Though I am a Punjabi novelist, I do write poems as well; that is why I enjoy poems by pondering over their ideas in depth with my analytic approach. Safia Hiaat is a Punjabi poetess of the western Punjab, Pakistan; she had her higher education from the Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. According to the information I got through the face-book, she lives in Layalpur, Pakistan. I have read her many poems through Harvinder Singh Chandigarh who posted them on the face-book time to time with his commentary. As I feel, the translated work doesn’t rise up to the original one regardless the translator’s expertise. I read Rumi’s poetry in English but it has not brought me the feeling I could have had I read his poetry in Persian. It was my strong urge to write about the Punjabi poetry being written in the western Punjab but because of its availability only in translation (unfortunately, I cannot read Shahmukhi script), I couldn’t fulfill my wish for a while. After connecting to Safia Hiaat on the Face-book, I requested her to send her Punjabi poems in Roman Script and she honored my request. Her poems revolt against restricted ideology, but I shall not say that she lives in a restricted society since I feel myself that there is no such a society which is not restricted one. Every society has its own walls built. The circumstances and the environment force the humans to behave simply in two ways: either to bow before the society and its bindings by feeling helpless or to question it fearlessly without caring about the consequences of such a revolt. Safia Hiaat fixes the fate of the religious or social restrictions by questioning them with logic. Her poems are enveloped in very strong awareness; they have more power to fit in a larger application than ending in a limited subject. If a critic attaches her poems to one kind of atmosphere, it will be his or her fault since they overlap many dimensions of societical realms. The great literature is often decorated with universal ideas even being set in a local situation. A poem can be about a rich or or poor person but it attains high quality by questioning a limited knowledge dominant in restricted atmosphere of that person. This truth is overwhelmingly seen in Safia Hiaat’s poetry. A religious leader most of the time forgets the ground reality and fails to understand the basic needs of the human beings for whom he promotes his religions, so do the guards of societical laws, don’t they? Safia Hiaat advocates the necessity of the need that keeps life going on by questioning what the religion would do if one dies of hunger? ਕੱਲ੍ਹ ਮੇਰੀ ਮੁੱਲਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਲੜਾਈ ਹੋ ਗਈ ਉਹ ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਮੈਂ ਬਾਗੀ ਆਂ ਮੈਂ ਤਾਂ ਐਨਾ ਹੀ ਕਿਹਾ ਸੀ ਵੇ ਮੁੱਲਾਂ ਢਿੱਡ ਭੁੱਖਾ ਹੋਵੇ ਤੇ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਾਂਗ ਨਾਏ ਸੁਣਦੀ (In Roman: Kal meri mulaan naal larae ho gae, O kehnda Ma baghi an, Ma ty ena e kehya se, Ve mullan Dhid bhooka hovy ty teri bang nae Sunde) When the man, being enslaved with an established tradition built on unfairness, acts like a kind man, he forgets that the fairness actually he himself kills by barring a female member of his family from getting her share of the property he inherits from his elders; the Poetess, being a female, exposes