Apne haath ko pehchaan . . .

Haath uthhatey hain jo kudaal, parbat kaat giratey hain

Jungal se khetii ki taraf morh ke dariya latey hain

Know the power of your hand . . .

The hand that lifts the pickaxe, can cut down mountains

And turn the river away from the forests into your fields

In K.A. Abbas’s Saat Hindustani (1969)12 we see Kaifi exhorting his fellow countrymen and women—almost in Soviet style—to move forward and build a new and prosperous India:

Zulm hadd se badheyga to ghatt jayega

Apni talwaar se aap kat jayega . . .

Yuun badho jaisey lehra ke dhaara badhey

Thokrein khaaye to dil hamara badhey

Tyranny will diminish when it exceeds its limits

It will be cut by its own sword . . .

Move forward like the boisterous wave

Heartbreaks only make my heart stronger

And in the same film:

Faasle sab dilon ke mitaatey chalo

Apne seene se sabko lagatey chalo

Move forward, removing distances between hearts

Meet others, embrace them as you move forward

In Naunihal (1967), Kaifi celebrates the enduring legacy of Nehru whom he has long admired with this ode to Nehru’s liberal humanism which he believes is the balm that a country scarred from post-partition desperately needs:

Meri awaaz suno, pyaar ka saaz suno . . .

Kyun sajaii hai yeh chandan ki chita mere liye

Main koi jism nahiin hoon ke jala dogey mujhey

Raakh ke saath bikhar jaaoonga main duniya mein

Tum jahaan khaaoge thokar wahiin paogey mujhey

Hear my voice, listen to the song of love . . .

Why have you set up this sandalwood pyre for me

I am not just a body that you can burn me to ashes

I will scatter in the world with my ashes

When you stumble you will find me beside you

* * *

Writing the foreword to the first collection of Kaifi’s poems, Sajjad Zaheer, the influential progressive ideologue, writer and general secretary of the PWA wrote: ‘A new flower has bloomed in the garden of modern Urdu poetry, a red flower.’ Critique of fascism, imperialism, capitalism blend and merge seamlessly with vignettes of love, longing and loss. The first collection contains some of his most enduringly popular nazms such as ‘Aurat’ and ‘Taj Mahal’; the latter which does not feature in the pages of this volume deserves to be quoted in full here not least for its lyricism as also for its unconventional response to the spectacular beauty of an emperor’s monument of love by a very young man. It carries a portent of Kaifi’s lifelong belief in socialism:

Dost! Main dekh chuka Taj Mahal

. . . vapas chal

Marmarin marmarin phulon se ubalta hira

Chand ki aanch mein dahke hue simin minar

Zehn-e-shair se ye karta hua chashmak paiham

Ik malika ka ziya-posh o faza-tab mazar

Khud ba-k•hud phir gae nazron mein ba-andaz-e-saval

Woh jo raaston pe padey rahte hain lashon ki tarah

Khushk ho kar jo simat jaate hain be-ras aasab

Dhuup mein khopdiyan bajti hain tashon ki tarah

Dost! Main dekh chuka Taj Mahal

. . . vapas chal