DR.
STEPHEN GILL: A BORN
POET OF PEACE
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A few months ago, I had a chance to meet Dr.
Stephen Gill, a poet and writer of
international fame. What struck
me the most was his
easygoing, sociable,
cordial and thoughtful personality.
Different literary and educational institutions invite him as a guest poet and
speaker. He has received many
distinctions. Last year, 2002, the Board of Governors of a
university decided to confer him with an
honorary doctorate for his contribution to literature and global peace. The
same year, a
cassette of his songs/poems on peace
was released.
Dr. Stephen Gill is a bitter enemy of
war. He is deadly against any
kind of division and distinction made on the basis of colour, creed, religion,
race and nationality. That's the reason perhaps that even being descendent of the south Asian subcontinent, he does not like to
be known from any particular place. He
genuinely considers himself a citizen of the global village but this does not
mean that he is not proud of his heritage. He has a unique talent of writing
poems in English, Urdu, and Punjabi. He is a versatile poet who has
successfully written poems on various aspects of humanity and life. He has given new dimensions
to old problems faced by humanity, which make him
popular in masses. People can
easily relate with his personality and poetry without any difficulty
because whatever he says is representative of their
thoughts and feelings.
Dr. Stephen Gill has written about twenty
books on different topics. Any creative job is painful but he endures this pain
in order to preach peace. Dr. Gill
writes about peace out of dedication and conviction. His devotion, commitment and
his passion for peace rightfully
make him eligible for the title
" An Ambassador of Peace of our Era". In 1999, he was awarded
with "Sahir Ludhianvi Award" that was no surprise in the literary circles, because he well-deserved it. This prestigious award is given every year to notable poets
for their outstanding creative work. It is always a great honour to win this
award because Sahir
himself was a great advocate
of peace. His contribution to Urdu literature and Indian cinemas is well
known. He wrote meaningful literature keeping in view all the intricacies of
Urdu language. He is
well known for writing against war and Capitalism.
Dr. Stephen Gill received Sahir award in
1999 for
promoting peace through poetry.
He writes poetry in three languages and does
equal justice in all
three of them. The most distinctive feature of his personality
is that he is totally committed to peace. He considers life as a precious gift
of God. He is a pro-life. He believes that man has been created to enjoy the
world, not to destroy it. The primary
purpose for the creation of
man was to
tend the
of the objects which
are neither everlasting nor
desirable. God created man so that He can have harmony and fellowship with him.
God is love and He has infused the same spirit in
man that he should share that love with
others.
Peace is fundamental in every civilized society. One must be
peaceful within to pass
it onto others. The tragedy of the man of today is that he considers himself civilised
because he has invented weapons of mass destruction. He can reach moon but cannot reach the hearts. From a scientific point of view
he has made progress but keeping in view the sufferings of mankind, it will be
called retrogression. However, knowing that Dr. Stephen Gill has been awarded the
"Sahir Ludhianvi Award", my mind started to think about his poetry
and two famous poets of our era who have extensively written on peace. Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sahir Ludhianvi are
two names in recent years that
were against, capitalism, feudalism and social injustices in south
Similarities:
There are some basic similarities in
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sahir
Ludhianvi and Dr. Stephen Gill. These three
poets belong to the fertile
Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote a
special poem on the conflict of Arab and
Lightening is flashing again
Over the
Flaming face of the truth
Glows in full glory.
Seeing the truth is inviting death
O' beholding eyes!
Faiz
was very much touched
by wars and
other social ills that war causes.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz has written vastly in Urdu. Some people have tried to
translate his
remarkable poetry. Below are excerpts from his
famous poem:
Mujse pehli see mohabat merey mahboob na mang".
class=Section2>
Maney samjha tha key tou hai tou darkhshan hai Hayat
Tera ghum hai tou gham-e-dharah ka ghugra kia hai.
Teri sourat sey hai alam mein bharoun ko sabaat
Terry ankhoun key siwa dunia mein rakh kia hai.
Lout jati hei udhar ko bhi
nazar kia kijeia.
Ab bhi dilkash hai tera husan
Mujhar jia keijeia ..
