Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) was a poet and teacher. He authored a variety of collections including A Walk Through the Yellow Pages (1987), The Half-Inch Himalayas (1987), A Nostalgist’s Map of America (1991), The Country Without a Post Office (1997). His collection, Rooms Are Never Finished (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. He taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Princeton College, and in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College.
Poetry
Summer 2001
Summers of Translation
Desolation’s desert. I’m here with shadows of your voice … —Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “Memory“ 1. "Memory"—two years after your death they tell me—has no translations. We knew it in a loved version, […]
Poetry
Spring 1997
Lo, a tint cashmere! / Lo, a Rose!
―Emily Dickinson I There was another summer: we were listening to Radio Kashmir: the bell announced that second of the sunset: we broke our fasts: then a song: Now […]
Poetry
Spring 1997
Farewell
for Patricia O’Neill At a certain point I lost track of you. They make a desolation and call it peace. When you left even the stones were buried: The defenseless […]
Poetry
Spring 1997
The Floating Post Office
(Note: The post boat was like a gondola that called at each houseboat. It carried clerk, weighing scales, and a bell to announce arrivals.) Has he been kept from us? […]
Weekend Reads
The Floating Post Office
From The Kenyon Review, New Series, Spring 1997, Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Note: The post boat was like a gondola that called at each houseboat. It carried clerk, weighing scales, […]