Nasir Aijaz, born on August 9, 1954 in a small village ‘Bhiria’located in central part of Sindh, province of Pakistan, is based in Karachi, the capital of the province. He is basically a journalist and researcher having spent over 48 years in the field of journalism. He won Gold Medal and another award for best reporting in 1988 and 1989. He has worked in key positions for newspapers and news agencies. He also worked as a TV Anchor for over a decade and conducted some 400 programs. He started translating short stories from English literature into Sindhi, his mother tongue, during his college days in 1973. He is the author of ten books on history, language, literature, travelogue and biography. One of his books ‘Hur – The Freedom Fighter’, a research work on war against the British colonial forces, also won a prize. Further, he translated a poetry book of Egyptian poet Ashraf Aboul Yazid, into Sindhi language, which was published in Egypt. Besides, he has written around 500 articles in English, Urdu and Sindhi, the native language of Sindh. He is editor of Sindh Courier, an online magazine and represents The AsiaN, an online news service of South Korea. His articles have also been translated in Arabic and Korean languages. Sometimes he writes poems in his native language. Very recently, some of his poems have been translated in English, Albanian and Italian languages and published in Italy, Albania, Bangladesh and some other countries. He also received a commendation certificate for his poetry contribution from International Literature Language Journal. Nasir Aijaz is one of the founding members of Korea-based Asia Journalists Association AJA. He has visited some ten Asian countries and attended international seminars.
NOSTALGIA
I have no nest, no abode, left in my village
The century-old home built by my ancestors
Torrential rains collapsed the dwelling
But, like a bird
I visit my village time and again
Wander the streets and bazaar
The fields and gardens
The canal
Where I used to fly like a bird in my childhood
To have a look at my nest, my abode.
3000 NIGHTS
No matter how hard you do it
In some distant terror camps
Imprison my children
Torture them for
Three thousand nights
Like *Laila.
Let the every night for me
Be a long night
Equal to three thousand nights
Of absence of my children
But listen to me!
Every night has to end
There will be the break of day
The fire of freedom is burning
Freedom is inevitable.
Count down has begun
I start counting the dark nights
You count your days
Dark nights will end ultimately
As your days are numbered.
(Laila was a young Palestinian schoolteacher, who gave birth to her son in an Israeli prison where she fought to protect him, survive and maintain hope. A movie 3000 Nights, based on her story was released in 2015. This poem, inspired by Laila’s story, depicts the ordeal of missing persons languishing at torture camps in Pakistan)
ECHOES OF INNERMOST AGONIES
The echoes of my innermost agonies ask a question
Is this a *Dark Continent, where we do inhabit?
Is this the age of slavery?
Why are the scaffolds and gallows for us?
Why the dreaded silence of death prevails everywhere?
Why the green fields and gardens have turned into crematoriums?
Why do they look like the *cemeteries?
Why does everything smell like death?
Are there any *Towers of Silence here?
The echoes of my innermost agonies ask a question
Are we cadavers, like those dumped on Towers of Silence?
Do you think we will die if someone poisons us?
Will we remain silent even if someone stabs us?
This is not the case
We are not carrions piled on Towers of Silence
We are alive still
There seems the sign of life in the cadavers
The echoes of my innermost agonies says
We will rise again
To retaliate!
*Africa was originally dubbed the “Dark Continent” by Welsh journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who saw Africa as mysterious.
*Tower of Silence, a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for de-fleshing the dead bodies before burial.
*British author Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) in his book ‘Sindh Revisited’ had compared the deserted gardens of Sindh with the American cemeteries.
(Poet’s note: The poem has been written in the background of atrocities committed on the natives of Sindh, a province of Pakistan)
