Excerpts from the review of Poetry of the Taliban written by MOHAMMAD TAQI for Outlookindia. He gives an interesting perspective. I havent read the book myself as yet, though. outlookindia/article/A-Lesson-You-Wont-Forget/281288#.T9kZZYntQB8.facebook An old Persian adage goes: Mushk aan ast ki bebooyad, na aan keh attaar begooyed—a great perfume announces itself by its fragrance, it’s not the one that the perfumer says is good. Well, up until recently most did not realize that the Afghan Taliban are the contemporary torchbearers of the great secular—or religious— tradition of Pashto, Persian (Dari) and, additionally, Urdu poetry. Enter the perfumers Alex Strick van Linschoten, Felix Kuehn and Faisal Devji. The trio is here to tell you about the musk of the Taliban verse that you may have been missing out on. ................................If one is at loss to appreciate the literary merit in this or the majority of the poems, it might not be because of unfamiliarity with Pashto, which according to the editors is the exclusive language of the Taliban’s poetic expression. One can try hard to imagine what the original Pashto lines may have looked like but after experimenting with about 40 long and short poems it does feel like a losing battle. It is impossible to discern the form, style, literary devices, diction and context of virtually any poem. And really the Taliban poets are not to blame for this. If one finds oneself reaching for the choice medicine for headache or vertigo, or both, its responsibility rests squarely with the editors who have not included a single line of the original Pashto verse. Perhaps the luminaries such as the novelist Mohammad Hanif and historian William Dalrymple who are among those to have lent their unqualified endorsements to the book, displayed prominently on the jacket, could also shoulder some of the blame. For a work that purports to actually put forth a unique and authentic perspective on the Taliban, there is remarkably little that has been done to introduce the originals. While the editors maintain several websites related to their work, they have not bothered to archive any original poem there either. In fact, when asked on Twitter by a Pashtun for reference to the Pashto works, Alex Strick van Linschoten directed that person to the Taliban website! The reason that the originals are needed is simply the editors’ assertion that “these poems are part of a long tradition of Pashtun poetry (although equally rich Farsi/Dari and Arabic traditions have played their role) stretching back hundreds of years … the genres, meters, themes, metaphors and emotional appeals are often similar or the same”. Faisal Devji has gone even farther with his statement in the preface that “The Taliban poets, in other words, are very likely drawing upon the modern perspectives on these luminaries (Biblical and Quranic Prophets) that were pioneered by nationalist and socialist writers in the twentieth century”. One must insist on seeing the evidence, as these are tall claims that are extremely unlikely to stand closer scrutiny. The Taliban poets, and the editors and Faisal Devji, have indulged in a lot of name-dropping throughout the book. The attempt to prime the reader by mentioning the greats of Persian and Pashto poetry like Rumi, Khushal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba or modern literary giants such as Abdul Bari Jahani, Suleiman Laeq and Ajmal Khattak in the same breath as the upstarts they are about to introduce. .................................The poets, however, once again are not at fault. They are perhaps common people who dabbled into what is called in Urdu as tuk-bandi—an ordinary attempt at composing verse with equally ordinary results— and were not vying for the literary pedestal that Messrs Von Linschoten, Kuehn and Devji are bent on elevating them to. But the literary merits or demerits do not seem to be the primary concern of the trio. ...................Just as the Afghan war and pro-war propaganda became an industry worldwide, the anti-war spiel is also a pretty hot commodity —both in the west and in Pakistan. The present work appears to be an attempt to capitalize on such cravings for some sort of a solution—no matter how flawed—to the Afghan imbroglio. The poets most likely just penned their feelings as is customary for many common country and city folk in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Samples of such verse adorn in abundance the trucks crisscrossing these lands.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 07:41:32 +0000
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