Its that time of the year in Singapore...

And with that beautiful image of the scattered flowers at Robertson Quay, I'm reminded of something cool I learnt in Japan.

A Japanese iroha is a form of poetry which (as Wikipedia says) is famous because it is a perfect pangram and at the same time an isogram, containing each character of the Japanese syllables exactly once. Here's one translated into English (which, let's face it, is only half as cool; and yet pretty lyrical).

Although its scent still lingers on
the form of a flower has scattered away
For whom will the glory of this world remain unchanged?
Arriving today at the yonder side of the deep mountains of evanescent existence
We shall never allow ourselves to drift away intoxicated,
in the world of shallow dreams.

Kaifi & I

We watched Shabana Azmi & Javed Akhtar's play yesterday where they read out of Shaukat Azmi's memoirs "Kaifi & I". Shabana recounted her fathers life in the voice of her mother who was obviously a very doting wife in awe of her husband, his philosophy & his work. Their love story set in the backdrop of the 'Azad Hindustan' revolution, the communist movement in Mumbai mills, the Bollywood film industry & later progressive work in a North Indian village; all made for very interesting listening.

Shaukat fondly remembers a mushaira she attended where Kaifi recited his poem (Aurat) which first resulted in her conviction that Kaifi, the man who wrote that verse, was the man for her. Javed Akhtar read out the verse in a fierce voice  & although I couldn't catch all the Urdu on-the-go, I had to come back home & google it for translation. 

Aurat (Woman)
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe
qalb-e-mahoul mein larzaan sharar-e-jang hain aaj
hausley waqt ke aur ziist ke yakrang hain aaj
aabgiinon mein tapaan walwale-e- sang hain aaj
husn aur ishq ham aawaaz-o-humaahang hain aaj
jis mein jaltaa huun usi aag mein jalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

Arise, my love, for now you must march with me
Flames of war are ablaze in our world today
Time and fate have the same aspirations today
Our tears will flow like hot lava today
Beauty and love have one life and one soul today
You must burn in the fire of freedom with me
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me

zindagii jehad mein hai sabr ke qaabuu mein nahiin
nabz-e-hastii kaa lahuu kaamptii aansuu mein nahii
urne khulne mein hai nakhat kham-e-gesu mein nahiin
jannat aik aur hai jo mard ke pahluu mein nahiin
uskii aazaad ravish par bhii machalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

Patience will not help you struggle through life
Blood, not tears, sustains the pulse of life
You will fly when you’re free and not ensnared by love
Heaven is not just in the arms of the man you love
Walk unfettered on the path of freedom with me
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me

goshey goshey mein sulagtii hai chitaa tere liye
farz kaa bhes badaltii hai qazaa tere liye
qahar hai terii har narm adaa tere liye
zahar hii zahar hai duniyaa kii havaa tere liye
rut badal daal agar phuulnaa phalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

Wherever you go sacrifice awaits you
To surrender is a way of life for you
All your charms condemn you
The ways of the world are poison for you
Change the seasons to flourish and be free
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me.

qadr ab tak terii tarriikh ne jaanii hii nahiin
tujh mein shole bhii hain bas ashkfishaanii hii nahiin
tu haqiiqat bhii hai dilchasp kahaanii hii nahiin
terii hastii bhii hai ik chiiz javaanii hii nahiin
apnii tarrikh kaa unvaan badalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

History has not known your worth thus far
You have burning embers too, not merely tears
You’re reality too, not a mere amusing anecdote
Your personality is something too, not just your youth
You’ve to change the title of your history
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me.

tod kar rasm ke but bare qadamat se nikal
zof-e-ishrat se nikal, vaham-e-nazaakat se nikal
nafs ke khiinche hue halq-e-azmal se nikal
yeh bhii ek qaid hii hai, qaid-e-muhabbat se nikal
raah kaa khaar hii kyaa gul bhii kuchalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

Emerge out of ancient bondage, break the idols of tradition,
the weakness of pleasure, this mirage of fragility
these self-drawn boundaries of imagined greatness
the bondage of love, for this too is a bondage
Not merely the thorns on the path, you have to trample on flowers too
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me.

tod yeh azm-shikan dagdag-e-pand bhii tor
terii khaatir hai jo zanjiir vah saugandh bhii tor
tauq yeh bhii zammruud kaa gulband bhii tor
tod paimana-e-mardaan-e-khirdmand bhii tor
banke tuufaan chhalaknaa hai ubalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

Shatter these resolve breaking suspicions of sermons
these vows that have become shackles
this too, this necklace of emeralds
these standards set by the wise men
You have to turn into a tempest, bubble and boil over
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me.

tuu falaatuno-arastuu haii tuu zohraa parviin
tere qabze mein hai garduun, terii thokar mein zamiin
haan, uthaa, jald uthaa paae-muqqadar se jabiin
main bhii rukne kaa nahii waqt bhii rukne kaa nahiin
larkharaayegii kahaan tak ki sambhalnaa hai tujhe
uth merii jaan mere saath hii chalnaa hai tujhe

You are Aristotle’s philosophy, Venus, Pleiades
You control the sky, the earth at your feet
Yes, raise, fast, raise your forehead from the feet of fate
I too am not going to pause, nor will the time
How long would you falter, you have to be firm
Arise, my love, for now you must march with me.

