THE VEILED SUITE AGHA SHAHID ALI. The Collected Poenu W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON

Transcription

1 THE VEILED SUITE The Collected Poenu AGHA SHAHID ALI W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON

2 Foreword 15 The Veiled Suite 23 From THE HALF-INCH HIMALAYAS Postcard from Kashmir 2 9 A Lost Memory of Delhi 3 o A Dream of Glass Bangles 32 Snowmen 34 Cracked Portraits 3 5 Story of a Silence 38 Prayer Rug 40 The Dacca Gauzes 4 2 The Season of the Plains 44 A Monsoon Note on Old Age 46 A Butcher 47

3 The Fate of the Astrologer Sitting on the Pavement Outside the Delhi Railway Station 49 After Seeing Kozintsev's King Lear in Delhi 5 0 Chandni Chowk, Delhi 51 Cremation 52 In Memory of Begum Akhtar 53 Homage to Faiz Ahmed Faiz 66 A Wrong Turn 60 Vacating an Apartment 61 The Previous Occupant 63 Leaving Your City 65 Philadelphia, 2:00 A.M. 67 The Jogger on Riverside Drive, 5:00 A.M. 68 Flight from Houston in January 69 Stationery 71 Survivor 72 I Dream It Is Afternoon When I Return to Delhi 74 A Call 76 The Tiger at 4:00 A.M. 77 In the Mountains 79 Houses 81 From S3 A WALK THROUGH THE YELLOW PAGES Bell Telephone Hours Has anyone heard from you lately? Call long distance: the next best thing to being there It's getting late. Do your friends know where you are? Reach out and touch someone far away. Use your phone for all it's worth Today, talk is cheap. Call somebody. 89 Advertisement (Found Poem) 90 Language Games' 92

4 Poets on Bathroom Walls 9 5 Christmas, 1980s 96 An Interview with Red Riding Hood, Now No Longer Little 98 The Wolf's Postscript to "Little Red Riding Hood" loo Hansel's Game 102 From A NOSTALGIST'S MAP OF AMERICA Eurydice 107 Beyond the Ash Rains 110 A Rehearsal of Loss 112 Crucifixion 113 Leaving Sonora 116 I Dream I Return to Tucson in the Monsoons 117 A Nostalgist's Map of America 118 In Search of Evanescence Students of mist It was a year of brilliant water When on Route 80 in Ohio Someone wants me to live From the Faraway Nearby In Pennsylvania seven years ago, We must always have a place You The way she had in her rushes of resonance Shahu), you never "Phil was afraid of being forgotten." 135 The Keeper of the Dead Hotel 136 From Another Desert Cries Majnoon: In the grief of broken stone Each statue will be broken There again is memory Cries Majnoon: 142

5 6. His blood shines Who now weeps Majnoon was again sighted Majnoon In prison Majnoon weeps for Satan: The prisoners know they've been Ambushed in century after century by the police of God The dead are here. Listen to survivors 149 No, 15 1 Resume 152 Notes on the Sea's Existence 154 Medusa 156 The Youngest of the Graeae 158 Desert Landscape 160 I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror 161 Snow on the Desert 164 From THE COUNTRY WITHOUT A POST OFFICE The Blessed Word: A Prologue 171 Farewell 175 I See Kashmir from New Delhi at Midnight 178 The Last Saffron 181 I Dream I Am the Only Passenger on : Flight 423 to Srinagar, 184 "Some Vision of the World Cashmere" 188 "Lo, A Tint Cashmere! / Lo, A Rose!" 19 o Ghazal 193 Dear Shahid, 194 A Pastoral 196 Return to Harmony The Country Without a Post Office 2 02 The Floating Post Office 2 07

6 The Correspondent 2 09 A Fate's Brief Memoir 211 At the Museum 21 7 A History of Paisley 218 A Footnote to History 221 Son et Lumiere at Shalimar Garden 2 23 Ghazal 225 First Day of Spring 22 7 Ghazal 2 28 Death Row 229 The City of Daughters Muharram in Srinagar, Hans Christian Ostro 236 AVillanelle 238 After the August Wedding in Lahore, Pakistan, 239 From m ROOMS ARE NEVER FINISHED Lenox Hill 247 From Amherst to Kashmir Karbala: A History of the "House of Sorrow" Zainab's Lament in Damascus Summers of Translation Above the Cities Memory New Delhi Airport Film Bhajan Found on a 78 RPM Srinagar Airport God Ghalib's Ghazal The Fourth Day By the Waters of the Sind 2 76 Rooms Are Never Finished 2 79 Ghazal 282 Barcelona Airport 284

7 A Secular Comedy Heaven Earth Hell 288 The Nature of Temporal Order 2 91 Ghazal 293 On Hearing a Lover Not Seen for Twenty Years Has Attempted Suicide 295 Suicide Note 296 Ghazal 297 The Purse-Seiner Atlantic 299 Eleven Stars Over Andalusia On our last evening on this land 3 o l 2. How can I write above the clouds? There is a sky beyond the sky for me I am one of the kings of the end One day I will sit on the pavement Truth has two faces and the snow is black Who am I after the night of the estranged? O water, be a string to my guitar In the exodus I love you more I want from love only the beginning Violins 311 I Dream I Am at the Ghat of the Only World 313 From S3 CALL ME ISHMAEL TONIGHT I Have Loved 32 6 For You 327 Of It All 329 Of Fire 331 Things 333 Shines 335 My Word 33 7 From The Start 339 Angels 341.'

8 Of Water 343 As Ever 345 Land 347 Not All, Only A Few Return 349 Water 350 Of Snow 351 Air 352 About Me 353 In Marble 355 Bones 35 7 In 359 Beyond English 361 Of Light 363 Stars 365 For Time 366 God 368 Forever 369 After You 371 In Arabic 3 72 Tonight 3 74 Existed 3 76 Noted 377 Biographical Note 383 Index 385