‘Let’s meet, chat and depart’

The poet is in love with many thoughtful questions exhibiting her poetic maturity

BOOK REVIEW By ADARSH AJIT

Name of the book: Chaman Barg Raze
Poetess: Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi
Year of publication: 2012
Price: Rs 350/

                           Darakhshan Andrabi’s ghazals  and poems  show complexity of thought, depth, philosophical touch and sublime sensibility. She presents Kashmir in a veiled yet universal way. Unlike other poets, who urge to meet the beloved in a happy ending,  she  wants to meet  someone, have  a chat and depart again:

goda yaar samov, darbaar karov, pata raavav
tim khaab panane lotipathe sarov, pata raavav

Let’s meet, have a chat and depart
Let us realize our dreams and then disperse

          The poet is in love with many thoughtful questions which exhibit  her poetic maturity. Many new poetic inventions, unknown and unexpressed in the Kashmiri literature, have been expressed in the book. The  poet knows how to  liberate from the mundane.  She  covers the  distance between the celestial and the existential worlds on a  well-designed platform in her own characteristic way. Potentially rich she sums up her flight of thoughts:

yad mashraavav aslaafan heund khaab pagah,
ase kati chaarav sehraavan manz aab pagah
baari amaanat laash panane chem shaanan peth
dafnaavan kath jaayi cha vantam khaab pagah

If we forget the dreams of our ancestors,
how shall we find the water in the deserts.
The dead body on my shoulders is a burden
where shall I bury the dream tomorrow?

                The title Nazam Chaman Barg Raze is striking for it depicts the turbulent valley. The words describing nature have been poetically woven together to present desolation. In the cluster of quatrains the fourth line of each quatrain ends with a question,  which is in  contrast to the content of the  first three lines.  This  experiment is unique in it-self and  enriches the Kashmiri literature. She is waiting for someone to read unwritten pages of her existence and calls someone to leave the fear psychosis and have the courage to see the light of the day:

ani gati hendi mousama ki khofa asethakh che taapa lanjan peth kenh bath
adlek travmate
adleken batan dichmai zev ta karim poora
gevmaten batan hinzi layi zale vaaryah changge
cha kyazi gaashas khochaan?

Darkness made you leave the songs incomplete on the sunny branches.
I gave language to the incomplete songs and completed them.
The rhythm of the songs gave birth to the burning candles.
Why are you afraid of the light?

                  Natural beauty attracts the poet often. She is an expert in using the natural richness of the  murmuring streams, mountains and the free air. She wants to merge in nature and asks her own symbols to recognize their being with respect to the vibes of nature:

kota zaroori chu zi
poshan aasan panponpares
baalthongen obr lang…….
ta kotah zaroori chu zi
mann rati timan naalmati
ta mathi tim pannis vajoodas

How important is that flowers have butterflies
and mountains have clouds!
And how necessary that soul embraces them!

               Six stanza-poem “ada tulizi qadam yath basti manz” talks about a person  who  is conscious  about paths, the dangers and the ways to reach the destination and asks the other to proceed with extreme care. Giving the background for this journey the poet informs:

yati kaakad chee kooten mare mare
parbat daari chu curfew naal walith
yali lookh taten nani waana saman
ada tulzi kadam yath basti manz

Every window is sealed curfew.
Paper is pasted on the poles here.
When people will assemble, all visible, then take a step in this habitat.’

           Romantic influence is evidently visible in most of the couplets of Darakhshan. In this dark-age  when the relations have declined, love is gone and hypocrisy rules the romantic essence of the poet gives hope.
Darakhshaan tests doha-form also. In one of her dohas she writes:

deewaaras lekith, rat navith tehreer
shure gai aangan buze, yee sapdus tafseer

Inscriptions on the walls are in blood.
Children disappeared. This was the upshot.

                   Drakhshan Andrabi’s content is rich on the philosophical level. Occasionally  she  succumbs  to her heart.  The pain,  misery,  difficulties, travails  and  loss  of the  dearest ones have broken her heart. The poet is shattered. Her wounds bleed. But she develops new skills for living and for the outflow of her emotions:

timan baapath
yaman asnukh chu haavas
timan baapath
yaman yachnuk chu taakath
kanaan chas dag
heyiv maa?’

I sell my pain for those who want to laugh
and have desires.
Will you buy?