Wonderland

By Sarwat Zahra

Wonderland presents the celebrated poetry of Sarwat Zahra in English translation for the first time. This collection includes poems drawn from her previous two volumes, Song of the Blazing Wind (2002) and From Time's Captivity (2013), plus a generous selection of her newest work. Zahra writes in free verse and in the traditional ghazal form, treating popular culture, the internet, science, work, the "male gaze," and the daily news in poems of lament, protest, and lyric beauty. She writes of romantic love, often contributing to the tradition of love poems that shade into metaphysical thought and religious yearning. Dr. Satya Pal Anand comments: "This slim volume by Sarwat Zahra assembles poems and ghazals by the talented poet. Translating poetry into the verse of an alien idiom is the work of a virtuoso who is not only linguistically adept in both languages but also is aware of the poetic idioms of the donor and the receiver languages. Together, Rizwan Ali and Robert Schultz have become that virtuoso. Even a cursory glance through Wonderland will reveal the quality of their translation. Readers in the Indo-Pak subcontinent and elsewhere are receiving a gift of excellence in this book, particularly if they have not read Urdu poetry in the original." Sarwat Zahra is a vivid and fearless poet whose voice, in this moment, must be heard: "Behold this Journey! . . . before the first steps / An intention moved— / You in my heart, primordial longing / Issuing first from the stench of caves, / My helix scratch on their walls . . .."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667816715

Book preview

New Poems

Ghazal, Only I existed and you

Before this Earth, before even Time, only I existed and you.

Before sight or even imagination, only I existed and you.

Before thoughts climbed stairs and dreams rubbed their eyes,

Before morning’s call, only I existed and you.

Before light brightened and the world grew full,

Before things seen and things unseen, only I existed and you.

We stand onstage in outlandish costumes;

Before we debased ourselves like this, only I existed and you.

The body counsels restraint, but I talk back;

Before being arose in any way, only I existed and you.

Our simpleton god knows nothing of love, nothing of passion.

Even before my marrow quickened, only I existed and you.

Ghazal, Restless beauty

Every dream fell asleep, but thought stayed awake.

We swallowed answers, but questions would not sleep.

Dreams weighed on our eyes, so not for one night,

For a week or a season, then not for years did we sleep.

All that time without you! Strange wounds pressed deep.

When I finally saw you regret would not sleep.

Once, at last, my memory touched your