Archive for September, 1992

Urdu

Sunday, September 27th, 1992

Lingering on the blackboard in our conference room:
The words
Urdu
and
Horde.

I miss Farukkh and his passion for his homeland.
Over coffee
After the latest department politics–
What would he do, stuck in experimental physics?
What would I do, a woman in a strange land?–
We would talk of words and tensions and loneliness.

At some point he told me how the two words related,
And wrote them on the board so I could see them.

The only other words I know
That entered English from those regions
Are
Pajama
and
Shampoo.

Urdu [Hindi urdU-zaba^-n, lit., camp language](1796)
:an Indic language that is an official literary language of Pakistan and is widely used in India

horde [MF, G & Pol; MF & G, fr. Pol horda, of Mongolic origin; akin to Mongolian orda camp, horde] (1555)

pajama [Hindi pa^-ja^-ma, fr. Per pa^- leg + ja^-ma garment](ca. 1892)

shampoo [Hindi ca=po, imper. of ca=pna^- to press, shampoo](1762)

Autumn Poem for X

Saturday, September 12th, 1992

Inarticulate longings
for the sudden caress of wind
that feels just like the cat’s first seductive pass at my leg
that feels just like sleepy sunlight tracing veins on my pale skin
that feels just like the ocean’s lulling murmur in my ear.

Inarticulate longings
for you.

12 September 92