Six Poems - the Annual of Urdu Studies

Riyaz Latif • 161The Cow 4Green fields of grass now only remain in dreamsóMy heavy bodyrising impelled by four legshas indeed begun to walkin the windings of those wayward lanes,but my every gesture strikes and shatters againstthe cityís helter-skelter breathingóand now in the shade of wayward lanesflies copulate, enthusiastically,on the planes of my melancholy eyesóTell me, how much longer must I, flicking my tail,set right their crooked flight?Thus do I, wandering the lanes, for the soulís nurturecontinually chew on the paper of two worldsóBecoming mother to allI settle into my own expanseóAnd nowthat I have been made mother:Drink the few drops of milk,the extract of all those pagesthat have found their way into my sacred bodyóAnd live on in the depths of your mirages!The Face’s Eye 5face, eye of the withinfixed upon an eternitycytoplasmic depthexpanse of scenesopens layer by layeróan abstract soundin the buffeting of the bloodin the press of the fleshbones, our fortress4 ìGāʾē.î Unpublished in Urdu.5 ìMuñh kī Āñkẖ.î Unpublished in Urdu.

Riyaz Latif • 163weíre still as we used to belost signson your dancing shores, fold within foldin between fixity and negation on shifting sandstell us who lifted and placed usglaring on the ancient levelon the palm of ragged waterswhere nothing existed in the mirages of ruined spin-driftin the desolations of the silent wavethe ocean our constant movementthe ocean perpetual feelingthe ocean gathering our grief into its barren breastthe space between life and our liveshomelessóthe swollen touch of the oceanís vast breathingtrembling on the worldís vast browin its singular dispersaltell us, who had made usthat impediment in the earliest swelling of waters?that obscure endlessness of sands?lost signsonly lookreckless centuriesówho was that liquid-forminsinuating himself, a space in the spaces of the waterísbodyfrom the oceanís steady coursing to its dancing shorescontinually dreamlikeonce again, that hellish expanse from desert to desertthat restlessness of the extinction of water in waterthat revolution striking out of extinguished dropletsO shoreless centuriesturning to steam, the oceanís become the universeand as for uswe remain as we used to beflinging ourselves against dense wavesvisitors of mortal spin-driftthose very lost signs

164 • The Annual of Urdu StudiesFireshoreless centuries!abandoning your shores, look where weíve reachedweóin the fire-temples of your hollow coursinglike unfinished worldsburning others, ourselves burningincarnatedand from somewhere within, somewheredisgorging the skies high upyour night has formed usadorned usburned usin the theaters of the skyin the eyes of the starson the highways of eternitytell us, who was that in those earliest sparkslike soundsfevered, melting, coming alivebecoming perfect lightbrilliant in some blood-dimmed rapturewaning on the breathkindling the dry leaves of our minds, our heartsbecoming now the extinguished meaning of his own redfigureshoreless centuries!having expressed your firewe burst into light in bodiessomewhere outsideóon the far side of the bodyin remote dreams,moving, passing into extinctionfurther, further on towards an unknown pointon those very familiar sandsseared by your touchfalling, incandescent in the soulturning to smokelook at us, centurieswe remainon your obscure, distant shoresgathering and then incandescent skieslost signs

Riyaz Latif • 165Windshoreless centuries!through your countless kindled flames have we passedblowing like breezesin those very familiar tonesblindly swooping inround the bend of some broken horizonfrom an unknown centera ripple in the blood of unfinished worldsof a meaningless flowin the fashionings of their own dreamstouching bustling worlds, then vanishingwillful windordering anewup until nowthe armies of your heartless momentsas if every breath arose and passed bythe hospices of some million birthsfar beyond the mindís eyeO shoreless centuriesthe winds fallen away from your breathinscribe message after messagewith their soft finger on faces without lineageraising the storm of your nameshrieking, spinning in our desolate soundless bodieswhirling in our soulin its own dense, pure gyrepouring us outhaving gathered our forms into its turningshoreless centuries!weíre still as we werein the wind of your worldsshrieking as we roamin the mists of your forgotten shores, fold within foldcrazed, lonely without a formthose very lost signsóEarthshoreless centuries!

166 • The Annual of Urdu Studiesby the spell of your billowing and wakened watershave grounds shot upóhere, thereever spreading, advancing, scatteringgathering the sands of countless feelingscreating us by the moment, raising us, destroying usinaugurating your endless risingfashioning our bodiesout of its own heartís mudimprisoning you in the vastness of its desertsand us in our perpetual gyrationsweíre still who we werewho entered with youinto the press of this earthís spacesinto the night densely prickling with starssecretly turning into dying soundit was with you we had enteredthe lush wildness of forestsgilded grasses, rushing springsbecoming the stones of caves we arrivedat domes and niches resonant with your hummingat pillars risen from your vast yawningwaking earths slumbering in your every new expressionsettling a million cultures!perpetually beating in your dance, in your arrestalways in the hidden chambers of these silent placesócoursing in the swift, pathless forms of the cleft earthO shoreless centuries!how many wildernesses does your infernal beautyswallow!as if dawn was extinguished in twilightís bottomless pit!sinking into the blind depths of this infernoin the expanses of night and daymountain, ocean, flower, leaf,color and fragrancecoursing squanderedcoming to nothingO shoreless centuries!we are what we werethe earliest guardians of the dispersed mud of your axis!look, lost signsó

Riyaz Latif • 167Bodyshoreless centuries!from the weak, obscure fortresses of our bodiesrises your murmur, slidingcoursing through veins, bones, the fleshby the crenellations of the nosein hearing, in vision, sometimes in nameless feelingsabide worlds you had once flung upfrom the regions of your dreamsyou, touch of crazed emptiness spreading in the bloodyou, taste thriving in the mouthís famished worldyou, great eagle of fragrance in the skies of our breathtell me, shoreless centurieshow is it that hours are entangledin the heartless pores of our hide?through whose animated facesonly you may pass briefly like beautyas the fruit of lightís branches may lose flavorthey were your fruits allyour very own elementstransformed utterlybecoming fire, turning to dustrising in waveslost in vain and upwelling windsfrom spaces, from forests, from sandsóbecomingmassive earthin the theaters of the bodywhere now even your echo tires of its own approachwhat to speak of the body?body a momentbody the dwelling of uprooted breathsaxis of the expression of your fire, water, earthbody the countenance of soulsstation on the road to eternityour path to youO shoreless centurieswe are as we werepassing by the theaters of the bodythe hospices of birthreaching you

168 • The Annual of Urdu Studiescaravans silently advancing towards youconfidantslookóupon your dancing shores, fold within foldthose lost signs againexpress usfor driven by the moment, your secrets into the heart,forgetting themselves, unknowinghad arisen from youwill return into you somedayóóTranslated by Prashant Keshavmurthy