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.

A Letter from N. M. Rashed to his daughter Yasmin Hassan, May 7, 1969

N. M. Rashed. Letter from N. M. Rashed. To Yasmin Hassan. May 7, 1969. 2 pp. 1 sheet. 7 x 12". Pen on yellowish aerogramme. Writing in top right corner notes the letter was sent from Tehran. Blue Ink on reverse says: "Replied June 23rd". Aerogramme is different in appearance from others in folder. The colour is yellow-green and "Pust-i hawā’ī-i Īrān" is titled across the reverse in small writing. Urdu. Box 2. Folder 18: NMR's letters to his daughter Yasmin Rashed Hassan. 001. 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.

Several letters from Rashed to his family members are preserved in the Archive. This one, to the donor of the Archive, Rashed's second daughter Yasmin Hassan, dates from the early years of Yasmin and her husband Faruq Hassan's life in Canada. Two major events in Rashed's life are mentioned here. His third book of poetry, Lā = Insān, has been published by Munir Niazi's press, proving to the younger poets of Pakistan that Rashed is alive and well, as he triumphantly writes ("yih na'ī paud ke shā'ir mujhe qarīb qarīb marhūm o maghfūr samajh chuke the"). Secondly, for the first time Rashed has become a grandfather—he professes that this an odd feeling ("shāyad ab dāṛhī rakhnā paṛe!")

A summary of the aerogramme is below:

From: N.M. Rashed, Tehran P.O. Box 1555, Tehran, Iran. Written 05/07/1969.
To: Mr. and Mrs. Farooq Hassan, 601 Beaverbrook Street, apt. 4, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Replied 06/23.

NMR writes from Tehran that he has received Yasmin Hassan's letter of 26 April, 1969. Yasmin and Faruq Hassan are now renting a new accomodation in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Congratulates Yasmin on becoming an aunt. NMR confesses that it feels strange to be a grandfather. His correspondence with his son Shahryar has been very rushed on the latter's side recently. NMR has written for the second time to Munir Niazi asking him to send the Hassans 1 copy each of the 3 recently published books. Says that Yasmin should write directly to Saddan Khan, who has been looking for her pass-book in Karachi and may have found it by now. NMR sent some money to Yasmin in March. 

NMR asks whether Faruq Hassan is still writing his "Chhotī barī nazmeñ." Lā = Insān has created quite a stir in Pakistani literary circles. NMR believes that the younger poets had assumed that he had practically passed away already. Seeing the new poetry, poets like Iftikhar Jalib have had to admit that he is very much alive, side-by-side with the new generation. Lā = Insān is receiving good reviews in the newspapers and periodicals. It has been emphasized to Tamzin that she should write to Yasmin soon. However Tamzin's exams are approaching in June.

In 1969, Rashed's second daughter Yasmin Hassan and her husband Faruq Hassan were living in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Faruq Hassan had begun a Masters degree in English Literature at the University of New Brunswick. Yasmin and Faruq had been living in a shared accomodation with a landlady since they had arrived. Rashed congratulates them on their moving to their own apartment, at 601 Beaverbrook St., apt. 4, bordering the University to the north-east. Yasmin Hassan describes this apartment as follows:

601 Beaverbrook was our first apartment which had two small bedrooms, living room, kitchen and our own washroom.¹

Yasmin Hassan's husband Faruq Hassan was himself a poet, and in 1967 he had published a volume of Urdu poetry entitled Chhoṭī baṛī nazmeñ (with Gilani Kamran; Lahore: Kitābiyāt). Rashed asks after Faruq Hassan with great fondness, referring to him as usual as ‘azīzī Fārūq. In 1969 Rashed's third daughter Shahin Sheikh had her son Omer, Rashed's first grandchild. The youngest sister from Rashed's first marriage, Tamzin, is also mentioned at the end of the letter.

This was the year of the publication of Rashed's third collection of poetry, Lā = Insān. It was published by Munir Niazi's press Al-Misāl, who also reprinted Rashed's two previous collections, Māwarā and Īrān meñ ajnabī. These are the three books that Rashed orders for the Hassans from Niazi.

Keywords: #Yasmin_Hassan, #Faruq_Hassan, #Munir_Niazi, #Shahin_Sheikh, #Iftikhar_Jalib, #Shahryar_Rashed, #Mawara, #Iran_men_ajnabi, #La_=_Insan, #Karachi, #Fredericton, #New_Brunswick, #Tehran, #Iran, #Canada, #Tamzin_Rashed, #handwritten, #letter, #family, #reception, #Beaverbrook_Street, #Chhoti_bari_nazmen, #University_of_New_Brunswick

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1 Yasmin Hassan, Email to Pasha M. Khan, June 26, 2015.