The literal translation
of this beautiful poem would be:
Do not
ask love from me like before, my beloved. I thought my life is shining because
of your presence in it. Your thought and idea keeps my mind so occupied that I
don not think that any worry of this world can ever replace it. The thought of
your love is so intense that I think no worry of the world can ever influence
my mind anymore. No worry of the world is bigger than your love. It alone is
sufficient to keep me to myself and extremely busy. But now I cannot give you
love like before because I feel there are many other worries of this world,
which grab my attention as well. You are still very beautiful but now I cannot
love you and pay much attention because the miseries of humanity have diverted
my attention.
In the
poetry of Faiz, we
find the intensity of
emotions. He loves
his beloved to the extent that
no worry can get his attention.
His mind is always occupied with the thought of his beloved. It is common in love. It
has been repeatedly said
in Urdu, English and
Punjabi poetry but nobody had ever dared to say that his beloved is no
more important to him because the ills of our society have grabbed his attention. Faiz attaches
significance to life and her perseverance.
This idea
that if there is no life there is no love must have lurked in his subconscious for a while. In
order to love somebody
one is supposed to do his best to preserve life. What he is saying
is let us not kill each other. Rather,
love one another. Prosperity and peace are interlinked. Both of them
are vital in life.
Remarkable Urdu poet Sahar Ludhianvi has written intensively
on this subject. He always fought
against capitalism. According to him
rich and poor must be treated equally. They must have equal chances and opportunities in
life. Rich dominates poor and makes them their slave because they have wealth.
They do not seem to be caring about man's dignity and are least concerned with
man's pains and pleasures. They just want to use them for their purpose. Rich
people are cruel and heartless. They usually mock the
poor. Sahir says in his couplet:
Ye chamanazar ye jaunaa kaa kinaaraa ye mahal
Ye munaqqasah dar-o-diivaar, ye mahraab ye
taaq.
Ik shahanshaah ne daulat kaa sahaaraa le kar
Ham Gariibo.n kii muhabbat kaa u.Daayaa hai mazaak.
In these
lines one cannot help
noticing satire in his tone. Sahir appreciates sincerity of the king that has
constructed Taj Mahal- an expensive and
elegant monument ever made.
Sahir also thinks that by doing so the king has looked down upon
poor who do not have the resources to
build monuments though their love is also
dear for their
beloveds as was the love of the
king for his queen. We can say that
everybody, no matter
what status one has in
society, has similar kind of emotions
and feelings. They react in similar way in love and hate. Sahir wants to make a
point that if the king has the resource to make such an
elegant monument in the memory of his queen, other lovers must also have equal
opportunity to do so or nobody should
have it. Otherwise, it would be an
insult to the
love of the poor.
This is
a biting satire of Sahir
on inequality, injustice and
poverty. He said that if everyone has resources equal to the king, perhaps everyone
would come up with a
better monument to display feelings
toward beloved. On the strength of
money, the king has tried to belittle all other lovers. It is against the principle of justice and
equality. Shair's poetry is based on his personal experience of love, hate,
poverty and sufferings. Whatever he experienced in life can be seen in his poetry. It would be
appropriate to say that whatever he felt, he depicted in his poetry. To evaluate his poetry, here is another couplet:
Duniyaa ne tarjarubaat-ohavadis ki shaqal me.n
Jo kuchh mujhe diyaa hai, vo
lau taa rahaa huu.N mai.N
In the
above lines, Sahir
has stated that whatever he experienced
and saw he is mentioning
in his poetry. He lived a practical life and his
observations are profound
and mature. He does not talk
about imaginary things.
His poetry is based on bitter realities of life.
Dr. Gill
has same traits
in his poetry as Sahir and Faiz Ahmed Faiz had.
Dr. Stephen
Gill also talks about the harsh realities of lives. He is a poet of today. What he feels
he puts on a
piece of paper in a straightforward manner. He is convinced that without peace the world cannot make
progress. Instead of spending money to invent weaponry to kill human
beings, governments must find
medicines to fight cancer, heart attacks, diabetes and other
diseases. To him life is a gift from
God. Life is far more precious than anything else in the world. God created man
from dust so that he can look after His garden in the world. Dr. Gill thinks
that everybody must enjoy equal rights because this world is a global village.
