Review of Rashed's Lā=Insān by Safdar Mir, April 6, 1969

Mohammad Safdar Mir. N. M. Rashed's New Work. Apr. 6, 1969. 2 pp. 2 sheets. 8 x 13". Xerox. Review of NMR's Lā=Insān. Appeared in The Pakistan Times. English. Box 2. Folder 2: Articles written on NMR in various newspapers and magazines (clippings), English, and Urdu. 003. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full item here.

In 1969, Mohammad Safdar Mir (1922-1998) reviewed N.M. Rashed’s Lā=Insān. Mir was a journalist, poet, and playwright, most famous for his work with The Pakistan Times, where he authored a weekly column under the name “Zeno.” Mir worked for the Times from 1961-1977, before which he was a professor of English Literature at Government College, Lahore. He would later go on to write for The Muslim, MAG, and Dawn, before his eventual passing in 1998.

Lā=Insān is Rashed’s third collection of poetry. It was published by Munir Niazi’s Al-Misāl Press in 1969. The publication of Lā=Insān formed a pivotal moment in Rashed’s career. Following the lukewarm reception of Irān meñ ajnabī, Rashed was weary of being written off as a marhūm (dead) poet. Thankfully, his concerns were eased as Lā=Insān raised a storm in Pakistani literary circles (“Pākistān kē adabī halaqoñ meñ khāsī halchal machā dī hai!”).¹ Rashed exclaims as much in a letter to his daughter Yasmin Hassan, which we review here.

Mir’s review was one of many positive ones for Lā=Insān. A summary follows:

Mir highlights the immense impact Rashed’s Māwarā had on the sensibility of his contemporaries. He compares Rashed to Faiz and Miraji, and proclaims them the “holy trinity” of a new movement in Urdu literature. Mir notes that while Faiz’s poetry remained traditional in its technique and Miraji’s in its metaphoric structure, Rashed revolutionized both technique and allusive structure in his work.

Mir admires Rashed’s trenchant critique of colonialism. He notes that Rashed has expanded his political landscape to include “the entire Afro-Asian colonial reality.” For Mir, it is Rashed’s commitment to clearly-defined values that makes his work great. Mir notes that Rashed is committed to the notion of “cosmopolitanism” as opposed to that of “internationalism.” He champions the inclusive humanity inherent in Rashed’s work, and finds that Rashed’s intensity has grown and his sensibility has mellowed.

Mir notes that the introduction to Rashed’s book takes the form of an interview he conducted with students of Urdu in the U.S. He mentions that while certain poems in the collection have appeared previously, most of the material is new and unpublished. It exhibits a “philosophical” mood and a “materialistic mysticism” that is in keeping with Rashed’s style. He likens Rashed’s desire “to see life in its totality” to that shared by Ibn al-‘Arabi and Rumi. Furthermore, he feels that Rashed’s book will leave a lasting impression on the new movement in Urdu poetry, even as it does not retain the pure shock value inherent in Māwarā.

This review was one of three Mir wrote in summer of that year. The others focused on Rashed’s first two books, Māwarā and Irān meñ ajnabī, which had just been reprinted by Al-Misāl alongside the first edition of Lā=Insān. Indeed, it is possible that Munir Niazi himself requested Mir to review the Al-Misāl editions of Rashed’s work. This seems somewhat more likely given the lavish praise Mir heaps on Niazi in his review of Māwarā. Not only does Mir write that Niazi should be “congratulated for making a bold venture in book production” but also that his edition of Māwarā makes the first look “almost pedestrian.” ² Niazi also attached Mir’s review of Lā=Insān to one of his letters to Rashed, telling the poet not to worry about the kharīd o farōkht (buying and selling) of his book. ³

These reviews were not the only times Mir wrote on Rashed. Mir was a prolific writer and given his inclinations as a poet, it is not surprising that we have extensive writings by him both on Urdu literature and on Rashed. The archive holds, for example, a copy of Mir’s review of Rashed’s appearance at the Halqā-i-Arbāb-i-Zauq, as well another describing the ceremony at the Pakistan Council on the 24th of May 1969, where Rashed’s Lā=Insān was introduced. ^{4 , 5}

