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Bahu's message

Muzaffar Ghaffar's commentaries of Sultan Bahu's poetry provides an ideal framework for each reader to make his own interpretation
By Nadir Ali
Masterworks of Punjabi Sufi Poetry: Sultan Baahu Within Reach

By Muzaffar Ghaffar
Publishers: Ferozesons Ltd
Pages: 306
Price: Rs895
All great masters of Punjabi poetry have distinctive styles. Sultan Bahu, however, was among the privileged few who are frequently quoted among his followers all over Punjab. His idiom and imagery are also closer to folk. Folk is a vexed term, when used with reference to Punjabi poetry, connecting it with presumed anonymous and oral sources. Punjabi classical poetry is complex, philosophical and original; while belonging to a common humanist and anti-scholastic tradition, no two poets are alike.
Very little has been written in English by way of translation and commentary on Punjabi classical poetry. Najm Hosain Syed, in whose discussion forum Sangat both Muzaffar Ghaffar and I studied, wrote only one thin volume in English, Recurrent Patterns of Punjabi Poetry. His monumental commentaries on Damodar, Waris Shah, Maulvi Ghulam Rasul and Mian Mohaammed Baksh and five other books of critical essays about Farid, Nanak, Bulhe Shah, Shah Hussain and Sultan Bahu, and Sedhan and Saaran cover the whole range of Punjabi classical literature. The histories of Punjabi literature written by Dr Duggal and Dr Mohan Singh Diwana leave a lot to be desired. Seetal's writings in English are even poorer and in some cases even the Punjabi text is not correct.
Ghaffar's work is in a different league altogether, having drunk deep at the fount of Sangat; his Punjabi text has been meticulously edited. Romanised and Gurmukhi texts have been added and the meanings of all the difficult words are included with each passage and then have been alphabetically collected at the end of each volume.
His commentaries are multifaceted, that provide an ideal framework for each reader to make his own interpretation. Notes on the poet's life and a critical introduction to Punjabi masterworks of poetry have been added to each volume. Ten volumes have been printed on Shah Hussain, Bulhe Shah, Guru Nanak, Sachal, Khawaja Farid, Baba Farid and Sultan Bahu and nine more on Heer Damodar and Heer Waris Shah are in the processs of publishing. The last two Heers cover the complete qissas, with the most corrected versions of the Heer texts, a most valuable feature of this unique publishing event.
One of Ghaffar's distinguishing qualities is his command of the English idiom. I think it is difficult to translate a poem into another language in verse. Muzzaffar has superb versification skills and is as close to the original as is possible in another language, especially with no common basis as in Urdu, Sindhi, Hindi, Persian or Arabic. But the constraints of meter and rhyme and another idiom do compromise the meanings sometimes.
I do not agree with adding Hu to the end of each line in translation. He has done this to give a feel of the tone of the original as it is sung. It is purportedly borrowed from Allah Hu, as chanted in zikr. It is more likely the normal stretching of the concluding note when a vowel occurs at the end of line. Vowels occur at the end of every line of Bahu. The addition of the Hu even in the original is superfluous. A repetitive note like that distracts us from the focus on meanings and mood, which differs in every four liner (Bayt, in Punjabi). Each Bayt's meaning can be a different essay. To put them on the pious parade of Hu (Him/God Almighty) clashes with meanings. Consider the following passage:
Elderlines to flowing waters consign, lets flourish black on the face Hu
There's no deity ornaments the neck, is religion in
brother-in-laws place Hu
We drunk from Khizar's cup Bahu, the water of living grace Hu
But God, then came to my home, all chill to efface Hu
Elderliness is being thrown into the river and the face is blackened, the ultimate humiliation usually reserved for a sex offender or thief, in the first line. Sala is one of the worst abuses/slurs in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Bengali is used in the second line. How do you fit that with the pious note of Hu.
Najm Hosain Syed says in his essay on Bahu that we are not sure if Hu was written originally or added later. I find no justification for it in the original or the translation. Some researchers will do well to find some old manuscript and bear me out. All of Bahu's lines end in vowels that facilitate their stretching in the concluding singing note. All this "hu-ing" regurgitates against the spirit of Bahu's anti-mullah and pro-people poetry. Repetition is the mother of fascism and a mantra of the obscurantist, the very tendency that Bahu fought against. Unity yes, oneness yes, but this tolerant humanism is anathema to the priest and pir alike. Bahu certainly would not have liked the sobriquet Sultan with his name either.
Neither Hindu, nor Muslim, who in mosque don't prostrate Hu
In every breadth they see the Lord, in prayer they're never late Hu
Sage they are, became frenzied, Nature's essence rightly assimilate Hu
I'm an offering to them Bahu, Love play who consecrate Hu
The translation of the first line can be misconstrued. In the original it says "they are neither Hindu nor Muslim, nor momin, nor do they prostrate in a mosque."
Similarly the second line may mislead. The original says "In every breadth they see the Lord, therefore they never miss their prayer/don't need to attend any formal prayers."
There is an obscurantist explanation of the name "Bahu" as Muzzaffar Ghaffar points out in his biographical note about the poet. It is said that it is "Ba Hu," a combination of Persian and Arabic words that purportedly means "with him." Bahu did not need any such propagation. He was with Him, because he was with his people, the common people, whose travails he sung about and to whom he spoke in the common man's language and not in the idiom of Persian or Arabic speaking elite.

Religious portals are high Godly through a vent Hu
We slink by pundits and priests stealthily we circumvent Hu
Kicking with heels and wrangling for the afflicted they are bedevilment Hu
Bahu lets go there and dwell, where other assertions are absent Hu
Moree in the first line is the outlet in the city walls through which the sewage passed. Shah Hussain also used Asi morion lung piase (we have chosen/passed through the sewage outlet/vent.) In the villages when they have a large courtyard as they have in the canal colony villages, they keep a small wicket gate called tappan for the servants and women and for taking out the garbage. This tappan is also akin to the moree. The lords and men pass through the large main gate. The lords, like the mullah and the pundit are the respected elite. Bahu says I shall walk away from this lot, because they scare people, cause wrangling and they are enemies of the afflicted/the poor. How would such a man have Sultan added to his name? Bahu must have been a common single word name before the two and three worded names adopted from the elite Persian and Arabic names. Bahu means someone who makes an effort, uses his arms, banh in Punjabi. He chooses the way of the humble and of love for fellow human beings, (Ishq baazi chun litee, in the second passage above.) He labours on regardless of the army of "Sultans" who claim to be his successors. His message has endured for nearly four hundred years and hopefully may prevail one day.