Two Poems by Nasir Aijaz

Mothers of the World

Women,
more than half the world, they say,
but I see more,
I see the rest
as their sons.

For who among us was not born
from the warm silence
of a woman’s breath?

The earth itself
feels like a mother’s palm,
rough with work,
soft with mercy.

She carries us all,
in wombs,
in words,
in wounds that never close.

Every man walking in pride
is a child she once held
against her beating heart.

So count again,
the world is not divided,
it is doubled with her presence.

Women are not half,
they are the whole,
and we,
the echoes of their beginning.
□

Be Mindful

When you awake,
and open your eyes, my sweet,
be mindful 
let not all your dreams
slip away
from the depths of your eyes,
lost in forgetfulness.

Dreams —
of ages of longing,
of beauty and adornment,
of a world woven in love,
cherished with the beloved’s care.

Be mindful,
when you awake...!
□

- Nasir Aijaz
(Journalist, Researcher and Poet)
Sindh, Pakistan 

Nasir Aijaz, based in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province of Pakistan, is basically a journalist and researcher having spent over 50 years in the field of journalism. He won Gold Medal and another award for best reporting in 1988 and 1989. He has worked in key positions of editor for newspapers and news agencies. He also worked as a TV Anchor (For Pakistan Television) for over a decade and conducted some 400 programs from 1982 to 1992 besides appearing as analyst in dozens programs on private TV channels, Radio Pakistan and some other private Radio channels. He is the author of eleven books on history, language, literature, travelogue and biography. One of his books ‘Hur – The Freedom Fighter’, a research work on war against the British colonial forces, also won a prize. Some of his other books are unpublished. Further, he translated five books from foreign literature into Sindhi language including a poetry book of Egyptian poet Ashraf Aboul Yazid, a novel ‘Maharaja Dahir’, authored by Debasree Chakraborti of Kolkata India, and three other novels from English literature. Besides, he has written around 500 articles in English, Urdu and Sindhi, the native language of Sindh. He is editor of Sindh Courier, an online magazine and represents The AsiaN, an online news service of South Korea with regular contribution for eleven years. His articles have also been translated in Arabic and Korean languages. Some of his English articles were published in Singapore and India and Nigeria. Some of his poems have been translated in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Malayalam, Albanian, Italian, Greek,Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese and some languages published in Egypt, Abu Dhabi, Iraq, Bangladesh, India, Kosovo, USA, Tajikistan, Greece, Italy, Germany, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Albania, and some other countries. Some of his poems, translated into Chinese and Korean languages, were audio-recorded. Nasir Aijaz is one of the founding members of Korea-based Asia Journalists Association AJA. He has visited some ten Asian countries and attended international seminars.