Grace
– Agha Shahid Ali, 1949–2001
I suppose it´s only human
nature to use trade jargon
to signify one´s membership
in the guild, possession
of the arcane and potent
lore of the few, the elect –
doesn´t the alchemist have
his azoth, the bishop his ambo,
his ciborium – thus the physician
masks the bitter draught
of diagnosis and prognosis
within an effusion of words
so sweet in their sonic grace
when intoned slowly enough,
slow as an agonal breath, long
words of ancient provenance
that bespeak the toga, the oracle,
the goddess, achingly beautiful
words, ewers into which are poured
long vowels and multiple syllables,
like leukopenia, septicemia, glioblastoma.
Correspondence
if you see my other son,
cain, son of man,
tell him that i
– Dan Pagis, “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car”
In the Hebrew of the Bible
and of today I understand
the di-syllabic word adam
is also the word for man
so in the Arabic of the Koran
and of today must it not be
true that two like syllables
mean the same two things –
Adam, man – and don´t bin
and ben both mean son of
