an ordinary life’s long story of substantive nothingness. As a welcome compensation for loss, poetry navigates around the sharp edges of life without underprizing it. Its potency and universal appeal is in the “tremor and draw” of words that please the senses and arouse the spirit. The expression of intense sensitivity anchored in the pulsating vibrancy of rhyming words enhances its appeal. Its lyrical pull magnifies the force of the message of togetherness, compassion, justice and injustice, love and hate, identity and difference, submission and assertion, anger and anguish, etc, in a symphony of life’s many hues. Poetry creates its own music and is about moments in life with which it is entwined. It assembles “language into art”, freeing the poet to be both “dignified and bold”—it “fills the air, rustles the leaves” as the poet weaves the truth of his age in the image of his own experiences. Sahir Ludhianvi’s introduction to his poetry says it all:

“duniya ne tajrabat o havadis ki shakl men
jo kuchh mujhe diya hai, vo lauta raha huun main”

(Whatever the world has given to me by way of experience and accident, is what I am returning).

The soul of the author is laid bare in his poetry—a “voice that survives the silencing of the voice”. Inspired by compelling emo­tions and sheltered in the depth of private spaces, poetry, as an expression of the self is profoundly personal. Its popular resonance is a function of the common truths that it mirrors, of which Seemab Akbarabadi has famously said:

“kahani meri rudad-e-jahan maalum hoti hai
jo sunta hai usi ki dastan maalum hoti hai”

(My story is the story of the world
He who hears it, considers it his own).

The poet’s function is to ensure that his own reality and that of the world around him does not remain outside the poetic realm. His canvass is broad enough to hold the many colours of life in a natural coalescence. He is a “philosopher of the heart”, a chronicler of the past, purveyor of the present and projector of the future. His vision bears the imprint of lived experi­ences and bridges the divide between sentiment and life’s reality. Shakeel Badayuni brings out the interface between life and literature thus:

“Men Shakeel, Dil Ka Hoon Tarjuma,
Ki Mohabbaton Ka Hoon Raazdaan
Mujhe Fakhr Hai Meri Shayari, Meri Zindagi Se Juda Nahi”

( Shakeel, I am but an echo of my heart,
A confidante of the emotion of love,
I am proud, my poetry and life are not apart).

Whether in depicting despair, ecstasy of the pain of unrequited love, the romanticism of protest or heroism of the brave, all have found immortality in literature. So it is that the histories of the age and nations are encased in their literature that clothes the bones of history in the culture of our times

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IN THEIR WIDER philosophical imagination, the littera­teurs interrogate the injustices of the times “in the still sad music of humanity”. Whether in depicting despair, ecstasy of the pain of unrequited love, hopelessness, the romanticism of protest or heroism of the brave, all have found immortality in literature. So it is that the histories of the age and nations are encased in their literature that clothes the bones of history in the culture of our times. In uniting philosophy, feeling and verve, art keeps alive the wisdom of the ages that shows us the way. Bertolt Brecht reminded us that art is “not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” Treasured compositions of the masters that encase profound wisdom and sensibilities of their time in the sublime arrangement of words, define for us our humanity, giving us the music of our lives and the light that brightens our path.

All literature flavours and deepens the expression of intense human emotions, particularly, the pain of loneliness, ache of separation from loved ones, a sense of rejection and helpless­ness. Jaishankar Prasad’s celebrated poem ‘Ansoo’, for instance, is an overwhelming enunciation of personal grief.

“Iss karuna kalit hriday mein
Ab vikal ragini bajati
Kyun hahahakaar swaron mein
Vedana aseem garajti?”

(In this compassionate heart
A restless melody doth now resound;
Wherefore in the sounds of lamentation, loud
Doth agony illimitable roar?)

The intensity of grief being emancipatory, it spurs an urge to reclaim life despite its torment. The poetry of grief is, therefore, also a poetry of hope.