Baby's World

Kabeer is getting more inquisitive every day. He asks logical questions ("Mama, is pizza a kind of bread?"); he asks illogical questions ("Why can't tomorrow come today?"); and he asks questions for the heck of it ("Why do you say you don't know the answer to that Mama?"). But the questions mostly give us an insight into his mind & it sure is a fascinating place. Of course, its filled with race cars, airplanes & buses for now, but there's so much more in there that I can't begin to describe. Incidentally, I read this beautiful verse by Tagore & it sums up my thoughts on why having a baby is a life-changing experience - its the only way to get a glimpse of this magical world! :)

I wish I could take a quiet corner in the heart of my baby's very own world.
I know it has stars that talk to him, and a sky that stoops down to his face to amuse him with its silly clouds and rainbows.
Those who make believe to be dumb, and look as if they never could move, come creeping to his window with their stories and with trays crowded with bright toys.
I wish I could travel by the road that crosses baby's mind, and out beyond all bounds;
Where messengers run errands for no cause between the kingdoms of kings of no history;
Where Reason makes kites of her laws and flies them, the Truth sets Fact free from its fetters.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Gulzar

Attended an evening of poetry with the legendary Gulzaar at Singapore's Esplanade theatre & was absolutely blown away. Alongside Gulzar, was another writer - Pavan Varma - who has translated some of Gulzar's work into English. And although the english translation almost never had the same quality of expression, we were thankful for it in any case; mainly because it served as a guide for some heavy-weight urdu vocabulary (not a strength of mine).

I was apprehensive at first. Despite all my love for poetry, I'm far from being a master of urdu and wasn't sure of what to expect from an urdu poet. I went in with expectations of songs of love, longing, chaand, mohabbat and shikwa. I was pleasantly surprised though with the range of topics Gulzar has written about. There was a verse called "kitabe" about forgotten books; a gem of a verse about a diary full of incomplete verses like stubbed cigerrettes; about nature & the environment; about a grimy pub in Mumbai; about the charms of the afternoons in old Dilli, there was a beautiful little verse about RD Burman called "Pancham"; and he ended with a verse I completely loved, titled "Meghna" which spoke about his experience of his daughter giving birth to his grand-son (It got me teary-eyed to hear of a father's tumult at watching his little girl become a woman; a mother; going through the pains of labour.)

Admittedly, its not easy listening to poetry being read aloud. You need time to take it in, ruminate over the words, build the imagery, and by the time you've done all that, you've probably missed the train of verse the poet is reading. Gulzar was a patient reader & allowed us enough time to digest every sentence. And seeing the poetry through the eyes of the poet himself; hearing his views & origins of the thoughts; was a treat. Having said that, I can't wait to get my hands on the book & re-read the verses in my own time & on my own sofa.

The Red Dress Poetry

I absolutely LOVE this piece of poetry - I love it for its complete lack of inhibition. I love the paradox: you hear the voice of a feminist but one who sees herself through the eyes of men; who is fearless enough to flaunt her desires but you wonder about the shallowness of her self-image; who wants to show how little she cares about men but finds it difficult to actually do so; who can start sentences with "I want" and end them with nothing more important than (or something as important as) "a flimsy & cheap red dress". Its about any/every modern woman in so many ways, don't you think so? Makes you wonder whether modern-day feminism is something to celebrate or deplore or both.

"What Do Women Want?"
by Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

Tagore

I had seen these words engraved on one of the walking trails in the MacRitchie Nature Reserve. Thought they were beautiful.

Valentine's Day

Ok I admit it; we stopped celebrating Valentine's Day a long, long time ago. But I've always loved this piece of poetry ever since I first heard it in the movie "In her shoes". It just fits so well for the day today & for the way I feel about my love (God, it didn't sound that mushy in my head :-) )

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)
I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

Samarkand

When we left Dubai, I wanted to buy a parting gift for myself; something uniquely Middle Eastern. So I picked up this book: the english translation (the original is in french) of Amin Maalouf's historical novel 'Samarkand'. And wow, what a great book it turned out to be!

Maalouf has taken the historical facts from 12th century Persia & used beautiful imaginative threads of fiction to connect them. Omar Khayyam, the celebrated 12th century Persian poet, philosopher & mathematician is the main character of this tale. The story traces the birth of Khayyam's famous book of persian poetry called Rubaiyat which earned him praise from many intellectuals & wrath of many religious zealots. As the legend goes, Khayyam was being tried by a qadi (a religious judge) for his supposedly 'un-islamic' verses; but instead finds a friend and sympathiser in the qadi who explains to Khayyam that the world is not yet ready for his philosophy & urges him to write down his private thoughts in a small notebook. This was the beginnning of the Rubaiyat. The book follows the manuscript of the Rubaiyat all the way to 19th century Persia through the revolution & the resultant democracy.

Here's a quatrain from Khayyam's Rubaiyat that I liked :)

"I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul returned to me,
And answered "I Myself am Heaven and Hell"

Fire & Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

~ Robert Frost

A piece from Tagore's Geetanjali

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.

My eyes strayed far and wide before I shut them and said `Here art thou!'

The question and the cry `Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance `I am!'

Beyond My Solitude

'The Forerunner' is a masterpiece. The opening line of this poem is stunning. The more you think about it, the more fascinating it gets:

Beyond my solitude is another solitude, and to him who dwells therein my aloneness is a crowded market-place and my silence a confusion of sounds...

Freedom

I can read ‘The Prophet’ over & over again, any number of times and every time I read it, I pick a new piece as my favourite verse. This is my current favourite:

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.