• Sandeep Sharma

Arabic poetry (الشعر العربي) saw dominant oscillation of blind poets, though Ma’arri was the one and without any doubt the best, especially among the poets of Abbasaid period.1 and 2 He is the best because he attracted, as even today, due reception from the Western scholars, the oriental scholars but sadly not enough attention from the Indian scholars. Abü'l-ʿAlā Al-Maʿarrī (Dec 973 to May 1057) was a freethinker, philosopher who was born at Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān which is near Aleppo, Syria (Encyclopedia Britannica). He met with an accident, the accident of his father’s death. When Ma’arri lost his father then like a hardwood follower son he composed an elegy (ritha) in praise of his dead father in the first phase of his poetic life.3 With the blind man’s touch not only Ma’arri presents but also promises many philosophical endeavors through his insight, his soul search and then many times he turns an ardent atheist of language. On the other hand, we have the contemporary Indian Urdu poet, ghazal writer, Nida Fazli also Muqtida Hasan Nida Fazli (12 Oct 1938 to 08 Feb 2016) who is much omitted in the western research, the oriental scientific papers and to reiterate with ‘pessimism’-- even by the Indian scholars (not even with peripheral references). Although list of his achievements and impact of his works can easily be felt within the common masses and the poets of India. Fazli remained in India, away from his father. His father actually decided to live in Pakistan. When Fazli’s father died he could not attend his last ceremonies. Then Fazli wrote an elegy for his father in Urdu. The present paper intends to fill these gaps through this comparative study. Both of them (Ma’arri and Nida) wrote elegy for their fathers. In this paper I attempt to study the form, themes and structure of elegies written for their fathers with comparative tool of analysis. To fill the gap and bring these two poets closer I have, in this paper, humbly attempted to compare the elegies written for their fathers. Kevin Blankinship has dexterously translated the elegy written by Ma’arri from Arabic to English. This paper has all the references to the above translation. However, the elegy of Nida has been translated from Urdu to English by the present scholar.

Elegies on Father: Ma’arri and Nida Fazli

"Elegies on Father: Ma’arri and Nida Fazli ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.106-110, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1908816.pdf

"Elegies on Father: Ma’arri and Nida Fazli ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp106-110, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1908816.pdf