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Community - Prominent Kashmiris |
| Dina Nath Nadim |
Dina Nath Nadim was born in 1916. He is undoubtedly the most innovative and sensitive Kashmiri writer, who brought about the post-1947 renaissance in Kashmiri literature. So much so that a complete period is referred to as the Nadim era.
Nadim’s father Pandit Shankar Kaul died when he was only eight years old. His mother had a significant influence on his growth as a poet. She would sing the vaakh of Lalla and recite the lilas of other poets. Her repertoire of Kashmiri poems was large, since she originally came from a village, Mura, where the oral tradition of poetry was part of the culture. Nadim was educated in local schools with intermittent breaks; he matriculated in 1930, received his B.A. in 1943 and his Bachelor of Education degree in 1947.
There is no published collection of Nadim’s work. The total number of his poems is around 150, including those in English, Hindi and Urdu. He finally selected Kashmiri for he felt his mother tongue had a greater claim on him.
He wrote his first Kashmiri poem Maej Kashir in 1942. In 1946, he read the poem Sonth in a poetic symposium. Then followed Arivali Praarakhna and Graav, poems of patriotism, revolution and freedom. In 1947, Pakistan attacked Kashmir. This galvanized the Kashmiris. The writers and artists organized themselves into the Kashmir Cultural Front. Nadim was in the vanguard of the group. He wrote poetry of protest, revolution and reassessment.
Some of the poems he wrote at this time were Tsi Mir-I-Karvaan ban, Naaraaye Inqilaab, Me chhu hyond ta Mussalmaan beyi Insaan Banaavun, Sherwani sund Khwaab and Pritsun Chhum.The message of this period was
Burn and burn like the colourful field of lalizaar!
Roar and roar like a waterfall!
You are fire
A furious fire of burning youth
Come out
And cross the hills and dales
Raise a storm!
Be a storm!
Like many of his contemporaries, Nadim also joined the Communist Party. In 1950 Nadim introduced blank verse in Ba Gyava Na Aaz.It demonstrated that blank verse could be used as an effective poetic form in Kashmiri.He also showed his subtle feeling for appropriate lexical choice and the proper blend of sound and sense. This effect was created neither by Persianization nor by Sanskritization; rather, he firmly established the process of Kashmirization.
Ba gyava na aaz
Ti kyaazi aazi chhi jangbaaz jaalsaaz hol gandith
Kashiri myaani zaag hyeth.
Nadim included jangbaaz and jaalsaaz because these words have been nativized. He chose native collocations and embedded them in new contexts e.g. hol gandith, zaag hyeth, aayi graayi. But it was the musical lilt of the poem which made it irresistible to Kashmiris; never before had their language been used with such alliteration and lexical dexterity: |
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… Ba gyava na aaz su nagma kanh
Ti kyaazi aaz ti kyaazi aaz
Ba vaayi jaayi jaayi taapa kraayi zan chhi zaag hyeth
Karaan chhi aayi graayi yuth chalan myon baag hyeth
I will not sing today,
I will not sing
Of roses and of bulbuls
Of irises and hyacinths.
I will not sing
Those drunken and ravishing
Dulcet and sleepy-eyed songs.
No more such songs for me!
I will not sing those songs today.
Dust clouds of war have robbed the iris of her hue,
The bulbul lies silenced by the thunderous roar of guns,
Chains are all ajingle in the haunts of hyacinths.
A haze has blinded lightning’s eyes,
Hill and mountain lie crouched in fear,
And black death
Holds all cloud tops in its embrace.
I will not sing today
For the wily warmonger with loins girt
Lies in ambush for my land. |
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The new poetic form caught the imagination of Kashmiris, literate and illiterate. Other writers considered it as emancipation from rigid poetic constraints and soon followed this style. Another stylistic innovation in the form of the dramatic monologue came in Trivanzaah. Thus the Nadim era was born.
Another poem of this period Dal Hanzni Hund Vatsun displays exquisite sensitivity in the selection of typically Kashmiri diction. A hanzyen had never been viewed with such pathos before:
I got these crisp and fresh from the dal
Hay valay, come and buy! hay valay, come and buy!
These are tiny eggplants, and these are round gourds,
Hay valay, come and buy! Hay valay, come and buy!
In 1953, Nadim’s experimentation took a different form. He wrote the first opera in Kashmiri, Bombur ti Yambirzal.The theme depicted the ultimate triumph of good over evil. The narcissus and the bumblebee along with other flowers represent the people and their aspirations for spring and its joys. This opera was an instant success. It showed some influence of the Chinese classical opera.
