KARACHI:
With reference to Dr Intikhab Ulfat’s article, “When Words Speak and Silence Echoes”, recently published in these columns, I must express my appreciation for this exceptionally elegant and thought-provoking piece. It is not often that one encounters a Physics Professor exploring the world of poetry with such literary sensitivity, or a literary work being appreciated through the intellectual vocabulary of an entirely different discipline.
What I find particularly remarkable is the ability to discover subtle connections between two seemingly disparate worlds. The reflections on sound and silence, fragrance and memory, rainfall and human perception, and the metaphor of a volcano are wonderful illustrations of how scientific phenomena can acquire an entirely different dimension through poetic imagination.
The article demonstrates that physics and poetry, though apparently poles apart, share a common ground in curiosity, observation and the quest to understand what may not be immediately apparent to the senses. The observation that imagination is not the opposite of scientific understanding, but often its beginning, is particularly compelling.
Beyond its appreciation of Naina Adil’s poetry, the article is a gentle but powerful reminder that knowledge loses something of its richness when we erect artificial boundaries between the sciences and the humanities.
A delightful read, and a fine example of how an enquiring scientific mind can find poetry in the workings of nature, just as a poet finds meaning in the mysteries of life.
A four-line stanza from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence, captures, perhaps more eloquently than any prose, the mysteries of science and the infinite possibilities of poetic imagination:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.
Haroon Rashid Siddiqi
Canada
