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PARVIN
SHERE : AESTHETICS OF ENDURING RELATIONSHIPS
Prof. Hameed Khan
Radically changing global scenario has drastically altered the
notions of life and the entire gamut of the disciplines associated
with it. Literature, especially poetry, being a highly sensitive
genre, could not have remained unaffected. Urdu poetry, like all the
literatures written in English and indigenous Indian languages, has
kept its pace with the pressures of times---misinterpreting or
misreading of it notwithstanding. It has, very subtly and
elementally, assimilated and accentuated the recently emerging
linguistic and literary ethos in terms of the modes of perception
and presentation. Urdu poetry has a rich tradition adorned with
oriental philosophies, metaphysical depth and delicacies,
socio-cultural complexities and linguistic niceties. Second half of
the earlier century brought in the unprecedented advancement in the
field of science, technology, politics, intellectual inquiries and
cultural studies that had a direct bearing on the creative
consciousness all over the globe. Unprecedented migration of the
masses and creative writers to the West has also given a sharp turn
to the very idea of literary concerns and commitment. It has, in
fact, added a new dimension to what is now called literary
productions. Parvin Shere's poetry is an excellent synthesis of the
tradition and the current internationalism which invariably seems to
be the dominant concern of the immigrant writers.
Parvin Shere's poetic concerns and thematic preoccupation, however,
needs to be understood in terms of simultaneity of the emotional
translucence and intellectual intensity that determine the tone and
texture of her poetry and directions of her ideology. Her
intellectualism and ideological stance, it should be noted here,
cannot and should not be perceived in the Western political,
polemical, theoretical or merely academic context. Her new culture,
certainly, has sensitized her creative consciousness and sharpened
her analytical and critical acumen, that many a time attributes
subtlety and pungency to the balanced but highly devastating
ironic phraseology of her poetic structures.
Like any other competent diasporic discourse, Parvin's poetry
embodies a bitter critique of the male dominated society. Her poems
like,"Mirage"(Sarab) and "Disposable" represent her emotional and
intellectual response to the woman's predicament in the suppressive
patriarchal system. These two poems betray two different dimensions
of Parvin's poetic reactions against the callous sexist society that
resembles across the borders and nations. The very title
"Disposable" is highly suggestive of the Western cultural reality
that exemplifies the constitution of the western disposition and it
also effectively communicates the nature and texture of human
relationship in a culture where romance with consumption reigns
supreme. The poem also makes a sarcastic statement on the culture
that has reduced woman to the trivial position of a commodity; she
is bought, used, abused and discarded :
Exquisite...
Sighting in a show case
He bought it and brought it home
Filling it up
..
He threw in the dustbin
Then left to get another one.
(Disposable)
"Mirage" offers another dimension of Parvin's poetic vision. It
reveals the intrigues of the cultural institutions shrewdly
engineered by the exploitative male society to perpetuate
subservient female psyche. The dominant system makes a woman
internalize the submissive positions in absolutely natural way.
Obliterating her own identity and independence, she
willingly/unwillingly gets subsumed into the roles designed by the
male conspiracy. "Mirage" bemoans this helplessness:
I am water, you a goblet.....
....
Towards the end, however, the poem takes a turn that unequivocally
registers Parvin's intellectual reaction:
Even so,
I am water,
a spring source of life
and you---------
a rock,
impervious to what life is!
("Mirage") trans. by: Hameed khan
Parvin's poetry epitomizes the agony of a continually tormented
and tortured woman's soul:
How many more tests and trials of my patience
How many more skies are there over my head ?
Layers after layers are incessantly revealed
How many faces are there behind the faces?
"Gazal", trans. by: Hameed khan
Is there an end to it ever! is a perennial question that keep
appearing in her poems like a refrain.
"The Last Station" is an elegy on the decay and death of the
human relationships. The values of love and mutual trust,
disinterestedness and selflessness are a rarity in the contemporary
world that is ruthlessly governed by materialistic drives and
ulterior motives. We are all a 'lonely crowd', lost in the labyrinth
of narcissism. John Updike has rightly pointed out that contemporary
man needs assurance, without mutual lies we all will be suspended
like planets in the azure skies. "Octogenarians" (Darul Zoafa)
dialogizes yet another dimension of the rotting human concerns. The
poem portrays the hear-shattering reality of the helplessness of the
old people who are mercilessly abandoned by those who had been the
pivot of their life. John Updike's first novel The Poorhouse Fair
seriously addresses itself to these issues. The thematic canvas of
this novel, however, is wider as he also takes into fictional
account the larger issues of "social homogenization and loss of
faith". Parvin's other poems like "The Coffin" (Tabut),
"Helplessness" (Bebasi), "No Exit" (Sabhi Raste Moattal Hain),
"Dilemma" (Kashmash), A Beautiful Dream-like House" ( Khubsurat
Khwab sa Ghar) are exquisite subjective expressions of the
irresoluble tensions between the worlds within and outside.
