Long Urdu Stories

کسی یونیورسٹی کا ایک نوجوان طالب علم ایک دن اپنے پروفیسر کے ساتھ چہل قدمی کر رہا تھا۔ پروفیسر اپنی مشفقانہ طبیعت کی وجہ سے تمام طالب علموں میں بہت مقبول تھے۔ چہل قدمی کرتے ہوئے اچانک ان کی نظر ایک بہت خستہ حال پرانے جوتوں کی جوڑی پر پڑی جو پاس ہی کھیت میں کام کرتے ہوئے کسی غریب کسان کی لگتی تھی۔

طالب علم پروفیسر سے کہنے لگا: "سر! کسان کے ساتھ کچھ دل لگی کرتے ہیں اور اس کے جوتے چھپا دیتے ہیں اور خود بھی ان جھاڑیوں کے پیچھے چھپ جاتے ہیں اور پھر دیکھتے ہیں کہ جوتے نہ ملنے پر کسان کیا کرتا ہے"۔

پروفیسر نے جواب دیا: "ہمیں خود کو محظوظ کرنے کے لئے کبھی بھی کسی غریب کے ساتھ مذاق نہیں کرنا چاہئیے، تم ایک امیر لڑکے ہو اور اس غریب کی وساطت سے تم ایک احسن طریقہ سے محظوظ ہو سکتے ہو۔"

ایسا کرو ان جوتوں کی جوڑی میں پیسوں کا ایک ایک سکہ ڈال دو اور پھر ہم چھپ جاتے ہیں اور دیکھتے ہیں کہ یہ سکے ملنے پر کسان کا کیا رد عمل ہوتا ہے"۔ لڑکے نے ایسا ہی کیا اور پھر دونوں نزدیک ہی چھپ گئے۔

غریب کسان اپنا کام ختم کر کے اس جگہ لوٹا جہاں اسکا کوٹ اور جوتے پڑے ہوئے تھے۔ کوٹ پہنتے ہوئے اس نے جونہی اپنا ایک پاؤں جوتے میں ڈالا تو اسے کچھ سخت سی چیز محسوس ہوئی۔ وہ دیکھنے کی خاطر جھکا تو اسے جوتے میں سے ایک سکہ ملا۔

اس نے سکے کو بڑی حیرانگی سے دیکھا، اسے الٹ پلٹ کیا اور پھر بار بار اسے دیکھنے لگا۔ پھر اس نے اپنے چاروں طرف نظر دوڑائی کہ شاید اسے کوئی بندہ نظر آ جائے لیکن اسے کوئی بھی نظر نہ آیا اور پھر شش و پنج کی ادھیڑ بن میں اس نے وہ سکہ کوٹ کی جیب میں ڈال لیا۔

لیکن اس وقت اس کی حیرت کی انتہا نہ رہی اور اسے ایک جھٹکا سا لگا جب دوسرا پاؤں پہنتے وقت اسے دوسرا سکہ ملا اس کے ساتھ ہی فرطِ جذبات سے اس کی آنکھیں اشکوں سے لبریز ہوگئیں۔ وہ اپنے گھٹنوں کے بل گر پڑا، اور آسماں کی طرف منہ کر کےاپنے رب کا شکر ادا کرنے لگا کہ جس نے اس کی کسی غیبی طریقے سے مدد فرمائی وگرنہ اس کی بیمار بیوی اور بھوکے بچوں کا، جو گھر میں روٹی تک کو ترس رہے تھے، کوئی پرسان حال نہ تھا۔

طالب علم پر اس کا بہت گہرا اثر ہوا اور اس کی آنکھوں میں آنسو آ گئے۔ تب اچانک پروفیسر بول پڑے اور لڑکے سے پوچھنے لگے: "کیا تم اب زیادہ خوشی محسوس کر رہے ہو یا اس طرح کرتے جو تم کرنے جا رہے تھے؟"

لڑکے نے جواب دیا: "سر! آج آپ نے مجھے ایسا سبق سکھایا ہے جسے میں باقی کی ساری زندگی نہیں بھولوں گا"

Abhi Kia Kahain.... Abhi Kia Sunain

Bara Shouq Tha Unhay!

Bara Shouq Tha Unhay Mera Aashiyana Dekhnay Ka,

Jab Dekhi Meri Ghareebi To Rasata Badal Liyaa.!

Majbooriyuin Kay Naam Pe

Majbooriyuin Kay Naam Pe Lut-ti Hain Hr Gharri,

Hawaa Ki Betiyoun Kay Muqaddar bhi Ajeeb Hain.!

Short Urdu Stories

امام احمد بن حنبل رحمتہ اللہ علیہ پر جب نزع کا عالم طاری ھوا تو بیٹے نے پوچھا "ابا جان! کیا حال ھے؟"آپ نے فرمایا: وقت پُرخطر ھے جواب کا موقع نہیں ھے، بس تم دعا سے میری مدد کرتے رھو، میرے دائیں بائیں جو لوگ بیٹھے ھیں ان میں شیطان بھی موجود ھے وہ سامنے کھڑا سر پر خاک ڈال کر کہہ رہا ھے کہ "اے احمد! تو میرے ہاتھ سے جان سلامت لے کر چلا گیا" اور میں کہتا ھوں کہ جب تک ایک سانس بھی باقی ھے شیطان کی گمراھی کا خطرہ موجود ھے۔اللہ اکبر۔۔!! 

