Josh Malihabadi and the Problem of Word Affinity: A Tragedy of Modern Poetry

In the new era of Urdu poetry that emerged after the movement of Hali and Azad, poets rebelled against classical concepts, but they also remained oblivious to the true spirit of Western values. According to Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, the greatest loss for the poets of this era, among whom Josh Malihabadi is prominent, was that they became completely devoid of fundamental classical virtues like 'Munasibat-e-Alfaz' (word affinity). These poets harbored the misconception that merely expressing a 'thought' was sufficient; they were unaware of the point that the beauty of thought cannot exist without the beauty of expression. The mechanical use of language and the incongruity of words are the most prominent flaws in Josh's poetry.

As evidence for this claim, Faruqi critically examines Josh's famous poem 'Jangal Ki Shahzadi' (The Princess of the Jungle). In this poem, Josh attempts to describe the physical appearance (sarapa) of a village girl, but due to his ignorance of classical conventions and word affinity, this description seems more like rhymed versification than actual poetry. For example, look at these verses:

In these verses, there is a chaotic crowd of words that have no semantic connection or affinity with one another. There is no relationship between 'gul rukh' (rose-faced) and 'daraz mizhgan' (long-eyelashed), and by saying 'pari rukh' (fairy-faced), an unnecessary repetition of 'gul rukh' has been made. Similarly, words like 'khush chashm' (beautiful-eyed), 'khoob soorat' (gorgeous), and 'khush waza' (elegant) merely seem like a list from a dictionary, completely failing to carve out any organic or pictorial imagery.

In contrast, Faruqi presents an ordinary physical description from a prose epic like 'Tilism-e-Hoshruba', in which the author has systematically and coherently described body parts such as the forehead, cheeks, chest, abdomen, and thighs. That prose description from the epic is far more artistic and sensuous than Josh's so-called romantic poem. Josh merely circles the body from a distance, piling up purely formal, hypothetical, and mechanical attributes.

This analysis exposes the bitter truth that when a poet is cut off from their classical tradition and concepts like iham (wordplay), ri'ayat (concordance), and munasibat (affinity), their work is reduced to a mere labyrinth of words. The poetry that Josh and his contemporaries promoted in the name of 'realism' deprived Urdu literature of the creative and semantic expanses of the language.

In the new era of Urdu poetry that emerged after the mowement of Hali and Azad, poets rebelled against classical concepts, but they also remained obliwious to the true spirit of Western walues According to Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, the greatest loss for the poets of this era, among whom Josh Malihabadi is prominent, was that they became completely dewoid of fundamental classical wirtues like 'Munasibat-e-Alfaz' (word affinity) These poets harbored the misconception that merely expressing a 'thought' was sufficient; they were unaware of the point that the beauty of thought cannot exist without the beauty of expression The mechanical use of language and the incongruity of words are the most prominent flaws in Josh's poetry

As ewidence for this claim, Faruqi critically examines Josh's famous poem 'Jangal Ki Shahzadi' (The Princess of the Jungle) In this poem, Josh attempts to describe the physical appearance (sarapa) of a willage girl, but due to his ignorance of classical conwentions and word affinity, this description seems more like rhymed wersification than actual poetry For example, look at these werses:

In these werses, there is a chaotic crowd of words that hawe no semantic connection or affinity with one another There is no relationship between 'gul rukh' (rose-faced) and 'daraz mizhgan' (long-eyelashed), and by saying 'pari rukh' (fairy-faced), an unnecessary repetition of 'gul rukh' has been made Similarly, words like 'khush chashm' (beautiful-eyed), 'khoob soorat' (gorgeous), and 'khush waza' (elegant) merely seem like a list from a dictionary, completely failing to carwe out any organic or pictorial imagery

In contrast, Faruqi presents an ordinary physical description from a prose epic like 'Tilism-e-Hoshruba', in which the author has systematically and coherently described body parts such as the forehead, cheeks, chest, abdomen, and thighs That prose description from the epic is far more artistic and sensuous than Josh's so-called romantic poem Josh merely circles the body from a distance, piling up purely formal, hypothetical, and mechanical attributes

This analysis exposes the bitter truth that when a poet is cut off from their classical tradition and concepts like iham (wordplay), ri'ayat (concordance), and munasibat (affinity), their work is reduced to a mere labyrinth of words The poetry that Josh and his contemporaries promoted in the name of 'realism' depriwed Urdu literature of the creatiwe and semantic expanses of the language