#samad mir

[omershafi]

'Waesi Kaar Mushkil Bar Goeb Goem' - Samad Mir (1894?-1959)

. The wearisome toils, burdens too heavy to move The rosy glow now turned a murky hue O friend, all this I've had to bear through . . Waesi Kaar Mushkil Baar Goeb Goem, Veatrawwun Peyoom (friend/confidant work hard burden heavy became, endure/tolerate had to) Gulaleh Panas Kaleh Rang Goem, Veatrawwun Peyoom. (red/ruddy self black colour became, endure/tolerate had to) . . His first poetic expression, Samad Mir wrote this when he was around 30 years old; he had been a labourer since his early youth, and had lived a difficult and arduous life. In 1925, while working on the construction of the Maharaja’s palace in Srinagar, he met Khaliq Najar, who was to be his spiritual mentor, and under whose guidance he wrote an abundance of poetry. These verses reflect both the spiritual and physical hardships he was enduring around this time, and can be read either way. . .

[omershafi]

'Padh Padh Ke Gaya Pather' - Samad Mir (1894?-1959)

. Too much study has turned you to stone And scholarly writing has dulled your mind The only study that makes the lord known Is altogether of a different kind . . padh padh ke gaya pather, likh likh ke gaya chore (reading reading [you] became stone, writing writing [you]became fool) jis padne se sahib miley, wo padna hai aur (that reading [which] lord meet, that reading is different) . . Samad Mir said this in a mushaira - a gathering in which poets recite their poetry - organised by the then government. He, being academically illiterate, was subjected to condescending sneers by some of the people gathered there, so when it was his turn to speak, he began his performance with this couplet. Now no one remembers the other ’learned’ people at the gathering, but everyone knows and remembers Samad Mir and his words.

These verses are in coarse Urdu using Kashmiri syntax, it is obvious to the ear that the writer is not formally educated and has constructed the sentences using intuition. However, that adds to the charm of the couplet and the profundity of it.

Sahib means 'lord/sir' and can be understood as God or Truth. Chore is a Kashmiri word meaning a fool; Samad Mir could also have meant chor, which in Urdu means a thief; I prefer the former interpretation because it adds to the rawness of Mir’s attempt at a language he didn’t know. . .