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FROM POETS ALL OVER THE WORLD

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Essay of The Month:

MOHAMMED FAKHRUDDIN
--- An Eminent English Poet Born To Lead!
By Dr. Shujaat Hussain
   Courtesy: POET, International Monthly, (Chennai, India) October 2007

     Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin is a legend. The author and publisher of over 28 books, he has earned his reputation as an eminent poet in the field of English poetry and a writer whose work defies categorization. Several of his books are numbered among the best; he has reputedly been considered for national and international prizes.

     “The Sonnets & The Rubaiyat of Mohammed Fakhruddin” is a book to savour in our favourite chair. We will imagine ourselves with the poet and maker of the poets, Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin as he ‘trams into the soothing breezes of Rubaiyat and captivating themes of the Fakhruddinean Sonnets.

     If we go through the sonnets of Dr. Fakhruddin, by power and temperament he is the most Fakhruddinean soul and spirit. He is Fakhruddinean in his conception of the kingdom of poetry which includes the whole range of life and imagination, nobility of the soul and classical mind.

     Mohammed Fakhruddin is a living manifestation of the glorious world, an architect of human behaviour and builder of noble soul. However, Shelley, Keats and Byron were obsession in his twenties, Wordsworth and Frost were in his thirties, Arnold and Dryden were in his vision in his forties, Milton and Leigh Hunt had made tremendous roads into his fifties and Shakespeare and Omar Khayyam are the latest and most powerful influence which have paved the way for the creation of “The Sonnets and The Rubaiyat”.

     The readers have gathered opinions that nowadays the reviewers do not mark the distinction between views and reviews. Generally view is observed of an author instead of reviewing a book. The readers may easily find the learning and limitation of the reviewer whether they belong to the land of West or East. To review a book is a daunting task and particularly when Sonnets and Rubaiyat came on the way. During centuries old history of the Sonnets and Rubaiyat, a few poets have tried their hands and history preserves their name, list stands remarkably very short.

     Would it be wrong to say that the only literary form in the West with which the ‘Rubai’ deserve comparison is the Sonnet? In point of technical severity, there is much in common between the rubai and the sonnet. No English poet has to this day quite succeeded in writing a perfect sonnet. Similarly, the rubai has been a rather difficult form to practice. That is why the effort that Dr. Fakhruddin has made to prove his craftsmanship. Not bird’s eye view but a sincere perusal will enable readers to find Dr. Fakhruddin’s sonnets and rubaiyat as the fragrant flowers, flowers of his garden, his garden refreshes atmosphere and present pleasant scenery.

     It is essential for a good rubai that its subject matter be compatible with its style. So, whereas a rubai poet is fettered with regard to certain restrictions on its technique, he has to pay much heed to the artistic beauty and flow of language. It was because of this difficulty that a rubai poet, Mohammed Bin Qais Razi said:
“In the first place, a rubai should have rhythmic compatibility, felicity of words, subtlety of meaning, novelty of similes and metaphors and excellences. Secondly, it should be free from unnecessary use of words or words of erratic nature.”

Allama Dr. Mohammed Iqbal says about rubai:

            “The themes of adoration of God, love and mysticism, religion and morality, preaching and sermons, as practiced in the Persian rubai in the most fascinating, elegant and succinct way, could not be presented in any other form.”

Josh Malihabadi says in the context of rubai:

            “There is no denying fact that many subjects can be placed within its range. But verily,…present the vast experience of mature life…..sublime thoughts….philosophical overtones….transcendent beauty which is attended by majesty.”

Moulvi syed Mohammed Hasan Bilgrami has placed rubaiyat under the following categories:1.Adoration of God  (Hymn), 2. Adoration of the Prophet, 3. Exaltation of Man, 4. Knowledge, ignorance and self-recognition, 5. Pride, arrogance and moral depravation, 6. Evanescence of life, 7. Platonic or real love, 8. Speech and silence, 9. Shunning of ambition, 10. Obedience, 11. Youth and old age, life and death, 12. Control and authority, transgression and penance, 14. Post-life and Grace of God and 15. Prayers and supplications.

