Text of the Poem
The time to love
Is when the heart says so
Who cares
If it is muddy August
Or tepid April?
For Love’s infallible feet
Step saintly
from vantage to vantage
to the waiting salt-lick
Spring
Has any importance is for us
The rhymesters, Who need
A bough to perch on
While we sing
Love is a country
With its climate
This article covers,
1. Introduction of the Poet
2. Overview
3. Summary
4. Analysis
5. Theme
Taufiq Rafat was a poet and a writer including his companies, Maki
Kureishi, Daud Kamal, Kaleem Mar, and Alamgir Hashmi. He was born in 1927 in
Sialkot. He had a graduation degree from the Hailey College of Commerce,
Lahore. When Taufiq Rafat was just 12, he became a Poet. The Time to
love is the first poem in his first collection of books Arrival
of Monsoon published in 1985. He also has written another poetry book,
named Half Moon. He is famous for being the founder of Pakistani
Idioms in the English language. He usually used imagery in his poems
successfully and created a vivid image of the idea portrayed by him in the
reader's mind.
Read also,
Salt and Saffron by
Kamila Shamsie, Summary and Analysis
Overview
The time to Love has the famous
theme of love. But, this poem is different from typical and conventional love
and it reflects the reality of Romanticism of English Poets and made his poetry
more expensive by giving the essence of great Urdu ghazals' poetic
thoughts and impressions. This poem is connected with intellectualism and
philosophical aspects of love as compared to the formal and subjective virtues
of poetry.
He is an Asian romantic poet like British Romantic poets Chaucer,
Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Byron, and Coleridge who preferably focused on love
and nature in their poetry. As a Romantic, he also adopted the charm of
different seasons and Rafat rejoices in this poem's love by referencing time,
and seasons. This referential of love and seasons indicate his love for nature
and the universal true love of two hearts as well.
Summary
The Time to Love is a poem that
tells about the emotions of love. This is a fact that love does not expect any
time or season. There is no logical or plausible reason behind when a soul
falls in love with somebody else. It cannot be handled and created by a
person's will because love is truly pure and intuitive. Similarly, it is free
from any practical understanding or worldly sensible obligations. That is why
it is independent of time and seasons. Love has its seasons and also has a
country that is governed by the supremacy of the heart.
Rafat tries to show love strength and it is so great that it
overwhelms the mind as well as the heart. Love is a fact that does not accept
the biggest facts but changes them entirely with its unseen magical courage.
Because it works not with the mind but with the heart, so even not only a
strong man but every possible material authority of the world's greatest power
loses in front of it. He used different metaphors to explain love is fearless
of weather hardships, time limitations, and other practical factors. It has its
world, a special country, and an inflexible loyal climate.
Critical Analysis and Explanation
In the First Stanza, the poet explains love has no
time. It has no concern with the time and place of the universe. Love can
happen anywhere and anytime. It doesn't consider his/her age or the age of the
beloved. Likewise, it does not need any particular era but it has happened in
every period. It is also capable of being a time changer. It brings back the
past or ever moves on to the following future. It does not wait for any moment,
neither for months nor for years. It is said that love is flawless and love's
foolproof feet can place its love in anyone's heart without enduring any
obstacles of weather and time factors.
For those who love, time is eternal (William
Shakespeare)
In Second Stanza, the poet unfolds retaining his
ritual that is a time of love and shifts towards the season. The Time
to Love enlightens several seasons like Autumn, Winter, and Spring. As
time becomes worthless in front of love, it is not seasonal as well. Regardless
of time, season, and place It flies freely all over the world and touches
anyone's heart whenever and wherever it wants. Usually, some poets say spring
is the season of love but it doesn't seem like love needs any specific
criteria, instead, the fact is that it rejoices its spiritual and emotional
strength anywhere, maybe on any branch of a tree without being afraid of the
severity of the weather.
Anything born in spring dies in fall, but love
is not seasonal. (Rumi)
The Third and Last Stanza, comprises two lines only,
where the poet concludes his belief of absolutely autonomous love as it also
has its climate and country. It cannot be restricted to limited time, special
seasons, and particular regions but it never demands intimate favorites like
religion, caste, or national and ethnic borders. It suddenly enters anyone's
heart anytime and anywhere.
Love knows no gender, no age, no race, no
country, no climate,
Love has no labels.
In short, according to Taufiq Rafat, love is one of the
most powerful things in the world. It is universal and time, seasons or other
materialistic and physical appearances don't affect it.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're
with each other all along. (Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi)
This article is written by Madiha Naz, one of
the contributors to the SOL Community.