Nadim wrote many other operas. Each of these explored a new theme. Some of these are Neeki Badi (1956), Heemaal Ti Naagraay (1956), Shihilya Kulya (1965) and Vitasta (1965). A stage version of the last was produced in 1976. Vitasta is an exquisite musical based on the myths and legends of Kashmir; it presents the love of a Naga princess and a Pishacha prince.
There was a period of four years during which Nadim composed sonnets. In these we find selective diction, suggestive imagery and delicate linguistic craftsmanship. He says in Zoon Khats Tsot Hish:
The tsot-like moon ascended
And the hills grew hungry.
The clouds were slowly putting out their cooking fires.
But the forest nymphs began to kindle their oven fires.
And steaming rice seemed to shoot up over the hilltops.
And, murmuring hope to my starving belly
I gazed and gazed at the promising sky.
In the 1960’s Nadim came back to the native folk tradition and the vaakh forming recent years, Nadim has been experimenting with poetic compositions which he terms Zitni (fireflies). In this new form he is following the Japanese haiku style.
The secret of Nadim’s art seems to lie in his intuition for an effortless use of a limited but highly appropriate vocabulary, a keen ear for the sound and rhythm of his native language and above all an artist’s instinct for combining all this formal apparatus in fresh imagery.
His opera Bombur Yemberzal received the Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1970 and was staged on that occasion in the former USSR. In 1976,he was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Academy. His poetry collection Shihilya Kulya won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987.
Nadim passed away in 1988. |
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Baaraan Coat
Kamras manz tsaas
Ta baaraan coat kodum naala
Avezaan trovum coate kilis paeth
Hange-mange phyurus pot
Te yad barith nazrah kaermas
Baasyom zan chhus baeyi
Ath coate kilis paeth avezaan gomut
Phaeky ti timay, nari zaechhy timay,
beyi shaane timay,
su qamath zeethham zyoothh,
te naaluk aare ti suy
Batnan heri-bona kaaje ki drasa seeti
Paeny hew dalimaty
Vuchhit kormas her-bon pokhta
Te bar mutserith draas pane nebar,
Draas pane nebar, ami thaana nebar,
Aivaane nebar, dookane nebar.
Kam taam zani joraah aakh
Prutsehak
“Hey, tas jannat gaarun
tohi maa yeti kaanh baaqay path kun
neb nishaanaa?
Zaet paet kaanchhaa ya kalposhaa
Kaakad varqaa, taaza kalaamaa?
pot gari tas os laegith aasaan baaraan coatah”
“Aahan haz owsus coat su os heri
vilinji avezaan
Goda ma vonda aav tath kun vuchhnas
Pat loag aki doha paanas paanas
Yot taam aav muvaefiq loag te
Pata trove andh kun
Kenh doh gayi aav jandegoraa akh
Tasy kun aakhir,
Tohi kath lagihe?”
”Asi haz os baqaariy adbi museum baaapath,
tohi vanitav kaanh neb yamyuk
beyi kas tohi kunvan?
Deva vuni yiyi athi?”
“Kath sae vani yiyi, kath yiyi athi az?
Jandagari vaanas janda ambaaraa
Kati chhaariv tohi?
Voni gav albatah neb,su booziv
Taeb kadith astaras peth aesis
Sits senz label
‘Sheikh Ilahi Tailor Mashter’” |
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Raincoat
I entered the room
Took the raincoat off
Draped it over the peg.
Turned around, suddenly
Looked at it long.
It looked like me
Suspended from the peg.
The very same shoulders,
Long unwieldy arms, and
Upper back
The same stature and
Girth of neck collar here.
Buttons unsettled by the pull
Of buttonholes.
I looked at it well
I looked at it all over.
Opened the door and
Walked out.
Walked out of this length
Of clothes.
This establishment
This shop.
Two unknown men came,
Asked them:
“Any personal effects
Of the deceased?
Any old clothes, skullcap,
Scribblings, notes,
Unpublished poems?
He took to wearing
A raincoat
Towards the end.”
“Yes! He had this coat.
It hung from a peg
Upstairs.
One could not bear to
See it, initially. Then
We wore it one day.
Wore it till it suited us
Then it lay around.
Some days ago
A rag collector came.
We sold it to him, finally.
Say, why did you need it?”
“We required it, of course,
For the literary museum.
Who did you sell it to?
Any identifying mark?
We might still
Find it.”
“But how/
How do you expect
To get it
From the mountain of rags
At the collector’s?
How will you fish it out?
As for the identifying mark, well
Yes!
Embroidered on the inner
Lining, was the
Label
‘Sheikh Ilahi Tailor Master’”
(Courtesy: Braj B. Kachru, Kashmiri Literature; T.N.Kaul, Gems of Kashmiri Literature; Kasmir, Canada) |
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