     The poet has choice for his own particular theme or subject, a reflection of his own personality. To make it grandeur, he also adds  colour of his own individuality. As we find Omar Khayyam’s love was centred on Halima Begum, daughter of an official at Alp Arslan’s court, whose hand was denied to him and have reason behind.  Similarly Dr. Fakhruddin’s lines and verses are to be explored by the close associates for the reason being existence and somewhat I am close to it since he says, “I’m in love with the star of Asia” I should not declare right now “eureka”, have patience, wait and watch.

     Internal feeling of a poet or external pressures upon his is the outcome of rubai. For example, the special topics of Omar Khayyam’s rubaiyat are ‘wine’ and ‘Epicureanism’. In the same way, ‘love’ is the special field of Abu Said Abul Khair. In the rubaiyat of Sahabi  Astrabadi, mysticism has been presented from a new angle. In Urdu too, each poet has presented his theme in a particular way.        Therefore, the rubaiyat of  Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah revolve round theme of love. Mysticism is the predominant theme of Wali. Disillusionment or frustration is the distinguishing mark of the works of Mir.  Mirza Ghalib’s are packed with wisdom and philosophy. In the rubaiyat of Mir Anees and Mirza Dabeer, apart from homilies, there is largely the description of the martyrs of Karbala. The works of Rashid do reflect the wrinkles of old age whereas Hali’s and Akbar’s, the changed conditions of their times are mirrored. Josh’s rubai  echoes with a note of revolution. A note of felicity and sweetness exists in rubai of Firaq.

     There is co-existence between life and love in Mohammed Fakhtuddin’s poetry. There is no life without love and love without life. If there is life without life means there is death in life, and life is just like a carcass so it is essential to consider the word ‘love’ which has been used 76 times in 50 rubaiyat out of 198, written by Mohammed Fakhruddin in his book “The Sonnets & The Rubaiyat”. Moreover, lips, caress, kisses and sex are also found here and there. What exactly his ‘love’ stands for? It must be elucidated by the words he has applied in it. As a matter of fact, is it blissful, faithfull, miserable, blue lagoon, full moon or honeydew etc.? Here rubaiyat of Dr. Fakhruddin begins with:

That I no longer judge, and reason spins
A thousand tales, and therein each pair wins;
but woe expiation for their actions,
Lovers commits many uncalled for sins.
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Dr. Fakhruddin asks the lover and beloved to “Listen to the sweet music of my heart, / Feel the touch with passion and be a part / of the same body and soul burning fire; / learn the craft of love since life is an art.” One can judge him by this statement and may easily declare him as an artist of this field. Further, he is pilgrim that his dedication progresses towards one feeling or one emotion. Spiritual approach reveals his adherence to God thus he says, ‘God created roses to fall in love.”

     He propounds touchstone of love, “If their love is true it conjures two hearts”. What are the ingredients of ‘love’? Dr. Fakhruddin makes it to the level of acceptance clear that ‘trust is essence of love that activates men and women explore the treasure-trove hidden deep down, the life invigorates.” Theory of love, Platonic love, spiritual love and now he talks of divine love in this way “When Adam pleased for company there, out of divine love God created Eve.”

     Dr. Fakhruddin accepts the kind of love he believes in:

Yes, our love is as true as honeydew,
Our heart beats sync to form a song of love;
Words are symbols of deep-rooted pine trees,
Lovebirds exchange eyes and pledge to be true.

     But his love culminates and consummates:
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

“Love of begins with, sex becomes blissful,
If with love, sex makes one to be faithful;
When wrong match, life becomes miserable,
Better breakaway than stay unfaithful.”
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

He hates modern love. You can measure his mood and anxieties:

“Modern woman don’t deserve love with care,
Youth, beauty and sex on sale everywhere”
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

But at the very outset he says, “That I no longer judge…”

     With the zeal for righteousness and the strenuous moral purpose which pertained to the one, there is still blended the love of learning and the passion for beauty which are the hallmarks of the other.

Dr. Fakhruddin is of the view that:

“Simplicity is the sign of beauty”, ‘Sweet words have wings’, and it is word which is not soul-less or mortal, it is bouquet, it is full of verve and immortality:

“Words are icons of immortality,
Verses composed live as an entity
Of power, lead all from darkness to light,
Bards, through words, attain immortality.”
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Poetic art is after all an embodiment of spirit and a vehicle of thought and feeling, and that it is from the character of the spirit, thought, and feeling which it expresses that it derives its substantial value and thereby the value of the poet. He makes readers feel his feeling, feeling of the human beings.