Plentiful evidence also suggests that Mir held a good working relationship with Rashed, and that the poet appreciated his work. Rashed and Mir collaborated on several translations together, an example of which is reviewed here. Furthermore, Rashed also forwarded some of Mir’s reviews to the American poet Carolyn Kizer, recognising that Mir’s reaction to the “new generation” of poets was worth noting. ⁶ Indeed, Rashed’s recognition of Mir went so far that, in 1970, Rashed requested permission to translate some of his reviews in Urdu. To this Mir replied that it was “a matter of great honour” (‘izzat-afzā’i) that Rashed had requested his work. For him, there was no need for Rashed to have asked. That the poet did so in any case, spoke only to his own magnanimity and fairness.⁷

Keywords: #Safdar_Mir, #Yasmin_Hassan, #Al_Misal, #Munir_Niazi, #Carloyn_Kizer, #Zeno, #S.M., #Pakistan_Times, #Dawn, #MAG, #The_Muslim, #Government_College, #Lahore, #Mawara, #Iran_mein_ajnabi, #La=Insan, #Faiz_Ahmed_Faiz, #Mirajee, #Rumi, #Ibn_ul-Arabi, #Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq, #new_generation, #review, #colonialism, #publishing, #Pakistan_Council

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1 Letter from N.M. Rashed to Yasmin Hassan, May 7th, 1969. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
2 Mir, Safdar. "Rediscovering Rashed's Mavara." The Pakistan Times. April 20th, 1969. Review in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
3 Letter from Munir Niazi to N.M. Rashed, April 10th, 1969. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
4 Mir, Safdar. ""N.M. Rashed and New Generation Politics."" The Pakistan Times. Undated. Review in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
5 Mir, Sadar. "Return of N.M. Rashed: Poor Girls." The Pakistan Times. May 24th, 1969. Review in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
6 Letter from N.M. Rashed to Carolyn Kizer. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive
7 Letter from Safdar Mir to N.M. Rashed, September 1st, 1970. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.

A Photograph of N. M. Rashed by Khatir Ghaznavi

Khatir Ghaznavi. Photograph of N. M. Rashed by Khatir Ghaznavi. 1952. 2 pp. 1 sheet. 2 x 3.2". Black and white photograph. Writing in pencil on back identifies photographer as the poet Khatir Ghaznavi. Urdu. Box 2. Folder 1: Abijan's pictures. 005. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full item here.

In this photograph from 1952, Rashed poses jacketless in a dress shirt and tie. The photo is attributed on the reverse to Khatir Ghaznavi, whose name is scribbled in pencil. Mohammad Ibrahim Beg "Khatir" Ghaznavi (1925-2008), was an Urdu poet born in Peshawar, who also wrote poetry in Hindko and translations from Pashto (thanks to Mohammad Taqi @mazdaki for providing basic biographical information). Like Rashed, Khatir Ghaznavi worked in radio from the 1940s to the 1960s, and in particular for Radio Pakistan in Peshawar, where Rashed also worked after Partition, as Assistant Regional Director from 1947-1948, and as Regional Director from 1950-1952, making it seem likely that this picture was taken in Peshawar while the two men were working there.¹

According to Rashed's daughter Yasmin Hassan, Khatir Ghaznavi was a friend of the family, and took many photos of the family in 1952 before Rashed began his travels abroad in the same year.²

In his critical work Jadīd Urdū adab, an overview of modernist Urdu literature, Khatir Ghaznavi assessed his friend N. M. Rashed's work in the following terms.

There were many experiments in free verse. The name of N. M. Rashed has a place of pride in the list of those who made these experiments our own, and gave them a permanent place in the Urdu language. His efforts made free verse acceptable to such an extent that a large number of young poets were attracted to it. The influence of Iran is apparent in Rashed's poetry; in his language there is a grandeur, and his ideas are elevated.

