Poetry
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Faiz, Subh-e-Azadi, and Pakistan’s 78th Birthday:
On Pakistan’s 78th Independence Day, the author reflects on feeling little zeal for the occasion, and questions whether Faiz’s “Subh-e-Azadi” is a happy or sad poem, recalling a disagreement between…
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why romanticism?
A poem defending romanticism in a capitalist, post-ideological world, with a note explaining Lacan’s “Real”.
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Obscure and Obscurity: Fatima Ijaz’s Shade of Longing
Furqan Ali reviews Fatima Ijaz’s debut collection The Shade of Longing, reading its abstraction and repeated, unresolved lines as an indictment of language’s failure to capture memory and longing, and…
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Against Platonic Love
The writer introduces an interview with the Urdu poet Ahmad Faraz, whom he ranks behind Faiz, and translates Faraz’s answer rejecting platonic love in favour of passionate, complete love for…
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Koko, Williams, and me
Furqan Ali shares an original poem written after watching a video of Robin Williams embracing Koko the gorilla.
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A commentary: Ganesh, in a confectionery mill
Furqan Ali annotates Afshan Shafi’s poem ‘Ganesh, in a confectionery mill’, reading its placing of the Hindu deity in an industrial setting as a surrealist, biting comment on consumerism, decaying…
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A flying peacock
Furqan Ali describes seeing a peacock fly in a village near Peshawar and shares the poem it inspired.
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Capsule Review: How to Love in Sanskrit
Omar Ali recommends a Kindle collection of short Sanskrit poems and prose about love and longing, with contemporary translations and originals in the footnotes, calling it fun and worth a…
