​A Short Tale of a Tall Alienated Polis, by Saad Ali

Separated (Deighilte), by Julie Breathnach-Banwait (Ireland) 2024

  
for Nikolaos Karfakis, Cameron Batmanghlich & Nashwa Y. Butt
 
Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god.
—Francis Bacon 
(excerpt from “Of Friendship”)
 
     1
   Shadows and Personas1
 
   Ceaselessly swimming – for > a decade+ years – in the nuisances ‘n intricacies of the polis, I’ve carelessly swam a million miles away from (my)Self. The character this polis puts on display fits the bill of an age-old old chestnut: the horses are knackered; the dogs can’t help barking (they’re yet to learn to bite); the (holy) cows can’t evade slaughtering, no matter how hard they scheme; the hen/geese won’t lay a golden egg(s); the pigs can’t have enough of laugh! 
 
   This polis is analogous to one Matsya incessantly pullin’ the Boat – with one Manu ‘n Saptarishi (Seven Sages) – through the river-of-duality without fruition.2 Exempli gratia – the sun neither rises nor does it set! Or even better revisiting of the famous proverb would be: the sun neither rises in the East nor does it set in the West! BUT, this polis is as if a million miles away from (scientific) Rationality; a million miles closer to clichés, grand narratives, obsolete idioms, and what have you! And enveloped by her cloak-of-dualism, I’ve inadvertently begun to resemble more a (postmodern) chimera, too – with a mule-like head of religiosity, cow-like torso of (social) democracy, horse-like limbs of (corporate) capitalism, dog-like tail of monopoly/oligarchy, and hen-like wings of utopia!
 
     2
   The Peepal and Buddha
 
   This polis suffers neither from the dearth of all manner of native trees – Ditabark, Sunbal, Chanar, Banyan, Sukh Chayn, Shisham, Neem – nor one Buddha-inspired youths (Generation Z & Generation Alpha). Yet, without satisfying the primary precondition, id est, Principal of Solitude, they’re relentlessly found blowing the trumpet of being the Sages-of-AI Age. And the complexes-of-landscape immediately refreshes one Baba Bulleh Shah vis-à-vis (self-)Reflection: Many a thousand scriptures, you’ve read / The Book of Self, you’ve never read / To the mosques ‘n temples, you’ve constantly rushed / The deep inside, you’ve permanently hushed.3
 
   Every so often, on concluding a brief post meridiem potter, I find myself shedding-the-skin under a Peepal in the Bagh-e-Jinnah (formerly: Lawrence Gardens; modelled on: Kew Gardens, London, UK) with “A Million Miles Away” by one R. Gallagher: Why ask how I feel / Well, how does it look to you? / I fell hook, line and sinker / Lost my captain and my crew / … / I’m a million miles away / a million miles away. (Every time, the guitar chords induce the ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response).)
 
   ***
 
   On a rather serious (metaphysical) postscriptum, though: more often than not, ‘separateness’ is the vessel of ‘closeness’ – when observed in the context of (material) Detachment. On the contrary, this polis is a potent potion for inducing (self-)Estrangement.
 
     3
   Puppet of Tales
 
   ‘Tis a commendable trait – being an aficionado-of-tales. Better still is being an artisan-of-tales – tales that function as muses and invite others to re-acquaint themselves with the(ir) shadows and personas. 
 
   Wo/man is terribly delusional – lives in a fallacy of being the master-of-tales. IN FACT, ‘tis precisely the other way round: s/he gets devised and structured by the tales. AND ‘tis tales that terraform wastelands into lush green forests.
 
   ‘Til the present day, I’ve not known of any human epochs, when the aforesaid aphorism ever failed to hold its ground!

Saad Ali
  
1. In Carl G. Jung / Analytical psychology: Shadow (unconscious): an individual’s ‘dark side’ that the ego (sense of purpose and identity) hides from the others; Persona (conscious): an individual’s ‘(theatre) mask’ – worn for the society on behalf of the ego.
2. Ancient Hindu Mythology / Mahabharata: Manu: The First Man (human being) and/or 14 Rulers of Earth; Matsya: Fish-Avatar (Saviour) of the god Vishnu or Brahma. According to the said epic, Matsya saves Manu, Seven Sages, plant seeds, and various animals from the pralaya (deluge) and takes them to a safe haven in the Himalayas. 
3. Excerpt from a lyrical Punjabi poem, “Parh Parh Ilm Hazaar Kitaban” (Many a Thousand Scriptures), by Bulleh Shah – a revered pre-modern Punjabi Sufi Poet-philosopher (1680–1757 CE). English Translation: Saad Ali.

Saad Ali is a  poet-philosopher & literary translator from the UK and Pakistan. He holds a BSc and MSc in Management from the University of Leicester, UK. His new collection of poems, Owl Of Pines: Sunyata (AuthorHouse), is an homage to vers libre, prose poetry, and ekphrasis. He has translated Lorette C. Luzajic’s ekphrases into Urdu. His work appears in The Ekphrastic Review, The Mackinaw, Synchronized Chaos, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lotus-eater, BRAWL Lit., and several anthologies, including Poetry in English from Pakistan, by Ilona Yusuf & Shafiq Naz (eds.). He has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and Best Microfiction. Influences include Vyasa, Homer, Attar, Rumi, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Freud, Jung, Kafka, Tagore, Lispector and more. www.saadalipoet.com 
​