Because he lived in Iran during the Second World War, Rashed had a chance to analyze the effects of the war upon Iranian society. In a very poetic and allusive manner, he poured this analysis into his poems. After Māwarā, his second book was Īrān meñ ajnabī (although this book was published well after 1947), which was the bearer of a new formal experiment, which was named the "canto."³

Keywords: #Peshawar, #Khatir_Ghaznawi, #World_War_II, #photograph, #black-and-white, #free_verse, #Iran_men_ajnabi, #Iran, #Radio_Pakistan

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1 N. M. Rashed: Curriculum Vitae to 1973. Document in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
2 Yasmin Hassan, Email to Pasha M. Khan, August 26, 2015.
3 Khātir Ghaznawī, Muhammad Ibrāhīm Beg. Jadīd Urdū adab. Lahore: Sang-i Mīl Publications, 1985. p. 173. See also p. 189.

"Ai samandar" — Handwritten draft in Rashed's hand

N. M. Rashed. "Ai samandar." Handwritten draft. 3 pp. 3 sheets. 8.3 x 11.6". Pencil on white paper. Pages numbered 28-30. Starting from the 2nd page, there is a difference in line breaks between proof and 1st edition; the lines "chānd kī tūtī hū’ī kashtī ke takhte/... kī bāhoñ par rawāñ" are shortened to "chānd kī tūtī hū’ī kashtī kī bāhoñ par rawāñ". Urdu. Box 2. Folder 14: Gumān kā mumkin kā likhā hū’ā aslī likhā’ī. 011. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal.

Rashed's poem "Ai samandar," an address to the sea, was published in his last, posthumous collection, Gumāñ kā mumkin, a complete draft of which exists in our Archive. Gumāñ kā mumkin, which Rashed in his lifetime simply called his "nayā majmū'ah" (new collection), was published through the agency of his friend the lawyer Ijaz Hussain Batalvi in 1976 from Nayā idārah press. Rashed made Batalvi meet with him in London in 1975, not long before his death. During this meeting, Rashed gave Batalvi a brown envelope containing the typescript of the book, with some corrections in his own hand.¹

But at least some of the poems that were published in Gumāñ kā mumkin had lives before their October 1976 publication. "Ai samandar" is one of these. The version that we have in the Archive was written by Rashed in pencil and is part of a nearly complete draft of the collection that would become Gumāñ kā mumkin. Rashed numbered the pages, although, as our researcher Zahra Sabri has noted, neither the numbering nor the order of the poems corresponds to the first edition of Gumāñ kā mumkin. In a number of subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the pencilled draft differs from the first edition.²

To complicate matters further, another version was published in Shamsur Rahman Faruqi's literary journal Shabkhoon in September 1969. As we have seen previously, Faruqi had sent a letter to Rashed, preserved in the Archive, on May 22nd, 1968, soliciting his poetry for the relatively new Shabkhoon, and "Ai samandar" seems to have been the first poem that Rashed sent to have published in Faruqi's journal. Thanks to Sean Pue, we have scans of the 1969 Shabkhoon version of "Ai samandar."

These poems were given pride of place by Faruqi, and published in the opening pages of the issue. The Shabkhoon version differs significantly from the Gumāñ kā mumkin version, particularly in its very different layout, its punctuation, and orthography. In these ways it is also different from the pencil draft. But the Shabkhoon version shares many passages with this draft which are not present in the first edition of Gumāñ kā mumkin. This would appear to indicate that the pencil draft at McGill was written after 1969, but probably before Rashed handed his typewritten proofs to Batalvi in 1975.

Rashed marked stanza breaks in the drafts by drawing a short line in the spaces between the bodies of texts to be separated. The number and order of the stanzas changed from version to version. The fifth stanza in this version contains some particular differences compared to the first edition. The reconstructed second line seems to have been "dekh lekin abr ke aurāq-i kuhnah" ("But look: The cloud's ancient folios…"). But the opening "dekh lekin" is struck out, and in its place Rashed has pencilled in "āj kyonkar." If Rashed at any point meant these words to be part of the stanza, they would have linked it more strongly to the preceding stanza. Oddly, however, "dekh lekin" is neither part of the Gumāñ kā mumkin version nor the Shabkhoon version of "Ai samandar," making it appear to be either a false start or a reconsidered experiment unique to this draft.