Contemporary woman's plight in the male dominated world is doubly
worsened. Parvin Shere effectively employs the metaphor of train and
journey motif. Everyday, right from morn a woman is continually
shocked and shattered, dejected and disillusioned. By the end of the
journey the train stands against the gloomy landscape tragically
deserted and desolated :
left alone,
my wet eyes,
keep trying to locate---
from each and every window,
all human relations
lost in the thick mists of time.
("Last Station") trans. by: Hameed khan
Parvin's scathing criticism of the gender-biased society,
nevertheless, is not a projection or a manifestation of the radical
feminist ideology. Because feminist ideology, ipso facto, aims at
subverting the system perpetuated by patriarchy. In her indictment
of the patriarchal designs Parvin is, one with her contemporary
Canadian women novelists and poets like Margaret Atwood, Margaret
Laurence, Aritha Vanherk, Nicole Brossard , Daphne Marlette and many
others. But it should also be carefully noted that she is noticeably
different from them in terms of modes of perception and presentation
and also in terms of linguistic and generic experimentations. Many
of these Canadian poetes are constantly engaged in ideological
discourses that are vehemently directed towards annihilation of the
murderous male supremacy. Deliberate transcendence or transgression
is the launching pads of their poetic subversive endeavours.
Debunking male-oriented language is also one of the major
preoccupations of these women writers. They are often infuriated
by the canon, the generic traits and their male association. Sexual
deviation and moral digression is yet another point. These radical
poets, however, have a well-defined logic and logistics for the
subversion of the dominant system as well as for reconstruction of
woman's identity and her absolute independence. The alternative
systems beyond the limits of family and morality, however, would not
suit Parvin's refined oriental sensibility and inherently
feminine delicacy. Like many of the women poets from the
sub-continent Parvin retains the she essential and intrinsic
poetic idiom coupled with highly loaded phraseology assimilitated
from her diasporic experiences in the world that is, ironically,
looked upon as a haven of freedom and paradise of consumption. She
is a solitary example who enjoys dexterity in painting, music and
poetry. Her poetry presents a harmonious blending of these three
different disciplines of the fine arts. Any sensitive reader can
easily discern masterfully organized shades and colours in her
words and soothing sonority in her diction. Her painting, it can
surely be construed, must be highly poetic.
Parvin has been living in Canada for more that four decades now;
she has been in live contact with the practicing women writers. As
an intellectual poet she has been closely following the directions
the creative consciousness in Canada and in the west at large. But
her poetry does not provide any evidence of being carried away by
the inflated intellectual intricacy or triviality. Nor does her
poetry betrays any desire to sell-off her own culture to the western
readers, as many of the immigrant writers are accused of. Her
western exposure, on the contrary, has widened the horizon of her
experiences. Like her Canadian colleagues she sharply interrogates
the male hierarchies.
Rather than aiming at subversion, Parvin's poetry betrays a
creative consciousness questing for lasting and enduring human
relationship. It is this relationship which, in its ultimate
analysis, attributes dignity and integrity to human stature and
makes his life meaningful, colourful and eventful.
Her insatiable quest for enduring relationships does not confine
itself to the interpersonal or social extent. Imperialistic drives
in the cultural, intellectual, political and economic spheres on the
international level also reveal disconcerting upheaval owing to an
obvious lack of sincerity and authenticity in human relationships.
Her poems like "Iraq", and "Outrage" (Andhera), are the moving
portraits of the precarious conditions humanity is deplorably placed
in. It immensely grieves Parvin's heart to think, ' what man has
made of man'!
Parvin's poetry, in fact, is a heart-rending scream of a bleeding
heart and agonized mind. It is a perennial quest for order,
authenticity and equilibrium conspicuously missing in the
contemporary spheres of human relationships. And it this quest that
determines the aesthetics of her poetic art.
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Dr. Hameed Khan is Professor at the Department of
English,Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad(MS)
INDIA. A Ph.D. in American literature, Dr. Khan has one book, two
text books and a number of research papers to his credit. His
research papers, articles and reviews are published in various
journals and magazines. He has also written preface/s and foreword/s
to ten books in English, Urdu and Marathi. Dr. Khan is also known
for his translations. His Urdu translations of Marathi short stories
are published by Maharashtra State Urdu Academy, Mumbai. His English
translations of interviews, Marathi and Urdu short stories
Have appeared in the different issues of INDIAN LITERATURE, Sahitya
Academy, New Delhi. |
