KASHEER
Not Ptolemy’s Kasperia, nay, not Kashyap Mar –
Kasheer is the abode of irrevocable loss.
Homes razed to ground by centuries of betrayal:
we stand as mute specters – the ruins and I.
Kalhana, your word is lost!
Spiritual defeat has finally come to pass.
The era of pit dwellers and sun worshippers is gone,
And now the faithless grave worshippers abound.
“In time past, we were; in time future, we shall be;
Throughout the ages, we have been,” quoth Laila Arifa.
I shove back the diggers, frantic to cover
the long-lost city buried in my mind.
Kasheer might have forgotten the monster Jalodbhava,
Were it not for the wine bottles dangling from barbed wires.
I had happily lost my memory of you, until
It was revived by the fish bones on mountain tops.
The mythical, the legendary -- that Kasheer is non-existent.
The snow endures longer than the memory of the dead.
It’s getting way too dark. Tell me a new story–
of Kasheer – the land reclaimed from the sea of sighs.
Glossary
Kasperia is the ancient Greek name of Kashmir as mentioned by Ptolemy
Kashyap Mar is he abode of Kashyap, Kashmir, in Kashmiri
Kasheer is Kashmir in Kashmiri
Kalhan wrote Ratnagiri, an account of the history of Kashmir
Laila Arifa is a 14th century poetess who wrote in Kashmiri
Jalodbhava or Waterborn was a mythical demon who tormented the inhabitants of Lake Satisar in Kashmir. He was destroyed by the joint efforts of the sage Kashyap, Parvati and Vishnu. His destruction destroyed the lake and led to the formation of Srinagar, the current capital of Kashmir.
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Saba Zahoor, an engineer from Kashmir and self-styled peasant poet, views poetry as a portal to alternate realities and has been published in several literary outlets.
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