Tag: Manash Bhattacharjee

In Memory of Mahmoud Darwish

by Manash Bhattacharjee 

Mahmoud Darwish, portrait by Palestinian artist, Ismail Shammout (1971).
Mahmoud Darwish, portrait by Palestinian artist, Ismail Shammout (1971).
I learnt from your poems how
To wait upon death
And how waiting is a game as
Treacherous as death.
 
I learnt from you how the root
Of waiting is grasped in despair
And that there is no despair
More deceitful than hope.
 
Continue reading “In Memory of Mahmoud Darwish”

Shahid: A Ghazal

by Manash Bhattacharjee

To Najeeb Mubarki

Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001)
Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001)
Kashmiris will murmur the blessed word, Shahid,
when the Beloved no longer has to witness Shahid.
 
The day Paradise was lost, who was at the gates?
We only know boots of Hell marched in Shahid.
 
Rizwan couldn’t return to console his father –
he found refuge for days in your nightmares Shahid.
 
The Beloved left behind growing nights of sand    
and stars never slept in your deserted eyes Shahid. 
 
Mother’s death flung you into longing’s hollow arms.
Love’s ironic fate earned you her illness Shahid.
 
Continue reading “Shahid: A Ghazal”
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