Poetry's ability to stir the soul has roots that stretch back centuries in South Asia, to the great Sufi mystics who rhapsodically described encounters with the divine. Their poems also gave voice to the feelings, thoughts and concerns of common folk, who, being largely illiterate, often used spoken and sung verse to share ideas and stories.
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Until more recent times, public gatherings known as mushairas, at which poets would read out their work, could attract thousands of spectators and make or break an aspiring writer. Those events have mostly vanished, done in by government crackdowns on public assembly and the onslaught of television and the Internet.
Yet, "there is still life in the way that poetry is understood and used by ordinary people," Hashmi said.
That poetic instinct prompted student Babar Mirza to reach for his pen almost immediately after Musharraf declared emergency rule Nov. 3. The imposition of de facto martial law triggered a domestic and international outcry.
An undergraduate in law, Mirza decided to set aside the sentimental verse he was used to composing, about "love and breakups and stuff," in favor of a six-stanza call to arms to his fellow students at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
Enough of criticizing history!
Enough of worshiping lies!
For when the truth runs in your veins
It's binding to change your destiny
"Generally I don't write political poetry," said Mirza, 19. "But I thought that this is the time."
He recited his poem at a campus rally against Musharraf's emergency decree. It also got posted on one of the many blogs that sprang up to keep people informed amid a ban on private television news channels.
"The beauty of poetry, in my view, the way it helps political movements, is that it distills ideas. It gives you one line where so many things make sense to you," Mirza said. "You address not only external issues but also the inner conscience of your audience."
For Hashmi, it is only natural that her fellow Pakistanis should seek consolation and courage in the lyrical, when ordinary words are not enough.
"I think in times of crisis, the true subject comes out, the true subject being what the Sufis call the ability to stand up and have your head sliced off, because through that you will live forever," she said. "Poetry is used very much to give courage, to get you to stand up above yourself."
Many Pakistanis believe her father, Faiz, expressed it best. One of his works, "Speak. . . ," is so iconic that human rights activists here put that single word on stickers, in exhortation, and almost everyone understands the allusion.
The poem opens and closes like this:
Speak -- your lips are free.
Speak -- your tongue is still yours. . . .
Speak -- there is little time
But little though it is
It is enough.
Time enough
Before the body perishes --
Before the tongue atrophies.
Speak -- truth still lives.
Say what you have
To say.
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henry.chu@latimes.com