Mirza Ghalib’s inimitable expression of sorrow in the following verses is a thoughtful reminder of the futility of the transient pleasures of the flesh.

“zulmat-kade men mere shab-e-gham ka josh hai
ik shama hai dalil-e-sahar so khamosh hai
ya subh-dam jo dekhiye aa kar to bazm men
ne vo surur o soz na josh-o-kharosh hai
dagh-e-firaq-e-sohbat-e-shab ki jali hui
ik shama rah gai hai so vo bhi khamosh hai”

(In the darkness of my home there is enthusiasm for a sor­rowful night,
A candle which is a signal of dawn is silenced./
Come and see at dawn the fate of the evening’s celebration, neither is there commotion of the gathering nor intoxication of pleasure./
Only a candle remains, burnt by the companionship of the night and extinguished in the wound of separation.)

Sahir Ludhianvi’s eloquent depiction of helplessness is a grudging recognition of the harsh realities of the struggle for exis­tence and resurgence of will to fight for justice and human dignity.

“majbur huun main majbur ho tum
majbur ye duniya saari hai
tan ka dukh man par bhari hai
is daur men jiine ki qimat ya dar-o-rasan ya khvari hai”

(I am helpless, as are you,
Helpless is this whole world.
Despair weighs on my mind
The price of living is either the gallows or wretchedness).

And he expresses his solidarity with the commoners and commitment to their dignity:

“lekin ai azmat-e-insan ke sunahre khvabo
main kisi taaj ki satvat ka parastar nahin
mere afkar ka unvan-e-iradat tum ho
main tumhara huun luteron ka vafadar nahin”

(But O golden dreams of human pride, I am not a worshiper of royal glory. You [mankind] are the essence of my thoughts, I am yours, my loyalty is not for the exploiters).

The force of communication is in the choice of the spoken and written word. Only then can we redeem ourselves of Ghalib’s censure: ‘whenever I speak, you ask who are you? Tell me, is this the way to converse?’

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Parveen Shakir’s powerful lament against oppression must weigh with every sensitive soul and serves as an inspiration for our collective pursuit of justice.

“pa-ba-gil sab hain rihai ki kare tadbir kaun
dast-basta shahr men khole miri zanjir kaun
mera sar hazir hai lekin mera munsif dekh le
kar raha hai meri fard-e-jurm ko tahrir kaun”

(Who can devise a plan for my liberation, with feet in chains?
Who can unlock my shackles in this confined city?
My head is for you to take, but let my judge see,
Who my prosecutor is).

Asrarul Haq Majaz’s exposition of resolute will to pursue a larger cause retains its motivating appeal for those who want to make a difference.

“Raste mein ruk ke dam le loon meri aadat nahin
Laut kar vaapas chala jaaoon, meri fitrat nahin”

(To stop and rest on the path [of a cause] is not my habit, To return is not in my nature).

And a poet’s recall of the eternal dilemma of a finite life and its infinite obligations is compelling.

“Aahista chal zindagi, abhi kai karz chukana baaki hai.
Kuch dard mitana baaki hai, Kuch farz nibhana baaki hai”

(Slow down, Oh life! Many debts are yet to be paid,Some pain is yet to be erased and duties discharged).

AS A PRODUCT of his environment in a dialecti­cal relationship, the poet’s lament, advisories and admonitions, even when expressed in personal terms, have a larger message in a broader social and political context. The philosopher in the poet is thus an agent of progressive change. Because the power of expres­sion defines the measure of the message itself, the emotion of our freedom struggle was captured in the gems of literature which are now a part of the na­tion’s political folklore and inspiration for a continu­ing struggle against injustice and oppression. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s ‘Vande Mataram’, Bismil Azimabadi’s ‘Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna’ and Ram Prasad Bismil’s ‘Mera Rang De Basanti Chola’, inspired by the spirit of freedom without bitterness and hatred for the colonial masters, galvanised the entire nation to attain independence. Such is the power of these songs of freedom that succeeding generations of Indi­ans continue to venerate them for their moral appeal.

