In a stunning punchline he wonders if the hanged man, if he were to come back alive, would try to hide the nakedness of death writ large on his face. In Death by Hanging Ayaz charts the journey of a hanged man from the seat of power to the 'narrow lane' of the grave.

(Karonjhar is a hilly area in the eastern part of Sindh, in Thar desert) (Rohri is a city in Sindh on the banks of river Indus famous for its ancient Hindu temple now in ruins) But he is more famous for his short poems in which he captures a single image, a movement, or a reflection that makes you smile. He enters into conversations with celestial bodies and inanimate objects, sometimes addressing the Karar Lake where he was to be buried, in the shadow of his mentor’s Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s tomb at other time he is found musing over train tracks and a pair of unknown breasts “as full as a woman’s cheeks” which make a place in his heart “to this day.” later still, at night, Walt Whitman and Vladimir Mayakovsky visit him in his study to argue about suicide.Īyaz wrote long poems in the style of conversations in which he tells a story or some anecdote and offers philosophical reflections. This selection offers a cornucopia of pleasures laden with nature’s imagery and diverse – and universal - cultural references. He is able to make Shakespeare at home with his musing that if Shakespeare had read The Chachnamah - An Ancient History of Sind he would have found rich material for his greatest play. At one point he converses with his poetic-spiritual mentor Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and at another pays homage to Federico García Lorca. Yet this does not hinder him to traverse civilisations and cultures that offer us a synthesis of the best poetic thought of the 20th century.

He is a prime example of a poet that expresses universal emotions through reference to a specific set of circumstances that affected his native land. He is credited with breathing a new life in the poetic expression of Sindhi language by infusing modernist metaphor into old poetic forms which were hitherto treated with worn-out classical imagery of unrequited feminine love and Sufi mystical tropes.Īyaz’s poetry is steeped in folklore and the rich traditions of the soil that nourished his imagination. Shaikh Ayaz (1923-1997) is one such poet whose verse represents the coming together of diverse elements – beauty and the shadow of death. ‘How the two have come together?’ asks the poet. In the preface the translators tell a little anecdote: imagine two deities from classical India: Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and music is sitting with Kali, the goddess of blood and violence, and the two of them sip nectar in a moon-lit temple.

Shaikh ayaz poetry in sindhi