Everybody is a resident of this village. Money should not be considered
criteria to differentiate between rich and poor. Dr. Stephen Gill defines a poor as a person
who has poor relations in society. He believes that religion should
be followed to bring peace.
It should not be used as a tool to divide humanity. To kill human beings
in the name of religion is mockery of religion.
Dr. Stephen Gill has his own way to talk about peace. In his beautiful poem "The Dove of Peace", he uses
a satirical tone:
For a long time
I have been hearing
The dove of peace will be freed,
Shortly;
And to awaken that dove
Progress has been made
Today's comfort
More sacrificed.
Our homes now better adorned
With thorns of hatred;
A few more nuclear bombs
Remain to be developed
And contested;
Man is to breathe his last
In smoke.
Auctioning his future openly
And the life-preserving earth
Freer now to swallow us alive
Setting the stage
To set the dove free
For ever
And ever.
Dr. Gill
has unique ways
to describe the ills of society. He is against the machines that kill humanity. It is retrogression to produce them. Governments must focus on
poverty, disease and how best peace can be achieved. People must be
given right to speak for themselves and peace must be
achieved keeping in view their feelings. To eradicate poverty governments
must find a solution based on equality. Governments must not bring peace
by removing people from the
earth. This is
a mockery of peace.
It is not the proper
way to bring
peace through wars
and bloodshed. Peace must
come through peaceful manners. In one of his poems on the topic of
"Peace" Dr. Stephen Gill says in his own peculiar way:
You are an ocean
In your waves breathes life;
Let me clasp them.
I see hopeless crops
Wearing a winter dress.
A dry leaf I lie
Tempest tosses me around
The joyless eyes
Emitting senseless smiles
Cannot dissolve the bitterness
Plastered on the restless leaf;
Its helplessness let me squeeze out.
In another poem
called "LET US BUILD BRIDGES" Dr. Stephen Gill shares his
desire to have peace in the
world. He says that the practice of all kind of hatred must come to a
stop. He strongly believes that there must be one global government in the
world to represent all
countries. According to him nobody in
this world can
afford to live
aloof. Social and economical realities demand that people must live together to survive. We cannot live without each other. We must find
a way to live peacefully and that is possible if we stop hating on the basis of creed, greed, religion and
richness. He wants to build bridges. He asks:
Let us
Guard our children:
These treasures,
The roots of the future.
The pleasing face of peace
They have yet to kiss.
Let us
Abandon growing crops
Soaked in human blood.
Let us shake hands
Bathing our lands
In new beams
Of a friendly dawn
Many minds understand now
They admire sages now.
Peace cannot swim
On the blood waves.
For a happier future
Let us build bridges now.
Dr Gill addresses the social problems in such a
unique way that every
poem becomes a diamond in the crown of
poetry. While going over his poems, a
reader feels he
knew those problems intimately
and he has found the appropriate words to describe them . . . Dr. Gill does this job neatly that
is one of the qualities of a good
poet. He brings forth
the ills of the society in a way that everybody is bound to pay
attention. In our society, we hardly know anybody
who does not dream. Poor is the man who does not have anything to dream about.
It is hidden ambition of every man to have dreams. Dreams are very dear to
everyone and he likes to buy them at any cost. Dr. Stephen Gill describes the same desire in his
poem "DREAMS FOR SALE":
If there were dreams for sale
I would be the first to buy
No matter how high the price.
I shall pay any price
For dreams
Which lighten the burden
Brighten the day with sunrise
And make life
A time to remember.
My chase will never cease
I will ask every soul
If they sell these dreams
No matter what the price
I shall buy, I shall buy.
DR. Gill appreciates the freedom that does not terrorize others. He likes to live as a free bird in the
global village. Geographical boundaries
are meaningless to him. Social and
economical realities are so compelling that men cannot live aloof. After all
man is a social animal. He needs social interaction with people of the world.
This bond can only be strengthened if people value each other's feelings.
Dr. Gill is a
versatile and multi dimensional personality. It
needs volumes to
write on works
and different aspects of his life . Considering commitments and works I can sum up
that Dr. Stephen Gill is A BORN
POET OF PEACE.