CALL ME SHAHID

Whenever I think of Poets writing in a language other than theirs, Prospero’s Caliban always comes to my mind. Caliban has been taught a language that is not his language and for this he dissidently replies:

You taught me language, and my profit on't

Is, I know how to curse.

Now, this curse is interesting. Our ancestor, the colonized Caliban gives us two ways to curse the master or colonizer, in master’s own language, and for me Shahid does both sincerely. One meaning of ‘curse’ is ‘casting a spell’ as in magic. Shahid achieves this cursing English language by bringing in Urdu, Faiz and Beghum Akkthar. Shahid does, what I call, Urduization or Ghazalization of English poetry. So, upon Shahid’s touch, English poetry never remains the same.

Another meaning of ‘curse’ is to ‘abuse or offend someone’. When Shahid writes about the pain of Kashmir, those poems definitely curse the oppressor who is causing that pain. They curse Indian occupation in Kashmir.

Personally, Shahid becomes something else to me when I read him as a Kashmiri. His truthfulness strikes me. He is so sincere. When he remembers Kashmir from his own subjective point of view, it emerges with a sense of loss, “a map, or a postage stamp or a lost address.”[i] But, when he registers my pain, or the pain of every Kashmiri, the pain of Kashmir itself, he represents it objectively in the form of letters. The best example is his poem ‘Dear, Shahid’.

…………………………………………..

The best part of this poem, for me, is its form. It is written as a prose-poem in a format, that in the language of computers or the language of MS Office we call ‘justified’. So, the poem is justified and in the beginning of which Shahid quotes Elena Bonner’s quote:

No idea . . . can justify a war against a whole people.

So, in a justified poem he brilliantly expresses unjustified oppression and pain.

But, by registering my pain as a Kashmiri, of a country without post-office, Shahid himself becomes the post-office where I can deliver my letters of pain. Thus, Shahid for me is the post-office of this country. In this regard, I have written a poem, a Nazm dedicated to Shahid.

SHAHID

Kagaz khaali hai

Srinagar ki raat

khayal muqeed

Shergadi thaney mein Kashmiri bacchey

merey dil key saarey harf

curfew mein atkey huwey

magar

raat badhi shayirana guzri

din bhar ka'en-i-jung huwa

Malcolm X ney Fanon padha

aur maine Agha Shahid Ali

din bhar uski nanhi hatheliyoun sey

pathar goliyoun sey nikaltey rahey

aaj woh pakda gaya

aik khayal

jail ki chhat sey ulta latak raha hai

woh dard ki shidat badhatey hain

mai apni yaadasht

mai aik khayal key izhar ka muntazir hoon

woh 'Aazadi' chilata hai

bandooq uthti hai

khayal chalta hai

khoon behta hai

merey qalm ki nok sey

aik sitara ubharta hai

aur kagaz pey phael jaata hai

mai kagaz ko fold kar key

Shahid ki

Country Without Postoffice mein daal deta hoon

But, as a youth of Shahid’s country, we should remember that he was not the first one who registered our pain or wrote about it. He follows a tradition of pain expressed by Lalla Ded and Habba Khatoon. Our responsibility as youth should be not to make Shahid the last one. For this, we have to continue to write. “write on that void: Kashmir, Kaschmir, Cashmere, Qashmir, Cashmir, Cashmire, Kashmere, Cachemire, Cushmeer, Cachmiere, Casmir. Or Cauchemar in a sea of stories? Or: Kacmir, Kaschemir, Kasmere, Kachmire, Kasmir. Kerseymere?” we have to write Kashmir as we feel it.

Also, we should mark this day and celebrate it by publishing emerging young poets of Kashmir. As I was preparing for this event, I came across a number of brilliant Kashmiri poets writing in English. I think, we should, and it is my appeal to everyone in publishing business that these young poets be published and each year a collection of poems being released on this day.
For me, that will be celebrating Shahid and celebrating Kashmir.

Thanks

Muzaffar Karim

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[i] Rajeev S. Patke, Postcolonial Petry in English,(Oxford: OUP, 2006), p. 235