AŞK AND INKILAP IN THE POETRY OF NAZIM HIKMET AND FAIZ AHMAD FAIZ

Abstract

Three distinct sub-streams of poetry have emerged over time. First, there is poetry dealing only with the matters of heart, beauty, nature, and imagination. Second, poetry that invokes revolution and tries to wake the masses out of their slumber and bring about social change. But interestingly, a third type has also been around for quite some time. The roots of that third type lie in the peculiar circumstances of the twentieth century. This type merges heart and head, romance with revolution and the personal with the political. There are many examples of this practice of poetry but perhaps three poets with cosmopolitan reach stand apart from others: Pablo Neruda of Chile, Nazim Hikmet of Turkey, and Faiz Ahmad Faiz of Pakistan. This article attempts to compare the politics and poetics of Hikmet and Faiz. Few people are aware, including the academics, that Nazim Hikmet and Faiz Ahmed Faiz were friends, so much so that Faiz translated some poems of Hikmet into Urdu. It calls for further study to see how these two revolutionary poets of the 20th century were linked and related