Pantun of the Chinar Grove (Sri Nagar, Kashmir)
Rent from DeepDyve- Pantun of the Chinar Grove (Sri Nagar, Kashmir)
Written above the gate of the Shalimar Gardens in Sri Nagar,Kashmir, by the order of Emperor Jahangir (1542–1605):
If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.
Jami
Someone has set a bomb off in a carwhere tourist buses come from foreign cities.Disturbed, the birds alight from a chinarand now there’s shadows running in the trees.
As well as flowing blood from foreign cities,seeping where the leaves turn smoky purple,the sound of running in those giant treesbrings crack troops and walkie-talkie babble.
It is the dusk when leaves turn smoky purplewith a game of hide and seek, just like a movie—some crack troops, the walkie-talkie babbleand insurgency behind each massive tree.
The blown up bottle-bodies are a moviethat Bollywood will buy and script and makebecause revolt behind Kashmir’s State Treeinsults the tranquil ripples of Dal Lake.
Bollywood will buy and script and makethis upturned tale upon some pristine hillsidewith song and dance, a house-boat on Dal Lake,yet those dead tourists do not stop to ride. [End Page 68]
What was a heaven dancing on a hillsideis now some shadow running in the trees.The flag of peace has slipped away to hideas Kalashnikovs bring shadows to their knees.
The final shadows fall behind the treeshere in the dying season of the chinar,and now the mourners fall down on their kneesbecause a bomb was set off in a car. [End Page 69]
Christopher Mooney-Singh is Australian-born and has lived in India, Singapore, and Malaysia. He founded and directs Word Forward, a literary arts company; the Writers Centre in Singapore; and Lit Up, a Singapore arts festival.