 “Use power to think great and be creative
Shun hatred, vice, and destructive measures.
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Poetry deals with the universe so through the vehicle of thought his sight reaches even to the places and countries where wars are being waged in the name of some pretext and those are engaged in misusing the power, such fellows are with the trait “Sick mind indulge in disturbing world peace.” At this place his theory synchronized with American poet Robert Frost whose poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

     If Dr. Fakhruddin is pilgrim of love he is devotee of peace too:

God chooses men to rule nations in peace,
Wage war against poverty and disease
Provide food, clothing, shelter, education,
Help everyone to live, at least, in peace.
                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     He has invariably recognized that poetry is made out of life, belongs to life, exist for life and there are two symbols ‘love’ and ‘peace’ which are required in this planet for the survival of life.

     It can be said that, as a form of poetry, sonnet is the only Western form which appears to be close to rubai. In the literature of the East, it is rubai which is brief and succinct. So is sonnet in the literature of the West. Further, the umber of their couplets is determined. Rubai has, as a rule, a quatrain in which 1st, and 2nd and 4th lines rhymes with each other and the 3rd line is left unrhymed. Whereas a Fakhruddin’s sonnet consists of fourteen lines consisting of three quatrains capped with a couplet. The rhyming scheme of the Shakespearean sonnets is different from the Miltonic sonnets. Both forms are in vogue.
 
     There is one more striking similarity between rubai and sonnet—inherent thought or meaning gradually unfolds itself and then finally it culminates. There is essential for a sonnet to have a purpose; it should have seriousness in its tone and unity in its plan. A rubai too is more or less a happy blend of these elements. In rubai, the first or the opening line introduces a subject. Its thought or content gradually develops and, then finally, it culminates into the fourth or the closing line. At the same time, a rubai has a purpose; it is generally serious in its tone and unity in its plan. Another significant point is that poet Fakhruddin has used 10 syllables in each line throughout both in his Rubaiyat and Sonnets. Therefore, it can be said that sonnet is the only Western form of poetry which has a close resemblance with the rubai of the East.

     Each of the Fakhruddin’s sonnets is a perfect flower in the garden of poetry. It excels not only in formal beauty, but also in emotional colour. It is complete in itself and expresses in condensed form one feeling, one idea, or one emotion. It is a fourteen line structural form having 3 quatrains and a couplet composed in iambic pentameter.

     The word ‘sonnet’ is a derivation of the Italian ‘sonnetto’, meaning a little sound or strain. Perhaps the birth place of it is Sicily and Province’, first met with in Italy in the latter half of the 13th century. Rossetti has defined it as a ‘moment’s monuments’….  ‘A memorial to a dead in deathless hour'... The Italian sonnet is known as the Petrarchan but is sometimes called the classical, as being the model which other countries followed later. It is composed to two parts---the octave, a stanza of eight lines, and the ‘sestet’, a stanza of six. The octave has two rhymes (say a and b) arranged according to the following scheme: a b b a, a b b a, that is to say, the first line rhyming with the fourth, the fifth, and the eighth; and the second with the third, the sixth and the seventh. The sestet sometimes has three rhymes and sometimes two, different in various ways as follows: c d e, c d e (the first and the third with the sixth); or c d c, d c d; or c d e, d c e. The octave may be divided into two stanzas of four lines each, called quatrains; and the sestet into two of three lines each, called tercets. At the end of the octave, i.e., after the eighth line, there is a well-marked pause or caesura (indicated by the punctuation, and often emphasized by a space), followed by a volta or turn in the thought, which implies that the thought, though it has not been dropped, is given a new application, or summarized, or possibly disputed, in the sestet. Yet this break is not invariably found in the Italian Sonnet, or in Milton, who revived the Italian form. For instance, there is no division between the octave and the sestet in his famous sonnet On His Blindness.

     The Sonnet was introduced into England in the first half of the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard. In their hands, however, the form underwent a change, and Surrey, in particular, adopted a rhyme-scheme widely different from that of his Italian model. He wrote his sonnets in three quatrains, a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g — a form so splendidly used by Shakespeare later that it is now called after him. Since it is divided into four parts, it has no pause and turn of thought (caesura and volta) at the end of the eighth line; it works right up to the final couplet, where the highest peak of the poet's thought is reached. 

