Agha Shahid Ali, 'Land'

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

To mark the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the city of Mumbai.

Land

Swear by the olive in the God-kissed land—
There is no sugar in the promised land.

Why must the bars turn neon now when, Love,
I’m already drunk in your capitalist land?

If home is found on both sides of the globe,
home is of course here—and always a missed land.

The hour’s come to redeem the pledge (not wholly?)
in Fate’s "Long years ago we made a tryst" land.

Clearly, these men were here only to destroy,
a mosque now the dust of a prejudiced land.

Will the Doomsayers die, bitten with envy,
when springtime returns to our dismissed land?

The prisons fill with the cries of children.
Then how do you subsist, how do you persist, Land?

“Is my love nothing for I’ve borne no children?”
I’m with you, Sappho, in that anarchist land.

A hurricane is born when the wings flutter ...
Where will the butterfly, on my wrist, land?

You made me wait for one who wasn’t even there
though summer had finished in that tourist land.

Do the blind hold temples close to their eyes
when we steal their gods for our atheist land?

Abandoned bride, Night throws down her jewels
so Rome—on our descent—is an amethyst land.

At the moment the heart turns terrorist,
are Shahid’s arms broken, O Promised Land?

Comments

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking this is a translation because it's stunning how he's captured the mode of romantic poetry in Urdu/Hindi in this. Where will the butterfly, on my wrist, land? So whimsical, and yet so precise and powerful.

I think it's very fitting that you post a poem that is clearly about Kashmir today. It is this that those of us who live in cities many miles away should never forget.

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

I marvel so much at the way Shahid blends cultures.

That's what I felt too. I guess I was inevitably reminded today of things such as home and exile, or belonging and unbelonging.

[aimlesswanderer.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I remember watching from half-way across the world as my city went to the dogs this day one year ago.

./w

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

Some things should never be forgotten, and all that. Even terrible things, or especially terrible things.

[iatrogenicmyth.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about the use of the word "amythest" among the other words with negative connotations. Do you know the significance of this?

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

I thought maybe the violet colour of the stone was supposed to indicate dusk, since night is falling. The amethyst was Shahid's birthstone, so maybe it was just a personal detail. :-)

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Whoa, thank you for this poem. This gives me chills.

[lyryk.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it! :-) I love this poet like nothing else. <3