اتنے بڑے اللہ والے کا یہ حال ھے کہ آخری وقت تک شیطان مردود سے خطرہ محسوس کر رھے ھیں کہ کہیں وہ گمراہ نہ کرے اور ایمان نہ چھین لے۔اور ایک ھم ھیں کہ اپنی ذرا سی نیکیوں پر مطمئن بیٹھے ھیں کہ بس جنت تو ھماری پکی ھے۔اللہ ھمیں نیکی کر کے اسے محفوظ رکھنے کی توفیق عطا فرمائے۔۔آمین

Prompt: Get the News from Poems

Late in his career, William Carlos Williams wrote a long poem titled “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower.” Toward the end of the poem, he wrote: "It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there."

Is news what is found in poems? Or is what we get from poems not news but what we need to live?

In B.J. Ward's poem, a man decides to get his news not from the newspaper but from Shakespeare's Othello.

Daily Grind
by BJ Ward

A man awakes every morning
and instead of reading the newspaper
reads Act V of Othello.
He sips his coffee and is content
that this is the news he needs
as his wife looks on helplessly.
The first week she thought it a phase,
his reading this and glaring at her throughout,
the first month an obsession,
the first year a quirkiness in his character,
and now it’s just normal behavior,
this mood setting in over the sliced bananas,
so she tries to make herself beautiful
to appease his drastic taste.
And every morning, as he shaves
the stubble from his face, he questions everything—
his employees, his best friend’s loyalty,
the women in his wife’s canasta club,
and most especially the wife herself
as she puts on lipstick in the mirror next to him
just before he leaves. This is how he begins
each day of his life—as he tightens the tie
around his neck, he remembers the ending,
goes over it word by word in his head,
the complex drama of his every morning
always unfolded on the kitchen table,
a secret Iago come to light with every sunrise
breaking through his window, the syllables
of betrayal and suicide always echoing
as he waits for his car pool, just under his lips
even as he pecks his wife goodbye.

from Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems, 1990 to 2013 (North Atlantic Books)

In the play, Othello confronts Desdemona about committing adultery and then strangles her in their bed. But Emilia realizes what her husband Iago has done and she exposes him. He kills her. Othello now realizes, too late, that Desdemona is innocent. He stabs Iago but doesn't kill him, saying he would rather have Iago live the rest of his life in pain. Then Iago and Othello are arrested for the murders of Roderigo, Emilia, and Desdemona. Othello commits suicide.

Othello is not a comedy.

If the "daily grind" is the difficult, routine and monotonous tasks of daily work - the newspaper, coffee, breakfast, shaving, the tie - then reading Othello breaks that routine. But "the complex drama of his every morning" was always there, "always unfolded on the kitchen table." And now, "a secret Iago come to light with every sunrise."

What news did the husband find in this play-in-verse?  Is it the syllables of "betrayal and suicide always echoing" and he waits for his ride to work? Is that what is "just under his lips / even as he pecks his wife goodbye?"

This is not a comedy either.

But returning to that poem by William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower," here the poet finds the news in the form of a love poem written to his wife. But this long love poem also has its dark moments.

My heart rouses
                        thinking to bring you news
                                                of something
that concerns you
                        and concerns many men.  Look at
                                                what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
                        despised poems.
                                                It is difficult
to get the news from poems
                        yet men die miserably every day
                                                for lack
of what is found there.
                        Hear me out
                                                for I too am concerned
and every man
                        who wants to die at peace in his bed
                                                besides.


Allen Ginsberg, a great admirer of William Carlos Williams, titled one of his books Planet News. That book contains a poem about getting the news of Williams' death. The poem is called “Death News” and it is about his first reactions upon hearing of the death of his elder.

Ezra Pound said, “Poetry is news that stays news.”

So much news by poets.

This month we are writing poems about the news. It is a deceptively challenging prompt. It might mean writing about the news as it is found in poetry, or the poetry found in the news.  As Williams might have said, this is the information that doesn’t become dated or irrelevant with the passage of time.

Submission deadline: November 30, 2019

                  

10 poetry books from around the world

Once again, I attended the IBBY Regional conference hosted by USBBY in Austin, Texas. Every two years, USBBY (United States Board on Books for Young People) organizes a 3 day conference at different places around the country and I try never to miss it. (I've been going for over 20 years!)  I love many things about this conference-- it's focus on introducing authors, illustrators, and poets from outside the United States, the way visiting authors stay and chat and mingle with everyone, how meals are included so we stay and chat together--- and so much more! 