     Omar Khayyam’s rubaiyat are attached to his beloved Halima Begum, Dante’s sonnets born in praise of his beloved Beatrice, Petrarch desire of Laura, Earl of Surrey’s in love of Geraldine and Dr. Fakhruddin’s for the welfare of human beings and for the betterment of the world, Platonic or real love now the right time has come to be focused.

     Sonnets were watered and cultivated by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Shakespeare, Ronsard, La Pleiade, Marot, Du Bellay, Philippe Desportes, Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Henry Constable, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Lodg, Michael Drayton, Richard Barnfield, Milton, Thomas Warton, Wordsworth Coleridge, Keats and a few in the twentieth century.

     Dr. Fakhrddin is a poet, a teacher and moralist because we know that in his hands the truths of life and conduct will acquire a higher potency and value:

I fear no death well, not as such.
Nor do I like it very much.
When time is up then, come what may,
We have to quit without delay.
How long in this way must I drag?
My life as in a carpetbag
I bear this silly load of life
With its unmentionable strife,
And so endure no bed of roses.
The poet, from all these composes
All manner of good things with sense
Who seeks the truth shuns violence,
And so with me! --- Humanity
Reveals, in peace, fraternity!

                             (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     You will agree to my view that poetry is life and that a poet’s greatness depends upon the greatness of his subject matter, the power of thought which he brings to bear upon it, and his moral strength and influence. Fakhruddin’s realms of sonnets are life, love, peace, kisses, lips, faith, trust, fraternity, humanity, happiness, prosperity etc. Even at the time of visualizing sensuality with the structure of the beloved:

Your marble body and your smiling face,
your eyes, your lips, your whole anatomy
a carnal offering, to lust, and love.
Your narrow waist and pillars of your thighs,
they drive me mad. They torment me, but of
their nature I know nothing. Reason dies.
When you breathe deep, cheeks red, my lips go dry:
Muscles compress, your bosoms stand upright.
Dear God, can this be madness? Who am I
To be recipient of this delight?
O let my passions thrive, complete, intact
in word and deed, and dream and wake, a fact.

(Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Browning says—“philosophers first, and poetry, which is its highest outcome afterwards.” And Lowell says, “No poem ever makes me respect its author which does not in some way convey a truth of philosophy:

The distance between lovers makes love strong,
Hearts pine for each other to love life long
Feeling lost in ecstasy hearts enjoy,
As words fly across make blood boil away
Plutonic love is like fragrant flower,
Stays afresh deep in the heart forever
Sensuous love, like storm in a teacup,
Guzzles down straight to let its roots grow up
How could a man live without a woman?
Sea without a shore, the sun without moon,
The sky without stars, a rose without thorn,
Rain without thunder, an eve without morn,
Everything is well set in its own place,
(Mohammed Fakhruddin)
    His true love is with ‘the star of Asia’ and she is like a lovely angel, heaven-born and as if she were an angel come to earth. The truth is that love recognizes love, when two eyes meet souls mingle together then the hearts beat faster, making the blood glow. There must not be barriers of age. It appears that there is some kind of difference between the star of Asia and the poet himself.

     Dr. Fakhruddin theorizes his philosophical love:

Beloved, no man possessed you till today,
But I did! No one gave me ecstasy,
As you did! Lead me to the mount Venus
Through love, and cut down distance between us.
The trust reposed in me in high esteem,
Deserves reciprocation to redeem
Immortalize love by self-submission,
Grow with time for self-realization.
Love is not lust, but bliss in which love dwells,
Life without bliss is heaven sans angels
Loving someone igniting soul with soul,
Generates power to be sensual!
Love blossoms on its own like a flower,
Time on its journey creates a lover.
 (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Those people who term the word ‘love’ abusive are rash and ash. They are harbinger of violence, wage wars, spread hatred, raise walls of discrimination, suppress human rights, arrogant, egotist, hypocrite, malicious, devotee of power and centre of all evils. They do not know what needs of love, must learn:

