COLUMN: The lost poet

The late Mubarak Ahmad was the kind of poet whose personality possessed the same significance and attraction as did his poetry; one led to the other. He was wholly and solely devoted to poetry which was for him the be-all and end-all. For this kind of involvement in poetry he was indebted to the influence of Miraji who chose to devote himself solely to the cause of poetry with particular reference to the modern mode of expression. This mode of expression was not just in terms of free verse alone, but much more than that. It brought with it a new poetic sensibility. Armed with this, Miraji emerged as a new voice in Urdu poetry and was instrumental in introducing a new school of thought commonly known as modern poetry. Ahmad was the junior member of this school. He employed free verse for his poetic expression and embraced the sensibility of this modern mode of expression. For about 25 years Ahmad remained associated with Miraji's school of  poetry. There came a time when adherents to this school betrayed signs of exhaustion and slowly and gradually started receding into the background. Ahmad, brewing with energy, was willing to make a fresh start. For him free verse appeared a bit hackneyed because of its overuse. He cast it aside and in the early 60s wrote a poem in his newly discovered mode of expression which became known as prose poem. The reaction in the literary world was predictable as this new form was denounced as mere prose, dry and drab. Ahmad vehemently defended this new mode of poetic expression and saw in it a just cause to fight. He no longer was a poet; he had turned into a missionary fighting for the cause of prose poetry. With this newly developed sociopolitical awareness, Ahmad became concerned with the struggle for the restoration of democracy and was highly worried about world peace. He then started writing profusely about these issues with the zeal of a missionary, so much so that his poetic work became lost beneath the heap of these writings. The poet was overshadowed by the missionary. It was left for his son Eraj Mubarak to restore what was lost in the flurry of Ahmad's missionary phase. He delved into all of his father's verses, carefully sorting out those which he felt had been written in moments of inspiration and which appeared to be genuine poetry. He diligently compiled these selected jewels in a volume. The result is a meaningful selection of poems published by Mubarak Publishers, Lahore, under the title Mubarik Ahmad: Intikhab. Translations of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", "Ash-Wednesday" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" have also been included in the volume, letting the reader know what kind of poetry had at one time inspired Ahmad. So the son has done his duty well. Thanks to him, the lost poet has been restored to us.