Like the Gumāñ kā mumkin version, the fifth stanza continues "āj kyonkar abr ke aurāq-i kuhnah / bāzū-i derīnah-i ummīd par / dūr se lā'e nirālī dāstāñ [...]". However, in the fourth line Rashed has originally written "dūr se lā'e haiñ kaisī dāstāñ," only to strike out "haiñ" and insert "nirālī." This line both begins and ends with a long-short-long syllabic pattern (dūr se and dāstāñ), well-balanced with intervening syllables. Rashed seems to have preferred the assonance of "nirālī" and "dāstāñ" (both bearing the vowel ā), but to fit "nirālī" in he had to excise haiñ, which would have unbalanced the metre. In the Shabkhoon version we find that the line was still "dūr se lā'e haiñ kaisī dāstāñ." The next two lines, describing the broken ship of the moon afloat in the flooding night, are not found in the Gumāñ kā mumkin version: "chānd kī tūtī hū'ī kashtī ke takhte / shab kī tughyānī kī bāhoñ par rawāñ […]." Why these evocative lines were finally removed is a mystery.

Rashed seems to have been conservative in matters of spelling. He spelled the verb guzarnā with a zāl, reflecting its etymology, instead of increasingly current guzarnā with a ze. Similarly, in spite of living so long in Iran and reading and publishing so much modern Iranian poetry, he spells ā'indah with a hamzah, instead of āyandah with a ye. Faruqi appears to have agreed with him, as he left these spellings undisturbed in Shabkhoon, but in Gumāñ kā mumkin they have been changed.

Below is the poem as represented by the N. M. Rashed Archive draft in pencil, followed by a list of modifications occuring between the draft and the first edition of Gumāñ kā mumkin. While the changes in line breaks and punctuation may appear to be minor, it may be that Rashed saw them as altering the sound of the poem when recited.

اے سمندر

اے سمندر،
پیکرِ شب، جسم، آوازیں
رگوں میں دوڑتا پھرتا لہو
پتّھروں پر سے گذرتے
رقص کی خاطر اذاں دیتے گئے،
اورمیں، مرتے درختوں میں نہاں،
سُنتا رہا۔۔۔۔
اِن درختوں میں، مرااک ہاتھ
عہدِ رفتہ کے سینے پہ ہے
دوسرا، اک شہرِ آئندہ میں ہے
جویائے راہ۔۔۔۔
شہر، جس میں آرزو کی مَے انڈیلی جائے گی
زندگی سے رنگ کھیلا جائے گا!

اے سمندر،
آنے والے دن کو یہ تشویش ہے
رات کا کابوس جو دن کے نکلتے ہی
ہوا ہو جائے گا
کون دے گا اس کے ژولیدہ سوالوں کاجواب؟
کس کِرن کی نوک؟
کن پھولوں کا خواب؟

اے سمندر،
میں گنوں گا
دانہ دانہ تیرے آنسو
جن میں اِک زخّار بے ہستی کا شور!
اے سمندر،
میں گِنوں گا دانہ دانہ تیرے آنسو
جن میں آنے والا جشنِ وصل نا آسودہ ہے
جن میں فردائے عروسی کے لئے
کرنوں کے ہار
شہرِ آئندہ کی روحِ بے زماں
چُنتی رہی۔۔۔۔
میں ہی دوں گا جشن میں دعوت تجھے
استراحت تیری لہروں کے سوا
کس شے میں ہے؟

رات اِس ساحل پہ غرّاتے رہے،
غم زدہ لمحات کے ترسے ہوئے
کتّوں کی نظریں
چاند پرپڑتی رہیں
اُن کی عَو عَو چاند دورتک لپکی رہی!

اے سمندر،
دیکھ لیکن آج کیونکر ابر کے اوراقِ کہنہ
بازوئے دیرینۂ اُمید پر
اڑتے ہوئے
دورسے لائے ہیں کیسی نرالی داستاں!
چاند کی ٹوٹی ہوئی کشتی کے تختے
شب کی طغیانی کی باہوں پر رواں!
شہرِآئندہ کے دست وپا کے رنگ
۔۔۔ جیسے جاں دینے پہ سب آمادہ ہوں ۔۔۔
دست و پا میں جاگ اٹھے
راگ کے مانند،
میں بھی دست و پا میں جاگ اٹھا!

