ANNIVERSARY by Daud Kamal

 

Daud Kamal: 

    Daud Kamal (1935-1987), Pakistan’s most accomplished poet, taught English literature at Peshawar University for nearly three decades. His poems, which are in English, convey a sense of loss and spiritual displacement in the face of violence and cultural erasure. Kamal’s first book, Reverberations (1970), consists of translations of the classical Urdu poet, Ghalib. His original poems in English appeared in Recognitions (1979), A Remote Beginning (1985), and in such posthumous volumes as Rivermist (1992), Before The Carnations Wither (1995) and A Selection of Verse (1997). Kamal’s translations of the Urdu poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Nadeem Qasimi, Munir Niazi and Ahmed Faraz appeared in Four contemporary poets (1992).

ANNIVERSARY

Cascading back 

to the source

over a difficult terrain

but the heart remembers.

Wet stones 

conscious of their lineage –

the chopped-up moon

in paddy-fields.

A fierce love has blurred my sight

and burnt the lines off 

the palms of my hands.

I have drunk acrid milk.

I have heard the sound of clogs

in an ancient ruin.

How can the mind contend

with all this chaos –

this endless repetition 

of thwarted lives?

Shelley asserts 

that the deep truth

is imageless.

An invisible bird

perches on my shoulder

and speaks to me

in a language 

I do not understand.

Ashes and dust. 

I am only a word-smith.

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