Week 9 Patiently Waiting
This blog post takes from the “Introduction to the Conventions of the Urdu Ghazal” by Carla Pietievich. Specifically, I was inspired by the part of Chapter One where the author writes “That the beloved might be either human or divine is another essential convention of the ghazal” (Pietievich 5). I wrote this ghazal with the story of the prodigal son in mind. As the story goes, a father has two sons and the younger demands his inheritance early and wants to run away and live his own life. He receives it and ends up being foolish with his money quickly finding himself homeless. Eventually, he humbles himself and returns back to his father where he is welcomed with a celebratory dinner. The setting of this poem is from the father to the son who left him before his return. Although a father-son relationship isn’t typically thought of as “romantic” the deep passionate love the father must have felt for his son is just as strong as the love of two lovers. Similarly, this poem could be interpreted as from God to humans. As he patiently waits for us to return to him, although he cries out to us, we turn our backs and walk away. Yet he is faithful and continues to wait even though our neglect hurts him. We discussed in class how Sufis use poetry, really the art of language, to depict the supernatural that transcends all human understanding which is bound by time and space. I attempt to achieve the same level of artistic expression here. We don’t really know why we love, or why it hurts more when those we love hurt us. The rational and instinctual mammal would focus first on the survival of self, but we care deeply about those around us and do irrational things as a result.