اے سمندر،
کل کے جشنِ نو کی موج
شہرِ آئندہ کی بینائی کی حدتک آ گئی
اب گھروں سے ۔۔۔
جن میں راندہ روز و شب کی
چاردیواری نہیں،
مرد و زن نکلیں گے،
ہاتھوں میں اٹھائے
برگ و بار
جن کو چھو لینے سے لوٹ آئے گی
روگرداں بہار!
اے سمندر۔۔۔۔۔۔

Stanza 1:
Line 3 indented in 1st ed.
Line 5 guzarte spelled with ze in 1st ed.
Line 5 final comma omitted in 1st ed.
Line 7 pesh on suntā omitted in 1st ed.
Line 8 comma omitted in 1st ed.
Line 11 ā’indah spelled āyandah in 1st ed.

Stanza 2:
Line 7 zer omitted from kiran in 1st ed.

Stanza 3:
Line 6 zer omitted from ginūñgā in 1st ed.
Line 8 li’e spelled liye in 1st ed.
Line 10 ā’indah spelled āyandah in 1st ed.
Line 11 pesh omitted from chuntī in 1st ed.

Stanza 4:
Lines 3 and 4 combined in 1st ed.

Stanza 5:
Lines 3 and 4 combined in 1st ed.
Lines 6 and 7 replaced with a new line in 1st ed.
Line 8 ā’indah spelled āyandah in 1st ed.

Stanza 6:
Line 3 ā’indah spelled āyandah in 1st ed.
Line 7 final comma omitted in 1st ed.
Lines 8 and 9 combined in 1st ed.
Lines 10 and 11 combined in 1st ed.

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1 Batālwī, I‘jāz Husain. "Ākhirī majmū‘ah, ākhirī mulāqāt." in Rāshid, N. M. Gumāñ kā mumkin. Lahore: Nayā idārah, 1976. p. ix. Batalvi does not mention the date of the meeting, but says that Rashed was living in Cheltenham after leaving the apartment he was renting in Chelsea, London. On the basis of the letters of congratulation in the Rashed Archive (box 1, folder 17), Rashed had retired in 1973. His addresses on his letters to his daughter Yasmin Hassan show that in January of 1975 he was living in Chelsea, but by the beginning of February 1975 he had moved to Cheltenham. Since Rashed passed away in October of the same year, he must have given the draft to Batalvi between February and October 1975.
2 The final version of the poem is in Rāshid, N. M. Gumāñ kā mumkin. Lahore: Nayā idārah, 1976. pp. 46-49.

Keywords: #Ai_samandar, #Shabkhoon, #Shamsur_Rahman_Faruqi, #orthography, #Guman_ka_mumkin, #Ijaz_Hussain_Batalvi, #Naya_idarah, #publication_history, #pencil, #handwritten, #poetry, #London

"Ai samandar" in Shabkhoon

We saw in a previous article that in 1968 Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, the young editor of the new Urdu literary journal Shabkhoon, wrote to Rashed for the first time to solicit his poetry for the journal. Sean Pue has provided scans of the first poem that Rashed sent to Faruqi, "Ai samandar," published in the opening pages of the September 1969 issue of Shabkhoon (pp. 3-4):

This version of "Ai samandar" differs significantly from the version finally published in Rashed's last book of poetry, Gumān kā mumkin (1976), in its spacing, its line breaks, its punctuation, its wording and the order of its stanzas. On the other hand, it is more similar to a draft of "Ai samandar" that Rashed wrote in pencil, which exists in the N. M. Rashed Archive. The pencil draft is more similar in its format to the 1976 version, but retains some passages that existed in this 1969 version.

A transcription of the 1969 poem is below. The eighth line, "—jis pih jal jāte haiñ hāth—" is found neither in the pencil draft nor in the 1976 version.

اے سمندر! پیکر شب، جسم، آوازیں
رگوں میں دوڑتا پھرتا لہو
پتھروں پر سے گذرتے، رقص کی خاطر
 اذاں دیتے گئے،
اورمیں مرتے درختوں میں نہاں سنتا رہا۔۔۔۔
ان درختوں میں مرا اک ہاتھ
عہد رفتہ کے سینے پہ ہے
۔۔۔جس پہ جل جاتے ہیں ہاتھ ۔۔۔
دوسرا، اک شہر آئندہ میں ہے جویائے راہ
شہر۔۔۔جس میں آرزو کی مے انڈیلی جائے گی
زندگی سے رنگ کھیلا جائے گا۔

