Poetics of Compression: Comparing Lal Ded and Nund Rishi With Agha Shahid Ali's Short Lyrics

This paper discusses the short forms of the verses in the medieval Kashmir- the vaakh of Lal Ded and the shruk of Nund Rishi- in comparison to the short collection of verses from Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001) and ghazal couplets. It poses questions to the reader regarding the nature of the meanings that Ali compresses in his poems written in English, and what it would mean for them to be similar to the older forms. The paper identifies four common characteristics between all four of the works, using the English translations of these works as well as Ali’s collected poems: it is based on a short closed unit, uses a vocabulary that is more than one religious tradition, employs direct address to an absent listener, and contains a paradox in place of explanation. It states that there are different purposes. The vaakh and shruk compress beyond language to spiritual or moral truth; Ali compresses because the loss of Kashmir as a goal is unutterable. No documentary evidence has been found that Ali studied the older forms as models, and the paper’s connection between the two is typological, rather than genealogical, and establishes the boundaries that the translation and the lack of evidence impose on the comparison.