2005, Set Five

• The Past Forever Lost (Ghazal #6), Aashik
• 'neath the moon, Aashik
• Uluru Sunset, Jamie Duncan
• "You have always written of the luck", Karim Bahriev (translator: Azam Abidov)
• A Gujarati Ghazal, writer and translator, Pancham Shukla
• Editor's Comments

The Past Forever Lost (Ghazal #6)

by Aashik

Indeed mother's words were true, I believe all she told me
While young, the fairies upon the moon behold me

Today while people once close to me have broken all bonds
Yesterday even the boughs willingly used to hold me

Today while even the childhood streets seem beset with gloom
Yesterday their mirth and liveliness used to enfold me

Today while sleepless nights pass gazing at the walls
Yesterday at evening's fall, the school of dreams enrolled me

Today while my mind lies here, invaded by cunning thoughts
Yesterday only simple and kind thoughts extolled me

Today while tears fall scarce even in the face of despair
Yesterday rivulets of tears, with their current rolled me

Now Aashik lies alone in this house immersed in riches
But once in a home, my grandma used to softly scold me

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'neath the moon

by Aashik

Lunar waves rise and fall upon shores 'neath the moon
The night's air whispers ancient lores 'neath the moon

Wild geese render light to all; a wanderer's boon
The shrieking nocturnal preys and gores 'neath the moon

Glowing embers upon the midnight skies festoon
Tossed by wailing winds, the ocean roars 'neath the moon

Silver light reflects upon a lonely lagoon
Lost in tempest, a young seagull soars 'neath the moon

A distant mast through storm; survival struggles goon
From the bosom of clouds, drizzle pours 'neath the moon

Music to Aashik's soul as gossamer winds croon
Gently easing him of all life's chores 'neath the moon

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Uluru Sunset

by Jaimie Duncan

Its hard for me to hear the earth above my own heart.
My veins pound and throb with thunder. It's a strong heart.

Far from here, beholden to the moon's slow liquid pull,
Tides suck at the sand and subside to the ocean's heart.

Lavender the sky, silver and gold in turns, pink,
A painted backdrop to ravaged visage and stone heart.

As moon to tide, so stone to blood as I stand here
Filling with red sand the cavity in my heart.

Exacting exclusive devotion in its wake,
Sweet incense from my altar, whispers from my heart.

I am your daughter, Bonesinger, Stonesinger,
Stumbling in gathering gloom towards my own heart.

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"You have always written of the luck"

by Karim Bahriev (translated by Azam Abidov)

You have always written of the luck
But I wept. Insensibly. In dark.

You are sick of me. What can I do?
Bear a little. I'm going to...

And the sun - as everyday - will shine,
Birds will fly and horses pasture - fine!

Ants will creep on beam and all in wonder,
Yellow leaves feel torture. Wind will wander.

Mountains that very heavy - lean,
Caverns howl, gardens rustle - green.

I pass away... And days will last to break.
The rose blooms. Then fades all in a crack.

The world is great. It's all the same, who dies,
None will weep for faded bloom, no cries!

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A Gujarati Ghazal

written in Gujarati and translated into English by Pancham Shukla

Ever any force a clever doesn't use,
If righteous also, tricks he doesn't muse.

A tender look from far so stark,
On love with sun, morning-dew doesn't embark.

For sake of 'Yaksha', what 'Kalidas' wrote,^{note 1}
Often, the same, a cloud doesn't quote.

Though, it thirsts life-long in arid sand,
A drop of water, mirage doesn't stand.

If earth is not lavished with rain,
By ploughing nothing a plough doesn't pain.

By seeing, being maimed a trunk of tree,
Natural burgeoning a bud doesn't spree.

By touch of 'Damayanti', it becomes alive,^{note 2}
A fish in a meal, 'Nal' ever doesn't thrive.

In dual of male and female it's lone,
In favor of none a neutral doesn't tone.

It stays along, and cuffs all in pent,
Such a ring a chain doesn't vent.

Dreams unfold there'in pinkish trance,
Single excitement here doesn't glance.

It patrols over twin eye-lashes' stage,
The vision of eye, eye-salve doesn't cage.

Yes, it limits Thee in a book,
Autocratic dialogue a paper doesn't brook.

If able, at once it praises outright,
Even single weakness it doesn't highlight.

If not aware it opts not to chat,
Even in haste it doesn't speculate.

At every moment it's a sailor of self in its orbit,
At any other place for longer than that it doesn't cohabit.

A game in which there is no bitter tail,
It self as well that game doesn't fail.

1 This is in reference with the Sanskrit poet Kalidas's epic: Meghdoot: cloud messenger. For detail see: http://"Meghdoot: The Essentials"

2 Please refer the Mahabharat story of a King Nal and his quest for Damayanti--their marriage, their separation and their struggle to get reunited

Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on the dramatist, Kalidasa.

Here are two links about The Mahabharata:

• The Mahabharata
  
• Mahabharata (Wikipedia entry)

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Editor's Comments

The first two ghazals, by Aashik (Bhaskaryya Baruah), are original in English. "The Past Forever Lost" has a Wordsworthian melancholy over the lost bliss and certainty of childhood. This sense of Romantic longing seems especially appropriate to the ghazal form and tradition. "'neath the moon" explores another Romantic theme, wandering under the moon, the wind storms and tempestuous seas. Both ghazals make effective use of radif and qafiya.

Jaimie Duncan's "Uluru Sunset" also expresses a Romantic theme, the centrality of the heart to identity and meaning. Her color-palette is especially effective in expressing the theme. (Or mood, if you wish!)

Azam Abidov translated "You have always written of the luck," by Karim Bahriev, who is an Uzbek journalist, publisher, and writer. If I read the ghazal rightly, it is an anti-Romantic statement of anguish and resignation. The emphatic "fine!" at the end of line six, for instance, sounds quite different from Romantic nostalgia. ". . . all fades in crack," because "It's all the same who dies, . . . ."

As a reader, I value both the Romantic in its varied expressions and anti- or counter-Romantic irony.

Hereis an interview in which Karim Bahriev discusses the situation of press freedom in Uzbekistan. A google search on his name will produce a number of hits. Azam Abidov is an Uzbek poet and translator who has studied in the United States. See About the Poets for more information and some links. A future issue of The Ghazal Page will have some of Azam's original ghazals.

The second translated ghazal is by Pancham Shukla, who wrote the original in Gujurati and then translated it into English. Pancham has rhymed each couplet in lieu of radif and qafiya. (Azam's translation above does the same.) This rhyme scheme works well in English ghazals, at least in translations. In this case, the rhyme also reinforces the contrast, the tension, between the first and second line of each sher. The negatives also add effect by erasing what the reader seems to have just grasped and removing the meaning to another level. As well as the references in the notes to the playwright Kalidasa and the great epic, The Mahabharata, I would add more general allusions to or overtones of The Rig Veda and The Upanishads: a meaning, a sensibility, that develops in translucent layers of image, statement, and negation.

Pancham Shukla's website

See About the Poets for more information on Jaimie Duncan, Karim Bahriev and Azam Abidov.

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