اے سمندر!
چاند کی ٹوٹی ہوئی کشتی کے تختے
شب کی طغیانی کی باہوں پر رواں

اے سمندر! آنے والے دن کو یہ تشویش ہے
رات کا کابوس جو دن کے نکلتے ہی ہوا ہو جائے گا
کون دے گا اس کے ژولیدہ سوالوں کاجواب؟
کس کرن کی نوک؟
کن پھولوں کا خواب؟

اے سمندر!
میں گنوں گا دانہ دانہ تیرے آنسو
جن میں اک زخار بے ہستی کا شور۔

اے سمندر! رات اس ساحل پہ غراتے رہے
غم زدہ لمحات کے ترسے ہوئے کتوں کی نظریں
چاند پرپڑتی رہیں
اُن کی عو عو چاند دورتک لپکی رہی

اے سمندر! میں گنوں گا دانہ دانہ تیرے آنسو
جن میں آنے والا جشن وصل نا آسودہ ہے
جن میں فردائے عروسی کے لئے کرنوں کے ہار
شہر آئندہ کی روح بے زماں چنتی رہی
میں ہی دوں گا، اے سمندر! جشن میں دعوت تجھے
استراحت تیری لہروں کے سوا کس شے میں ہے؟

اے سمندر! ابر کے اوراقِ کہنہ
بازوئے دیرینۂ امید پر اڑتے ہوئے
دورسے لائے ہیں کیسی داستاں!
شہرآئندہ کے دست وپا کے رنگ
۔۔۔ جیسے جاں دینے پہ سب آمادہ ہوں ۔۔۔
دست و پا میں جاگ اٹھے
راگ کے مانند، میں بھی دست و پا میں جاگ اٹھا

اے سمندر!
کل کے جشن نو کی موج
شہر آئندہ کی بینائی کی حد تک آ گئی
اب گھروں سے ۔۔۔
جن میں راندہ روز و شب کی چاردیواری نہیں۔۔۔
مرد و زن نکلیں گے ہاتھوں میں اٹھائے برگ و بار
جن کو چھو لینے سے لوٹ آئے گی روگرداں بہار

اے سمندر!

Keywords: #Shamsur_Rahman_Faruqi, #Shabkhoon, #Guman_ka_mumkin, #publication_history, #Ai_samandar

A Letter from N.M. Rashed to Carlo Coppola, April 11, 1966.

N. M. Rashed. Letter from N. M. Rashed. To Carlo Coppola. Apr. 11, 1966. 1 p. 1 sheet. 8 x 11.5". Typewritten. English. Box 2. Folder 5: English translations of NMR poetry and letters to editors. 014. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full text here.

In 1966, Rashed exchanged letters with Carlo Coppola. Today, Coppola is a distinguished scholar of South Asia and a Professor Emeritus at Oakland University.¹ At the time, however, he was still a graduate student completing his PhD on Progressive Urdu Poetry at the University of Chicago.² Rashed was meanwhile resident in New York, where he worked as Director of the United Nations Information Center for Iran.³

In the letter preceding this one, Coppola solicits an interview from Rashed. This interview is meant for publication in Mahfil, a journal of South Asian literature that Coppola co-founded with C. M. Naim in 1963. Coppola intended this interview for a special issue of Mahfil that would focus on literary culture in Pakistan. In the previous letter, Coppola informed Rashed he would be in New York for the Association of Asian Studies Convention between the 4th and 6th of April. He asked Rashed about the possibility of recording an interview during this time, but mentioned that he would need a tape-recorder as bringing his own would prove difficult. This interview, he tells Rashed, would examine current trends in Pakistani poetry, and address more general questions about the literary situation in Pakistan.

A summary of Rashed’s response is below:

From: N.M. Rashed, Room 1037, United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y., 10017. Written 04/11/1966.
To: Mr Carlos [sic] Coppola, Box No. 39, Foster Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637. Replied 05/11/1966.⁴

Rashed mentions he was unable to send a positive reply to Coppola’s letter as he remained unsure of his return from Geneva by April 6th. He has returned to New York on the 8th and inquires about Coppola’s visit and his possible disappointment at not being able to meet Rashed.

