Summary
The greatest of contemporary Urdu poets in Said’s account, exiled from his native Pakistan by Zia’s military regime, whose recitation in Beirut embodies exile’s antinomies in essay 17, “Reflections on Exile” (Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, PDF p.181).
Details
- Faiz was exiled from Pakistan by Zia’s military regime and found a welcome of sorts in strife-torn Beirut; his closest friends were Palestinian, but although there was an affinity of spirit, nothing quite matched — language, poetic convention, or life-history (Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, PDF p.181).
- Only once, when Eqbal Ahmad, a Pakistani friend and fellow-exile, came to Beirut, did Faiz seem to overcome his constant estrangement: the three sat in a dingy Beirut restaurant late one night while Faiz recited poems, he and Eqbal ceasing after a time to translate for Said’s benefit — an enactment of a homecoming expressed through defiance and loss, as if to say, “Zia, we are here.” (PDF p.181).