In the present state of political discord, a case for such conversations of yore in the service of our social compact is self-evident. Clearly, the persuasive power of public discourse is located in the dignity of thought, embel­lished by the elegance of expression and deep emotions that are indelibly etched in public memory. Literature’s “conversational casualness that loosens the buckles on our argumentative armour” invests it with a unique capacity to communicate the most strident of criticisms without rancour and vitriol, redeem­ing contentious discourse of avoidable animosities and bitter­ness that wound the soul. Savour, for instance, AE Housman’s baring of his heart in a devastating critique of exploitation and human misery with humility and grace. (“They say my verse is sad: no wonder./ Its narrow measure spans/Tears of eternity and sorrow/ Not mine, but man’s.”)

Consider also the power of Pablo Neruda’s non-antagonistic felicity about history’s constant reminder that “tyranny cuts off the head that sings, but the voice at the bottom of the well returns to the secret springs of the earth and out of the darkness rises up through the mouth of the people.”

Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s ‘Tarana’, expounding the inevitability of the triumph of freedom, is a beacon in an unending struggle against oppression.

“ai khak-nashino uth baitho vo vaqt qarib aa pahuncha hai
jab takht girae jaenge jab taaj uchhale jaenge
ab tuut girengi zanjiren ab zindanon ki khair nahin
jo dariya jhuum ke utthe hain tinkon se na taale jaenge”

(O dwellers of the dust, stand up, the time is drawing near, When thrones will crumble, when crowns will be cast aside. Now chains will shatter, beware prisons, Those rivers that rise with a roar won’t be held back by mere straws).

Muhammad Iqbal’s ode to human dignity remains unparalleled.

“na tu zamin ke liye hai na asman ke liye
jahan hai tere liye tu nahin jahan ke liye”

(You are not for the world or for the heavens: The world is for you, not you for the world”).

And also:

“tu shahin hai parvaz hai kaam tera
tire samne asman aur bhi hain
isi roz o shab men ulajh kar na rah ja
ki tere zaman o makan aur bhi hain
sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain
abhi ishq ke imtihan aur bhi hain”

(You are a falcon, it is in your nature to fly
For you there are other skies beyond this sky
Don’t let the verb of dawns and dusks enmesh you
For you have other lives, other goals to pursue
Beyond these stars are worlds yet to unearth
There are more trials of love to test your worth).

INDISPUTABLY, THE FORCE of communication is in the choice of the elegant spoken and written word in articulating contemporary narratives. Only then can we redeem ourselves of Ghalib’s damning censure: “Har ek baat pe, kehte ho tum, Ke tu kya hai; Tum hi kaho ki ye andaz-e guftagu kya hai (Whenever I speak, you ask ‘Who are you?’ Tell me, is this the way to converse?)”. Oscar Wilde’s profound declaration “it is by utterance that we live” and Mir Taqi Mir’s exaltation of poetry in defining life as the purpose of his existence is a loud affirma­tion of the integrality of life and literature in addressing the moral imperatives of our world.

“gai umr dar-band-e-fikr-e-ghazal
so is fan ko aisa bada, kar chale
kahen kya jo puchhe koi ham se ‘Mir’
jahan men tum aae the kya kar chale”

(I spent my life composing lyrics, and raised the worth of poetic art,
What shall we say, Mir, if someone asks, why were thee hither sent, what did you achieve?)

It is, therefore, time to deepen our conversations with high purpose, inspired by poetic imagination and infused with literary excellence, to civilise interpersonal and public discourse. Let us delve deep into the world of language to find its value for our times. Following India’s 77th Independence Day, this piece is dedicated to the creative genius of litterateurs and poets, particularly those who defined for us our magnanimous nationalism and introduced us to a poetic dignity of thought.

About The Author

Ashwani Kumar

Ashwani Kumar is a senior advocate and former Union minister for law and justice. Views are personal