Lazarus is dead

بلب کا جبڑا کھلے ، آگ برس جاۓ تو ؟ گر یہ استخر ابھی ، خون سے بھر جاۓ تو ؟

یا یہ استخر جہاں آب کے منشوروں سے)

(رنگ ہستی سے فنا کی یہ دھنک ابھری ہے کوئی استخر نہ ہو ، کوکھ ہو میری ماں کی ، اور میں میں نہیں ، شاید وہ اچھالتا پانی ، جس نے سانسوں کی طنابوں کو پکڑ رکھا تھا !!وائے قسمت کے مرے ہاتھ میں رسی نہ رہی

آہ میرا یہ جنیں خون اگلتا جاۓ اس قدر خون مری ماں کا شکم بھر جاۓ اس قدر خون کہ جراح کا لبادہ میرے

سرخ ایام کی تنہائی سا گاڑا ہو جاۓ اورتانبے کے کسی گرم سے برتن میں ابھی میرے لاشے کے کٹے لخت پڑے ہلتے ہوں

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What if the jaw of the bulb opens up and fire comes out

What if the swimming pool is filled with blood

What if this swimming pool ,

(Where through the prisms of water , the color of being is turned into a rainbow)

is not swiming pool but the womb of my mother

What if I am not me but the ejaculated water

that holds the cords of breath

But my hands can't hold it anymore!!

Now my fetus vomits blood

so much blood that my mother's womb is full of it

so much blood the the surgeon's coat is darker than the horizon of the setting sun

And in a deep warm copper pan,parts of my dead body move

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Have a look at some of the sculpture from the Hong Kong based artist johnson tsang.With the following sculptures I am trying to give you an idea on the vertical and the horizontal meaning of my allegorical poem. As it was said by Farooqi ( the famous critic) that once the poem is out of the hands of the poet it's the reader who creates its own meaning or meanings. I leave it for your imagination to draw whatever meaning you would like to take out of it. Click on the pictures to see more of his work.

Bulb :

I wrote the poem while swimming in a pool as I saw a bulb underwater changing its color. Whenever the bulb transmitted white light a rainbow formed, which was kind of a psychedelic experience.

A dead Goat , Lazarus and the name of the poem

I had a goat as a pet when I was young and I loved it alot until it grew up enough so much so that it was ready for the Abrahamic sacrifice. I cried, and pleaded to my family to let it go. But they took it as a naivety of a child and ignored all cries and hues. I saw the goat fight with the butcher as I was hoping that somehow it will run away but it could not. I still remember the pieces of its flesh moving slowly in a metal tray. It now reminds me of the rising of Lazarus of Bethany[1] from which the word Lazarus reflex [2] was coined. I named the poem on it.

Visual Influences

The movie Eraserhead by David lynch along with the documentary on abortion Lake of Fire were two of my influences while writing this poem.

1-(The Raising of Lazarus (اليعازر) or the Resurrection of Lazarus, mentioned only in the Gospel of John (John 11:1-44), is a miracle of Jesus in which Jesus brings Lazarus of Bethany back to life four days after his burial.

2-While The Lazarus sign or Lazarus reflex is a reflex movement in brain-dead or brainstem failure patients which causes them to briefly raise their arms and drop them crossed on their chests (in a position similar to some Egyptian mummies).

استخر is the persian word for a swimming pool

منشور is a prism

طناب or rope is a metaphor for the umbilical cord

جنین is the arabic word for fetus which is used in Persian and Urdu as well

شکم

abdomen, belly, tummy, womb, gut, bowel

جراح Surgeon

Meter

Urdu meters draw from the arabic prosody. Its laws were laid down by Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (d. 786), an early Arab lexicographer and philologist, who did so after noticing that poems consisted of repeated rhythms in each verse. This poem is written in one of my favourite Meters Raml , if someone is interested I can explain further but for now I am referring to two of the famous Ghazals from Ghalib that use both the twin meters.

It is to be noted that raml along with hazaj is one of the most common meter used in arabic,persian,urdu and turkish poetry.

18 =* - = = / - - = = / - - = = / = = { رمل مثمّن مخبون محذوف مقطوع } [ramal mu;samman ma;xbuun ma;h;zuuf maq:tuu((]. May be used with #19. *The first syllable is properly long, but may be replaced with a short.

or

19 =* - = = / - - = = / - - = = / - - = { رمل مثمّن مخبون محذوف } [ramal mu;samman ma;xbuun ma;h;zuuf]. May be used with #18. *The first syllable is properly long, but may be replaced with a short.

بسکہ دشوار ہے ہر کام کا آساں ہونا آدمی کو بھی میسّر نہیں انساں ہونا

وائے دیوانگیِ شوق کہ ہر دم مجھ کو آپ جانا ادھر اور آپ ہی حیراں ہونا

عشرتِ قتل گۂ اہلِ تمنّا مت پوچھ عیدِ نظّارہ ہے شمشیر کا عریاں ہونا

عشرتِ پارۂ دل زخمِ تمنّا کھانا لذّتِ ریشِ جگر غرقِ نمکداں ہونا

حیف اس چار گرہ کپڑے کی قسمت غالب جس کی قسمت میں ہو عاشق کا گریباں ہونا

دہر میں نقشِ وفا وجۂ تسلی نہ ہوئا ہے یہ وہ لفظ کہ شرمندۂ معنی نہ ہوئا

میں نے چاہا تھا کہ اندوۂ وفا سے چھوٹوں وہ ستمگر مرے مرنے پہ بھی راضی نہ ہوئا

ہوں ترے وعدہ نہ کرنے پہ بھی راضی کہ کبھی گوش منّت کشِ گلبانگِ تسلی نہ ہوئا

کس سے محرومیِ قسمت کی شکایت کیجے ہم نے چاہا تھا کہ مر جائیں سو وہ بھی نہ ہوئا

مر گیا صدمۂ یک جنبشِ لب سے غالب ناتوانی سے حریفِ دمِ عیسی نہ ہوئا