Rashed echoes Coppola’s feelings that it would be difficult to record at the Asia Society. He informs him that tape-recording equipment is available at the UN office but it would be unsuitable for such personal use. Rashed mentions that he does not have a tape-recorder at home, but offers to answer Coppola’s questions via post. He suggests having a friend voice the questions on Coppola’s behalf, should recording equipment become available.

As per Rashed’s suggestion, the interview was conducted via post. Rashed was very particular about his interviews: not only did he reorder and remove some of Coppola’s questions, but also insisted on first recording his answers and then having them transcribed. This, he felt, would preserve the freshness of the interview and make it “much more natural” than otherwise.⁵

Despite Rashed’s keenness, however, the idea of an issue of Mahfil on Pakistani literature failed to materialise for quite some time. This likely happened as a result of the numerous difficulties Coppola faced in gathering submissions from other writers and translators, most of whom proved much less forthcoming than Rashed.⁶ Indeed, though this interview was completed in 1966, it did not appear in Mahfil until 1971.⁷ By this time, an Urdu translation had already been published in Rashed’s Lā = Insān, which came out in 1969.

The Mahfil interview can be read here.

Keywords: #Carlo_Coppola, #Mahfil, #Journal_of_South_Asian_Literature, #University_of_Chicago, #New_York, #Geneva, #United_Nations, #interview, #Pakistan, #Oakland_University, #Progressive_Urdu, #Asia_Society, #typewritten, #C._M._Naim, #Association_of_Asian_Studies, #Asia_Society, #La_=_insan

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1 "Department: - Department of Modern Languages and Literatures - Oakland University - Acalog ACMS," accessed August 12, 2015, http://catalog.oakland.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=20&ent_oid=641&returnto=1555.
2 Coppola, Carlo. "Urdu poetry, 1935-1970: The Progressive Episode." The University of Chicago, 1975.
3 Zakir, Mohammed. Poems of N. M. Rashed: A Poet of the Third World.New Delhi: M. D. Publishing, 1995. p. 29.
4 Coppola’s first name is "Carlo" and not "Carlos" as Rashed has written here.
5 Letter from N.M. Rashed to Carlo Coppola, May 20th, 1966. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
6 Letter from Carlo Coppola to N. M. Rashed, September 24, 1966. Letter in Noon Meem Rashed Archive.
7 Mahfil 7, no. 1/2 (1971): front matter.

Recommendation Letter from Principal Tara Singh, Government Intermediate College Lyallpur

Tara Singh. College recommendation letter from Tara Singh. Sept. 5, 1928. 1 p. 1 sheet. 6.5 x 7.7". Typewritten on brown paper. Written by Tara Singh, principal of Government Intermediate College, Lyallpur, in year of Rashed’s graduation. English. Box 1. Folder 14: College certificates and recommendation letter. 001. Digitized by Zain Mian. Catalogued by Pasha M. Khan. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full text here.

From 1926 to 1928, Nazr-i Mohammad Rashed matriculated from the Government High School in Akalgarh, and passed his Faculty of Arts examination at Government Intermediate College (now Government College University) in Lyallpur (now known as Faisalabad). The principal of the college, Sardar Tara Singh, appears to have written this as a letter of recommendation for the young Rashed (who would have been 18 years old when this document was written). The college had evolved out of a high school in 1924. Akalgarh (modern Alipur Chattha), where Rashed had been born, had no college.

Rashed was a "non-resident student" because his father Raja Fazl-i Elahi Chishti was posted to Lyallpur as Additional District Inspector of Schools from September 8, 1926 to September 27, 1928. Therefore he was able to live at home with his family while completing his education at the college.¹

According to the modern GCU Faisalabad's account, Sardar Tara Singh was the third and then the fifth principal of Government Intermediate College Lyallpur from April 11, 1927 to January 8, 1928, and again from October 2, 1928 to December 7, 1928. From the letter it appears either that this account is mistaken, or that Tara Singh depended upon his former or anticipated status to subscribe himself "Principal." In the interim Rai Bahadur Manmohan was principal at the college.²

As other items in the NMR Archive will show, the city of Lyallpur remained important to Rashed throughout his life, particularly since his sister Mumtaz and brother-in-law Chiragh Hassan, headmaster of M.B. High School, were resident there, as well as their sons Faruq and Aftab.

