An Evening of Caged Beasts Seven Postmodernist Urdu Poets

by Farrukhi, Asif; Pritchett, Frances W.; Farrukhi, Asif

• ISBN13: 9780195790207
• ISBN10: 0195790200
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The contributing poets are seeking to re-invent poetry. It is a new mood in the Urdu poetry from Pakistan, particularly those poets who are situated at a somewhat oblique angle to the mainstream. This book is a selection from the work of seven such poets.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction
Translator's Introduction
I Invented Poetry	p. 1
Descent from Tel Za'atar	p. 5
What Did the Sea Tell You?	p. 15
If They Should Learn	p. 19
To Live One Day More	p. 23
The Verdict	p. 25
Love	p. 27
We Live Without Asking Anyone	p. 31
Is Fire the Best Buyer?	p. 35
We Should Forget	p. 39
You Live in Beautiful Circles	p. 41
She Dries her Tears with a Dainty Hairdryer	p. 45
If My Voice Is Not Reaching You	p. 47
Life Has Been Made Easy For Us	p. 49
The One for Whom No One is Waiting	p. 51
If We Did Not Sing Songs	p. 53
You Look Very Beautiful Asleep	p. 55
Poem	p. 57
A Death Sentence in Two Languages	p. 59
Kristallnacht	p. 61
If You Were Miriam Konskivich	p. 63
Only Unimportant Poets	p. 65
A Poem	p. 67
A Dot Might Appear	p. 69
A Life Divided into Pieces	p. 71
Another Life	p. 73
This Mind	p. 75
Avowal	p. 77
After You Come	p. 79
It's Hard to Write a Poem	p. 83
It's Easy to Write a Poem	p. 85
A Poem Comes Every Day	p. 87
Instead of This Life	p. 91
If My Hands Are Freed	p. 93
It's Hard to Remove the Grime	p. 95
The Beginning of Exile	p. 99
A Poem Can Start From Anywhere	p. 101
Tree, my Friend	p. 105
Surrounded by Words	p. 109
The Moment it's Morning	p. 113
I Was Thinking of You	p. 115
A Bridge is Being Built	p. 117
So Many Colours	p. 119
Here in the Hinterlands	p. 121
Until Evening Falls	p. 123
At the Edge of a Difficult Day	p. 125
I Want to Die the Death of a Man	p. 127
Paperweight	p. 129
Mehran, Give Me	p. 131
Ghazal	p. 133
Half a Room	p. 135
For Sheli, My Daughter	p. 143
Lines from a Poem	p. 145
A Debt	p. 149
The House of Empty Eyes	p. 153
The Bird Stayed in the Room	p. 155
The Bird's Eyes Open	p. 159
Perhaps the Dust Might Call Me Again	p. 161
The Moon-Debt	p. 167
Love	p. 169
A Poem in a Dream	p. 171
The Institute	p. 173
White Carpet	p. 175
New Policy	p. 177
The Prisoner's Telescope	p. 179
Place	p. 181
Tyranny	p. 183
Four Walls	p. 185
The Whistle	p. 187
A Lifeless Poem	p. 189
The Rat's Birthday	p. 191
Bulldozer	p. 193
King	p. 195
What Do You Do?	p. 197
To the International Olympic Committee	p. 199
Hopes	p. 203
In the Last Petals	p. 205
Not a Sound	p. 207
What Happened This Time	p. 209
Nancy	p. 213
For the Price of My Life	p. 217
Picking Thorns	p. 219
The Singing Stone	p. 223
Poem	p. 225
A Tree's Terror	p. 227
The Shepherd's Dream	p. 229
The Blind Man and the Telescope	p. 231
Gloves	p. 233
The Iron Suit	p. 235
Poem	p. 239
Ants	p. 241
The Last Page	p. 245
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.