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In Cordoba: Alamgir Hashmi 1

This document provides a 3 paragraph poem titled "In Cordoba" by Alamgir Hashmi. The poem describes the city of Cordoba in Spain, noting its history, architecture like the Alcazar bridge and La Masqita mosque, and natural surroundings like the Guadalquiver River. It evokes the smells and sounds of the city, from the leather industry to almond blossoms to Yemeni breezes. The poem asks readers to walk through Cordoba with openness, turning shadows to light and not averting prayers, to a God who blesses without design or intent to convert.

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Amir Shahzad
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2K views3 pages

In Cordoba: Alamgir Hashmi 1

This document provides a 3 paragraph poem titled "In Cordoba" by Alamgir Hashmi. The poem describes the city of Cordoba in Spain, noting its history, architecture like the Alcazar bridge and La Masqita mosque, and natural surroundings like the Guadalquiver River. It evokes the smells and sounds of the city, from the leather industry to almond blossoms to Yemeni breezes. The poem asks readers to walk through Cordoba with openness, turning shadows to light and not averting prayers, to a God who blesses without design or intent to convert.

Uploaded by

Amir Shahzad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In Cordoba

Alamgir Hashmi
1
Cordoban,
step into a new pair of shoes.
There, your footprints in the azure
stretching over Andalusia!
Go softly through its lanes.
The city melts in the mouth
like candy floss.
What remains is relict.

2
The Guadalquiver divides here less
from the force of water - the riparian
rites of the Berbers not forgotten -
than the leathersmell flowing
from one end to the beginning;
man-smell, skin-smell,
the smell of conquest and vanquishing;
the almond blossoms on trees nodding
to the south wind.

3
History abuts here again
to its own explanations;
the Alcazar's Roman bridge,
the river meandering across
the fields of cotton, corn and barley
to the Atlantic Ocean;
new electrical fittings, of course,
and chapters of endless olives.

4
Outside the lichened Arabic walls
Averros waits,
while the city's angels take new language courses
and operate the official grapevine.
But you haven't walked out of it yet -
a white handkerchief across the city's face.

5
Near La Masqita
and let heaven's music fill in for light -
turn the shadows in the nave
back to the rows, people.
So you will not avert
the breezes from the Yemen
or your silent prayer
through this watchful arch of time
(to a God who will bless
without design, not convert).
Alamgir Hashmi
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Alamgir Hashmi

Born 15 September 1951 (age 67)

Occupation English poet

Nationality Pakistani

Alamgir Hashmi (Urdu: ‫)عالمگیر ہاشمی‬, also known as Aurangzeb Alamgir Hashmi (born November
15, 1951), is an English poet of Pakistani origin.[1] Considered avant-garde, his early and later works
were published to considerable critical acclaim and popularity.[2]
He was a practicing transnational humanist and educator in North
American, European and Asian universities.[3] He argued for a "comparative" aesthetic to foster
humane cultural norms. He showed and advocated new paths
of reading the classical and moderntexts and emphasized the sublime nature, position and
pleasures of language arts to be shared, rejecting their reduction
to social or professional utilities.[4] He produced many books of seminal literary and critical
importance as well as series of lectures and essays (such as "Modern Letters") in the general
press.[5]

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