Keywords: #Government_Intermediate_High_School, #Government_College_Lyallpur, #Sardar_Tara_Singh, #Raja_Fazl-i_Elahi_Chishti, #Lyallpur, #Akalgarh, #Mukhtar_Hassan, #Chiragh_Hassan, #Aftab_Hassan, #Faruq_Hassan, #education, #letter, #typewritten, #recommendation_letter

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1 Khalid, Anwar Mahmūd. "N. M. Rāshid, Lā’ilpūr meñ." Draft paper in Noon Meem Rashed Archive, p. 2.
2 “College Era | GCUF.” http://gcuf.edu.pk/about/history-and-introduction/college-era/.

A Letter from Shamsur Rahman Faruqi to N. M. Rashed, May 22, 1968

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Letter from Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. To N. M. Rashed. May 22, 1968. 2 pp. 1 sheet. 4.6 x 7.3". Black pen on card. A crease in the center and identical marks at the top and bottom suggest this card was stapled shut for delivery. Urdu. Box 2. Folder 8: Letters of publishers and writers. 044. Digitized by Zahra Sabri. Catalogued by Zain Mian. Donated (2015) by Yasmin Rashed Hassan to the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. Full text here.

Beginning in 1968, Rashed kept up a correspondence with Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (1935-). Today Faruqi is one of the most renowned critics of Urdu literature in the world, and the author of many works of criticism and literature such as the recent novel Ka’ī chānd the sar-i āsmān. See the 2014 interview with Faruqi, "The Last Ustad."

Faruqi had begun publishing his literary journal Shabkhoon (1966-2006) two years prior to the beginning of his correspondence with Rashed. At this time Rashed was in Tehran, working as Director of the UN Information Centre.

A summary of the letter:

From: Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, 23-D Thornhill Road, Allahabad -1, India. Written 05/22/1968.
To: N. M. Rashed (Tehran, Iran). Received 06/19/1968.

Faruqi begs pardon for contacting Rashed without any prior acquaintance. He has gotten Rashed's Tehran address from his friend Azizuddun Shakeel. Shakeel has sent Rashed a few copies of Faruqi's literary journal Shabkhoon and Faruqi hopes that Rashed will contribute something to it.

Faruqi writes that Rashed has had a great influence on the new generation of poets, along with Faiz, so much so that the Progressives (taraqqī-pasand) are bent on proving that Rashed and Faiz are two of their own number. Ali Sardar Jafri has warmed to Faiz despite previously having qualms about him. Iftikhar Jalib's book Na’ī shā‘irī is filled with mentions of Rashed, and Jafri considers it a point of pride that he has published Rashed's poetry.

Faruqi repeats his request that Rashed should contribute his poetry to Shabkhoon. He is sending 4 issues of Shabkhoon to Rashed via air mail, and will continue sending future issues.

The Urdu poet and critic Iftikhar Jalib had published his collection of "new" Urdu poems Na’ī shā‘irī: Ek tanqīdī mut̤āli‘ah two years previously in 1966.¹

According to Sean Pue, Rashed later sent Faruqi a copy of his poem "Ai samandar," which Faruqi published in the September 1969 issue of Shabkhoon.² Pue has made it available, and it can be seen on this site.

Keywords: #Shamsur_Rahman_Faruqi, #Ali_Sardar_Jafri, #Faiz_Ahmad_Faiz, #Iftikhar_Jalib, #Shabkhoon, #Progressive_Writers'_Association, #Tehran, #Allahabad, #reception, #handwritten, #letter, #Ai_samandar, #Safdar_Mir

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1 Jālib, Iftikhār. "Lisānī tashkīlāt" in Na’ī shā‘irī: Ek tanqīdī mut̤āli‘ah. Ed. Iftikhār Jālib. Lahore: Na’ī mat̤bū‘āt, 1966. pp. 247-274. For other references to Rashed in the same volume, see Safdar Mir's contribution "Bayābān-i junūn", pp. 5-22; and Fateh Muhammad Malik's essay "Na’ī shā‘irī aur jadīd shā‘irī", pp. 107-124.
2 Shabkhūn no 40 (Sept. 1969): pp. 3-4.