Heart needs heart to beat in rhythm,
Love is divine, love blooms to chime,

(Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     The world is wise enough to decide who is great or damn, who inspires or conspires, who constructs or demolishes, who is an evil or angel, who is innocent or guilty? Dr. Fakhruddin delineates their function in this regard:

Life is a journey, ending on its own,
When, where and how of death remain unknown;
Man writes his tale in sickness and in health,
Some live forever. Some when dead leave wealth; --
But great men from the realms of gold inspire,
Generations on and on burn like fire
With sparks of knowledge for posterity,
World brotherhood, world peace, tranquility,
See evil breeding evil: hatred, war …
Born-sinners breed. Each one is uncared for.
Peoples divide. They separate in woe
For man’s success wreck others. Is this so?
What do we live for, and what contribute,
To give this world each perfect attribute
(Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Turmoil, tribulations, violence, riots, bloodshed, World Wars, Godhra carnage, genocide of Gujarat, centuries old demolition of Babri Mosque, Bombay serial blasts, crash of twin towers, mass killings in Afghanistan, Iraq, Philistine, rains of Daisy Cutter and Guided missiles are unforgettable harrowing deeds, now Dr.
Fakhruddin advises:

In the name of the God, declare no war,
In the name of love and peace, wage no war!
Loss of life and property is not war,
But the loss of faith in the God is war;
God chooses men to rule nations in peace,
Wage war against poverty and disease;
Provide, food, clothing, shelter, education,
Help everyone choose his own profession.
If men soaked in hatred come to power,
Nations disintegrate, face disaster,
Unleash civil war and bloodshed throughout,
Make world community's patience run-out.
Politics become human destroyer,
if misused by those who come to power.

 (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Ill-willed fellow spreads hatred just to usurp power. In such scenario nation disintegrate and faces disaster.

     If all these things happen before the poet he cannot bear, a poet has angelic heart and sensible mind and accustomed to write what he witnesses and experiences, his accountabilities put him between two horns:

Words, words, and words, I write; but to what end?
I write of life and death. What do I know?
The world around me I may comprehend,
And know myself a little. Even so,
Both rich and poor who, like me, stride this earth,
From vice and virtue offer no respite!
All compromise till they are of small worth,
Unwilling to divide the wrong from right!
The poet in me never is at ease,
I fear the weight of what I do not know.
I fear my sight, and what my mind foresee,
Fills me with terror! Yes! But, even so,
I am obliged, by what I am, to be
Recorder of my own mortality!

 (Mohammed Fakhruddin)

     Dr. Fakhruddin is the best poet of his generation, represents highest point of consciousness, greatest power of poetical mechanism and its most delicate sensibility, and fantastic etiquettes of poetry. His “Sonnets and Rubaiyat” thus, provides a thought provoking discussion of the place and future of imaginative literature of contemporary civilization, vivid, musical, stirring, passionate, sensuous, impersonal and sincere.

     He is an earnest truth-speaking man; no sentimentalize, but a practical man of work and endeavour, man of sufferance and endurance. The thing that he speaks is not hearsay, but a thing which he has himself known, and by experience become assured of. He has used his eyes for seeing, uses his tongue for declaring what he has seen. His voice, therefore, among the many noises of our Planet, will deserve its place better than the most.

     Nature and the doings of man have not passed by this man unheeded, like the endless cloud walk in dull weather; or lightly heeded; like a theatric phantasmagoria; but earnestly inquired into, like a thing of reality, glimpses of which divines he has caught and laid to heart. For his vision, as was said, partakes of the genuinely poetical, he is not only a Lyrist and Speaker, but, in some genuine sense, something of a poet.

     Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin is the poets’ poet. He is a poet of scholars because of his indulgence in classical form and sublime thought. I assert that his influence will keep on growing by leaps and bounds. He is a university of poetry where so many bards dwell. His sobriety of art, magnanimity of nature, penchant for simple words, clarity of thought and musical flavour, brevity of expression, will remain a constant source of inspiration to future poets. His “Sonnets and Rubaiyat” will definitely be an inspiring force such as Keats’ on Robert Bridge and Hopkins. All in all, India has produced Mohammed Fakhruddin as an eminent English poet born to lead!

 

Dr. Shujaat Hussain
4/771, Friends Colony
Aligarh -202002