Poetry collection launched
KARACHI: A collection of ghazals titled Khwab-i-Digar by a young poet from Islamabad, Ilyas Babar Awan, was launched at the Arts Council Karachi on Tuesday.
Journalist and poet Mehmood Shaam, who presided over the event, praised the young man’s poetry and said he was pleasantly surprised to read it. He said that while going through his couplets, he felt as if he was reading a seasoned poet’s work. He advised the poet to keep falling in love and keep writing.
Journalist and short-story writer Zeb Azkar Husain observed that in modern times if one were to understand poetry in particular and literature in general one should give up traditional ways of criticism. He said readers and presenters both learned from each other.
Commenting on Awan’s poetry he said that his ghazals were an attempt to get into the haze of life and move to the other side of the dream that he often saw. In that regard he quoted his couplet:
Kood jaon ga main is dhund bhare manzar mein Kuch magar khwab ke us paar nazar aaey tau (I’ll lose myself in the fog of life / But what is there, beyond that dream?)
He said Awan’s poetry was marked by freshness of diction, intelligent weaving of metaphors and creative verisimilitude.
Playwright Seema Ghazal acknowledged the young man’s poetry for being a form of communication between feelings and circumstances of a man with his soul. She said he wanted the world to realise what he was going through, and as an example recited the following two lines:
Mila ke khaak mein wo sochta raha barson Main aeeney mein numoodar ho gaya to phir (He became pensive after my fall / ‘What if he appears in the mirror?’)
Poet Fazil Jamili said he was first introduced to Ilyas Babar via the social networking website, Facebook. He remarked that his poetry was fraught with the pain of estrangement and anguish of separation.
Sitaron jaisey kaee loag aaey aur gaey Zara si der kaheen jagmagaey aur gaey (Starry-eyed people twinkled for a moment / And vanished into thin air) Salman Siddiqi told the audience that though he hadn’t met the poet before, he felt glad after flipping through his collection of ghazals. He said there were two ways of judging quality poetry: (1) how well it had enriched the language (2) whether it reflected contemporary issues faced by mankind. And Babar’s poetry succeeded on both counts.
Baharon ke guzar jaane se pehle Mujhe jeena hai mar jaane se pehle (Before the flowers begin to shrivel, before death approaches me / I want to live my life to the fullest) Ilyas Babar Awan thanked the organisers for arranging the event and recited a few of his ghazals.
The programme was conducted by Zahid Husain.
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