And once again, I tried to include a focus on international POETRY-- always a challenge. I was lucky enough to co-host a "poetry jam" with guest poet and speaker Adolfo Cordova, a scholar and poet from Mexico. We had such a good time sharing poetry from Mexico and inviting people to read spontaneously from poetry books by other poet speakers at the conference too (there were more than a dozen poets represented!). 

As I prepared for this event, I was so pleased and surprised to see that this year's poetry output (for 2019) includes TEN POETRY BOOKS featuring poets and stories from outside the U.S. Isn't that wonderful?! Here's that list of 10-- with annotations courtesy of Amazon. 

10 International Books of Poetry

Beauvais, Clementine. 2019. In Paris with You. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Wednesday. 

Eugene and Tatiana could have fallen in love, if things had gone differently. If they had tried to really know each other, if it had just been them, and not the others. But that was years ago and time has found them far apart, leading separate lives.

Until they meet again in Paris.

What really happened back then? And now? Could they ever be together again after everything?

Bramer, Shannon. 2019. Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children. Ill. by Cindy Derby. Toronto: Groundwood. 

The poems in Climbing Shadows were inspired by a class of kindergarten children whom Canadian poet and playwright Shannon Bramer came to know over the course of a school year. She set out to write a poem for each child, sharing her love of poetry with them, and made an anthology of the poems for Valentine’s Day.

___________. 2019. I See the Moon: Rhymes for Bedtime. Ill. by Rosalind Beardshaw. Somerville, MA: Nosy Crow.

A beautifully illustrated collection of favorite rhymes for little ones preparing for bedtime. Rosalind Beardshaw’s artwork features wonderful natural scenes, with adorable sleepy animals and babies ready to be lulled to sleep.

Kaur, Jasmin. 2019. When You Ask Me Where I’m Going. New York: HarperCollins.

The six sections of the book explore what it means to be a young woman living in a world that doesn’t always hear her and tell the story of Kiran as she flees a history of trauma and raises her daughter, Sahaara, while living undocumented in North America.

___________. 2019. My First Book of Haiku Poems: A Picture, a Poem, a Dream. Translated by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen. Ill. by Tracy Gallup. Tuttle Publishing.

My First Book of Haiku Poems introduces children to this ancient poetry form that's still a favorite among teachers, parents and children. These concise poems are easy for readers of all ages to understand and appreciate. 

Nagai, Mariko. 2019. Under the Broken Sky. New York: Macmillan. 

Twelve-year-old Natsu and her family live a quiet farm life in Manchuria, near the border of the Soviet Union. But the life they've known begins to unravel when her father is recruited to the Japanese army, and Natsu and her little sister, Asa, are left orphaned and destitute. 

In a desperate move to keep her sister alive, Natsu sells Asa to a Russian family following the 1945 Soviet occupation. The journey to redemption for Natsu's broken family is rife with struggles, but Natsu is tenacious and will stop at nothing to get her little sister back.

___________. Origami and Poetry Inspired by Nature. Ill. by Clover Robin. Somerville, MA: Nosy Crow. 

This stunning book features nature-inspired poems and origami. For each animal or object, children will be able to read a poem and then make a corresponding origami figure! With clear, simple directions and links to helpful videos for how to make thirteen animals or objects and fifty sheets of origami paper, this is the perfect introduction to the art of paper folding.

Russell, Ching Yeung. 2019. House Without Walls. Yellow Jacket. 

Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with Dee Dee during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety. For a refugee, the trip is a long and perilous one, filled with dangerous encounters with pirates and greedy sailors, a lack of food and water, and even the stench of a dead body onboard. When they finally arrive at a refugee camp, Lam befriends Dao, a girl her age who becomes like a sister-a welcome glimmer of happiness after a terrifying journey.

van de Vendel, Edward. 2019. I’ll Root for You and Other Poems. Ill. by Wolf Erlbruch. Translated by David Colmer. Eerdmans.

This delightful poetry collection is the perfect cheerleader for young athletes . . . especially ones who may not be the most athletic. (Dutch poet) Edward van de Vendel introduces readers to a world where elephants figure skate, frogs win the Diversity Olympics, and a pig quits the football team for gymnastics, even though everyone laughs at his leotard. Paired with winsome illustra¬tions, the poems—sometimes silly, sometimes sincere—encourage young readers to pursue their goals, try their best, and take pride in themselves, whether they win or lose.

Vecchione, Patrice and Raymond, Alysa. Eds. 2019. Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience. Triangle Square.

This collection of sixty-four poems by poets who come from all over the world shares the experience of first- and second-generation young adult immigrants and refugees. Whether it’s cultural and language differences, homesickness, social exclusion, racism, stereotyping, or questions of identity, the Dreamers, immigrants, and refugee poets included here encourage readers to honor their roots as well as explore new paths, offering empathy and hope. Many of the struggles described are faced by young people everywhere: isolation, self-doubt, confusion, and emotional dislocation. But also joy, discovery, safety, and family.

This is a hopeful, beautiful, and meaningful book for any reader.

Now head on over to The Opposite for Indifference where Tabatha is hosting our Poetry Friday goings on!