Genesis of a poem -Dr Afzal Mirza

Genesis of a poem

Faiz's "Hum jo tareek rahon mein mare gaye" was inspired by the unique sacrifice of the Rosenberg couple who were executed for their fight for peace

By Dr Afzal Mirza

In his introduction to Faiz's third collection of poetry, Zindan Nama (The Prison Journal), Maj Ishaq wrote that there are four phases or moods of the poetry Faiz wrote during his incarceration. The first phase was the period spent in solitary confinement in Sargodha and Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) jails for three months. "Those were difficult days. There was total ban on paper, pen, ink, books, newspapers and letters." This inspired his famous quartet:

Mata-e-lauh-o-qalam chhin
gai to kiya gham hae
Keh khoon-e-dil mein
dabo li haen ungliian mainay

(If they have taken away my wealth of pen and paper
I have dipped my fingers in the blood of my heart).

It was Faiz's first brush with solitary confinement.

According to Maj Ishaq the second phase of his poetry was written in Hyderabad where he was in the company of other co-accused of Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case and comparatively in a more comfortable atmosphere but greatly upset because of the charges that had been brought against them which could lead to a death sentence. At the same time they were not allowed to defend themselves. Faiz wrote some of his more meaningful and rebellious poems during that time.

The third period was the relatively less oppressive time spent in Karachi Jail when Faiz had access to his friends. Here he realised the importance of freedom and liberty. After that when he came to Montgomery (Sahiwal) Jail he felt the difference and his felt most of frustrated. During this period he completed his famous poem Mulaqat (Meeting) that he had begun writing in Karachi. In Montgomery Jail he also wrote his poem Aajao Africa (Africa come back) and 'Ham jo tareek rahon mein mare gaye' (We who were killed in the dark pathways). Major Ishaq writes, "This poem is inspired by the unique sacrifice of the Rosenberg couple. They had kept their loyalty intact with the future of humanity, revolution and love till their end. There is a strange universality in this poem. Transcending the time and space of thousands of miles it has raised the martyrs of every country on the same pedestal. The poem seems to be written about Karbala, Palasi, Saranga patam, Jhansi, Jalianwala, Qissakhani, Stalingrad, Korea, Talangana, and appears to be about the students dying on the streets of Tehran, Karachi and Dhaka and the freedom fighters of Morocco, Tunis, Kenya and Malaya. They all repeat the inspiring verses of this poem:

"In love of the roses of your lips
We offered ourselves to the
dry twig of gallows
Longing for the radiance of
your glowing hands
We let ourselves be slain in
half-lit pathways
If failure was our destined end
your love was indeed our own
doing.

Who is to blame if all the
roads of passion
led to the killing grounds of
separation.

Picking up our flags from
these grounds
will march forth more
caravans of your lovers

For whose journeys' sake, our
footsteps have
shortened the lengths of the
agonising quest

For whose sake we have made
universal
by losing our lives, the pledge
to your faithfulness

We, who were slain in unlit
pathways."

The poem "Hum jo tareek rahon mein mare gaye" has the subtitle "Inspired by the letters of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg." The poem is dated May 15, 1954. The Rosenberg couple was actually executed by electrocution on 19th June 1953 at the Sing-Sing prison in New York. The gap of almost a year between the incidence and writing of the poem seems to be caused by the fact that during all this time Faiz was in the prison and there was little communication with the outside world. Secondly, Faiz was passing through circumstances somewhat similar to those faced by the Rosenberg couple. The charges against him were such that he could be sent to the gallows and like the Rosenbergs, he was also pleading not guilty to the charges.

"Woh baat saare fasane mein
jis ka zikr na tha
Woh baat unko bohat
nagawar guzri hae."

(The remark that was not a part of the tale
Has not been liked by them)

Much has been written about the Rosenberg episode in the West and their execution had raised a controversy dubbing it a miscarriage of justice. Who were they and what was their crime?

Julius Rosenberg, son of Polish immigrants, was born in New York in 1918 . His father was a factory worker and as a child he grew up in poverty. Those were the days of great depression. Jobs were scarce and inflation was high. By the time he was enrolled City College of New York to study electrical engineering Julius was already 'infected' with the germs of communism. That was the period when downtrodden and underprivileged of the world looked towards the Soviet system as the panacea of their economic misery. American youth, like the youth all over the world, had joined Young Communist Leagues. In the college there was a group of young students who had started working for the League publishing handouts and newsletters.

Julius's wife Ethel was the daughter of a machine repair shop mechanic who lived in shabby tenement but was extremely intelligent and strong-willed. After her high school she worked as a clerk in a shipping company till she lost her job after organising a strike of women workers. She joined Young Communist League and eventually became a member of the communist party. Ethel was also a good singer and met Julius while getting ready to go on stage at one New Year benefit show. In 1939 they got married and the same year Julius graduated. In 1940 Julius joined the US Army Signal Corps and in two years was promoted as an inspector.

Julius and his college colleagues namely Morton Sobell, William Pearl and Joel Barr carried out their activities as communists in New York during the second world war. Julius believed that since America and Soviet Russia had forged an alliance to fight Fascism, America should share its war paraphernalia with the Soviet Union because during those days of war Russia was at the receiving end of Hitler's might. America had already started collaboration with British scientists in its quest for an Atomic Bomb and British scientist Klaus Fuchs was already working on the so-called Manhattan Project in New York. Julius was later on transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico research facility where the actual work on the atomic bomb was going on.

Devoted to his mission, Julius started passing information to Russians without any motive for monetary gains. Russian undercover KGB spymaster Feklisov who worked with Julius during that period has written in his book 'Man Behind the Rosenbergs' that Julius never accepted any money in exchange for the information. During this period Ethel was a housewife but she was charged with assisting her husband in typing the information for him.

The Rosenbergs were apprehended when Ethel's brother David Greenglass who was associated with the Los Alamos project spilled the beans. Actually Klaus Fuchs was passing on strategic information on the atomic bomb to Russia. Feklisov writes that what Julius was giving was sketchy information about the laboratory facilities and equipment that could hardly be used for making an atomic bomb. The real culprit was Klaus Fuchs who was tried in England and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. After nine years in jail he was released and he taught physics for the rest of his life. But the Rosenbergs were not spared in spite of appeals from Einstein and Harold C. Urey. Einstein wrote to President Truman: "My conscience compels me to urge you to commute the death sentence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. This appeal to you was prompted by the same reasons which were set forth so convincingly by my colleague Harold C. Urey in his letter." Harold Urey had written in his appeal: "Now that I see what goes on in Judge Kaufman's courtroom, I believe that the Rosenbergs are innocent. What appals me most is the role that the press is playing. The judge's bias is so obvious. I keep looking over at the newspapermen and there is not a flicker of indignation and concern."

From the jail Julius wrote to his son Michael: "Our case is an integral part of the conspiracy to establish fear in our land. The political nature of the frame-up is obvious and the facts must be presented to expose to public attention the danger that this holds to those who fight for peace."

President Eisenhower who rejected the appeal admitted, "The execution was necessary to refute the known convictions of communist leaders all over the world that free governments are notoriously weak and fearful and all sorts of subversive activity can be conducted against them with no real fear of dire punishment." The Rosenbergs could save themselves from death if they had accepted Feklisov's offer to escape from America through Mexico as was done by Joel Barr or had confessed their guilt as they were being pressurised to do so instead of pleading not guilty but Julius spurned all these offers. .After spending two years on death row while their lawyers desperately tried to get the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, the Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953.