by Ejaz Rahim, August 2007
Your mind at eighty-five
Must be Einsteinian in strength
And Shakespearean in suppleness
Shaped equally
By quadratics and poetry
Combining mathematical abstractions
With life’s efflorescence.
The papers carried
Your birthday reflections
That moved me to think
You belong to the east
Nor to the west
But to a point
Around which the circumference
Is forever bending
Seeking self-recognition
As in a looking glass.
Begin at the beginning, you said
Bad primaries will not sustain
Good tertiaries
In the field of knowledge
Without a broad foundation
A pyramid will simply
Topple over itself.
Venture parabolic
Into the future, you said
To budding youth.
Do not incline obtusely
To the past
Or abstrusely to the ground
Surrounding your feet.
Be fearless like Iqbal
And open your wings
To history that is past-cognisant
But unfailingly forward-bound.
Learn to create
The big bang
That enlarges the universe
Of the small.
The compassionate of our age
Seek wisdom of the tender
And strength from the poor.
Pursued passionately
The golden goddess
Turns truant
Leaving one disconsolate.
True lovers contemplate
Fulfillment of their dreams
Not satiation of desires.
You remain
The consummate teacher
The potter who turns
Inchoate clay into protean forms.
You are the saki
Who fills
Empty amphorae
With Cherished wine.
With your touch
Knowledge is metamorphosed
Into Love.