the hypocritical behavior of the men in this context: ਪੈਲੀਆਂ ਨਿੱਕੇ ਬੇਟੇ ਨੂੰ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਰੁਪਏ ਵੀਰੇ ਨੇ ਖੋ ਕੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਹੱਥ ਉੱਤੇ ਰੱਖ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਤੇ ਬੋਲਿਆ ਝੱਲੀਏ! ਕਮਲੀਏ ! ਤੈਨੂੰ ਤੇ ਪਤਾ ਅਸੀਂ ਧੀਆਂ ਕੋਲੋਂ ਕੁਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਲੈਂਦੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਅੰਦਰੋਂ ਕੋਈ ਬੋਲਿਆ ਵੀਰੇ ਮੇਰੀਆਂ ਪੈਲੀਆਂ ਆਹ ਸ਼ਰਬਤ ਦਾ ਗਲਾਸ ਵੀ ਚੁੱਕ ਲੈ ਕਮਲੀਏ ਤੈਨੂੰ ਤਾਂ ਪਤਾ ਅਸੀਂ ਤੇ ਧੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਘਰ ਦਾ ਪਾਣੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਪੀਂਦੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਅੰਦਰੋਂ ਫੇਰ ਕੋਈ ਬੋਲਿਆ ਵੀਰੇ ਮੇਰੀਆਂ ਪੈਲੀਆਂ ! (In Roman: Palian …………… Niky battery nu ditty mery rupaye Very ne kho ke mery hath uty rakh ditty Ty bolya Jhalye! Kamlye! Tenu ty pta Asee dehya kolo kuj nae lendy Mery andron koi bolya Veery! Meria palian. Ay sharbat da glass v chuk ly Kamlye tenu ty pta Asi ty dehyan dy gaar da pani v nae peendy Mery andron far koi bolya Veery! Meria palian) The following poem is very short but its application is extremely enormous; its idea is universal and it questions the very idea that has been protected by the exploiters of every society since it was in an uncivilized epoch. The exploiters advocate to suppress the knowledge so that they can keep manipulating others with power and misinformation; even today, through darkness, they blind the people with fake knowledge to exploit them, don’t they? The beauty of the poem is this that though it portrays a local tribal approach, it echoes in favor of the knowledge that can abolish the thoughts conceived in illiterate minds: ਮੈਂ ਸੁੱਕੀ ਤੇ ਵੀਰੇ ਨੂੰ ਚੋਪੜੀ ਰੋਟੀ ਖਾਂਦੇ ਵੇਖਦੇ ਅੱਬੇ ਨੂੰ ਪੁੱਛਿਆ ਅੱਬਾ !ਵਲਦੀਅਤ ਦੇ ਖਾਨੇ ਚ ਮਾਂ ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਕਿਉਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਤੇ ਅੱਬੇ ਨੇ ਮੇਰੀ ਕਿਤਾਬ ਨੂੰ ਅੱਗ ਲਾ ਦਿੱਤੀ (In Roman: Ma suki Ty veery nu chopri roti Khandy vakhdy Aby nu pochya Abba! Waldiat dy khany ch maan da naam kio nae Ty abby ne meri kitab nu agg la ditty) The next poem is about the suppression displayed at the hands of the controlling people, and in its response, the poetess displays fearlessness and declares the infinity of her idea. Let us in this context read a stanza from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I rise” that stresses that the turth survives eventually: You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Now read Safia Hiaat’s poem in which she rises above any dilemma and declares the victory of her thought valiantly: ਕੀ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹੋ ਜੇ ਬੋਲੀ ਜੀਭ ਖਿੱਚ ਲਵਾਂਗੇ ਜੇ ਸੋਚਿਆ ਖੋਪੜੀ ਉੜਾ ਦੇਵਾਂਗੇ ਜੇ ਕੋਈ ਖਵਾਬ ਵੇਖਿਆ ਅੱਖਾਂ ਕੱਢ ਲਵਾਂਗੇ ਲੇ ਫੇਰ ਮੈਂ ਸੋਚਣਾ ਤੇ ਗੱਲ ਕਰਨਾ ਸਿੱਖ ਲਿਆ ਕੀ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਹੋ ਚੁੱਪ ਰਾਹਾਂ ਨਾ ਹੁਣ ਅਹਿ ਨਾ ਹੋ ਸਕਣਾ ਮਾਰਨਾ ਏ ਤਾਂ ਮਾਰ ਦਿਓ ਪਰ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਮਾਰ ਨਹੀਂ ਸਕਦੇ ਸੱਚ ਵੀ ਕਦੇ ਮੋਇਆ ? (In Roman: kee kahinde ho je bpli jeebh khich lvange je sochiaa khopri urha devaange, koee khwaab vekhiaa , akhan kdh lvaange, le fer main sochnaa te gll krnaa sikh liaa,kee kahinde ho chup rahaan, naa hun ahih naa ho sknaa, maarnaa en tan maar dio, pr tusin mainun maar nhin skde, sach vee kde moiaa?) G.S.Nakshdeep Panjkoha
