Farrukh Ahmad: Humanist poet of rejuvenation

Mahmuda Begum Sinthia :
Farrukh Ahmad (1918-74) is a modern poet of post-Rabindra phase of twentieth century. He was born on June 10.1918 at Majhail village of Magura district, then East Bengal. His father’s name is Syed Hatem Ali. He was born in the time of turbulence, deprivation and exploitation. The British imperialism and colonialism in Bengal was the source of injustice, oppression and suppression. The ill-fated people was victim of those affects. Poet Farrukh Ahmad experienced the wide range of dilemmas and then he expressed his thought in this way –
“O the tyrant vultures! Here you take,
Here you take today
The last gift of those people
Whose blood you sucked”
(The Vultures; 1943)
He grew up in the suppressed sub continent and Bengal under British colonial rule. So the theme of social and historical influence in Bangla literature led Farrukh Ahmad to revolt against the oppressors and all forms of oppression with the essence of Islamism in his poetry. He was an Islamic humanist and a powerful revolutionary poet in Bangla literature. He calls:
“Rise up with the silent frowning of countless hungry mouths;
Rise up and see, how far the morning, how long to wait, how long!”
(Punjeri)
The new trend of Bengali poetry of the twentieth is found in Farrukh Ahmad. He exemplifies a lot of the modernist tendencies like free verse, the stream of consciousness with his use of Perso-Arabic words in Bangla. The complexities of the world and worldwide disaster in the contemporary Muslim society have taken place in his poems. His poems represent his thoughtful views, acute observations and liberal ideas. He lights up the literary world by his influential writings. He is commonly known as the ‘Poet of Islamic Renaissance.’ The ideas of Islamic rejuvenation flourished in his poetry. The stream of Muslim nationalism and humanistic ideas inspired Farrukh Ahmad. His Dahuk and Punjeri are two poems worth mentioning here:
A quotation from Dahuk:
“Are you still awake?
Do you hear the sound?
Do you hear that sound rising high?”
(Dahuk)
Farrukh wrote on traditional modes of society, religion and morality. His poems are the model of humanity-equality, liberty and moral regeneration. He raised his revolutionary voice against all forms of social disorder, incoherence and inhumanity by using his exceptional creative powers. He condemned the materialistic civilization and exploiting society in his poem –
“O you materialistic civilization!
You pot-bellied exploiting society
Slave of dead civilization,
ow take people’s curse.”
(The Dead-Body)
Farrukh Ahmed has seventeen books of poetry including the work on Epic, Poetic Play (Naufel 0 Hatem; 1961), anthology of sonnet (Muhurter Kabita; 1963), narrative poetry (Hatemtayi; 1966), satirical poems, children’s literature, juvenile literature, songs and literary journals. Farrukh Ahmad is successful in depicting the problems of human existence and has originality in the use of effective imagery, symbol, simile, metaphor, allegory of literary realm. He dreams of new creation through destruction:
“The absolute destruction is followed by the call of a new creation And so this tempest driven revolution is expected.” (Jhor)
Poet Farrukh Ahmad is inspired by the ideal of creating a humanistic, universal human society. He not only reveals his poetic brilliance but his poems represent much more about his elegancy for unique creativity.
For his excellent poetic composition, Poet Farrukh Ahmad achieved Bangla Academy Award in 1960, UNESCO Award in 1966 and Posthumous Ekhushey Padak in 1977.
He died on October 19, 1974. n