Back To Future Originally written in Urdu under the title واپس مستقبل کی سمت You, O poets of South-Asia that I love, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and all others, May indeed be right partially when you tell me You have come so much ahead that you feel You can write a new Poetics and a new Republic. You know what you’ve achieved In a few decades after your nations got self rule The imperialist left you on your own – but Instilled in you a residue of feelings the prompt Nothing but inferiority when you compare yourself. No, not yourself, but your poetry and prose And plays and novels – and all that you write … Yes, compare with what the Westerners write. Your ardent desire is to be known ‘abroad’. Abroad? Where ‘abroad’? Indeed, where? Europeans and Americans do not call India ‘abroad’! They might say, ‘Well, there in India, or there in Pakistan’, But never abroad, for it is your vocabulary pest, not theirs. So, you want recognition abroad? A Booker Prize, a Canadian Commonwealth Prize The Orwell Prize or the Waverton Good Read Award? No, none, nada – you must have your own standards Apply them for your own awards in your countries. I do understand that your prizes and awards are – Shall we say, not credit-worthy? One getting an award loses literary stature? Maybe, the giver shares the cash behind the curtain. Oh, friends, I know all that I rue all that, but what can you do? Your race is back to the future That just can’t be. You have to go forward to future.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 06:20:40 +0000
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