DR.Mushtaque B Barq
Life is a binary phenomenon; it can never move on a single track to attain satisfaction at the journey’s end. Rather, it is a blend of paradoxes, leaving much to reflect upon. As Søren Kierkegaard asserts, human existence itself is rooted in paradox—between reason and absurdity, faith and despair, demanding a leap into the unknown to live authentically (Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling). The other side of the coin is never the same—and it must be different to bring harmony and tension into collaboration. Similarly, Albert Camus describes life as an absurd tension between our desire for meaning and the universe’s silence; the only true response is to accept the contradiction and still choose to live (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus). Life is like poetry—it cannot be reduced to a single, linear thread. It must embrace oppositions, dualities, and multiplicity. Jacques Derrida, through his theory of différance, suggests that meaning arises not from fixed identity but from constant deferral and relational difference—the binary is not merely present, but essential (Derrida, Of Grammatology). To ignore one side of life’s binary is to ignore its complexity, its richness—and ultimately, its truth.
Paradox is the logic of poetry itself—the collision of opposites that births a third, unspoken truth. Samuel Taylor Coleridge´s philosophy is relevant to what Cleanth Brooks debates: Paradox is the language of ambivalence, essential to poetry because truth is complex. The objective of the poet is to unify discordant experiences to create a canvas for the reader to derive pleasure from poetic creation and the mind at work. This philosophy is further backed by W B Yeats: Poets forge unity from opposites. Without paradox, there is no tension—and without tension, no revelation. Poets all over the world have taken refuge in paradoxes and our bard are seen following the suit. After an in-depth reading of one of the ghazals of Abdul Rehman Azad, an eminent bard of the valley who born in Pulwama, commonly known as land of bards. His poetry has variety both in form and treatment. His ghazals are blended with paradoxes and his poems strictly follows serious structure. His elegies and satires are equally copious with lament and razor sharp criticism.
In the place unseen, a sunbeam breaks through— isn’t it a wonder?
And if someone hurls a stone at a cloud, isn’t it a wonder?
Truth is fate’s decree—yet strategy may alter it
And if one still dares to peer into the blue, isn’t it a wonder?
The preacher preached for days, yet his words still weigh on my ears
Only truth has ever dared to speak— isn’t it a wonder?
I’ve met the clever, the learned, and the wise—
Yet to them, this head is but a piece of fish, Isn’t it a wonder?
Truth is truth—like the dazzling sun, revealing reality by its nature
If with all effort one wedges it apart— isn’t it a wonder?
Maybe the owls had crafted their nest on the chinar tree—
The nightingales should not have left what endured, Isn’t it a wonder?
What can a thief rob from the unaware, and what is left for the lost?
Now, if someone loses a lady from his hem— isn’t it a wonder?
What the saints and faqirs revealed, the magicians showed the same
Now all stand equal—hidden or clear—isn’t it a wonder?
Everyone told me—a message would reach me any day
Now I’ve learnt even that was false— isn’t it a wonder?
It matters more to believe in self-worth than to dress it up—
If, like Azad, one weaves the threads of dignity, isn’t it a wonder?
The sunbeam breaking thorough unseen places – that unseen sunbeam feels like an oxymoron since sunbeams are by nature visible, but the poet has artfully discorded the convention to take his reader into an unthinkable state where senses need wings to explore the image created by the brilliant use of paradox. This parameter has been applied to the verse followed where the stone hurled at a cloud creates irony – thus the intensity of the verse reaches close to Northrop Frye’s argument revealing : Paradox anchors the ‘mythopoeic’ mode: it suspends rational logic to access archetypal truths. The couplets that follow carry on the same pattern:
Truth is fate’s decree—yet strategy may alter it
And if one still dares to peer into the blue, isn’t it a wonder?
The poet has applied a logical contradiction at the core. And daring to peer into the blue after that statement has exhibited dramatic irony – the speaker knows it’s futile but dares to evoke contradiction which has administrated live to the verse. Only truth dared to speak is ironic when truth remains as a divine mystery hard to decipher. One agrees with Paul Rocoeur (The Rule of Metaphor, 1975) that paradox is a metaphor’s extreme form, challenging literal connotation to extract implicit wisdom. A paradox is a profound logical clash resolving into truth as I A Richards noted: Poetry is a language that organizes chaos. Paradox is its scalpel. The poem critiques hollow rhetoric and false prophecy. The preacher preached for days, yet his words still weigh on my ears conveys spiritual fatigue or skepticism. Only truth, the poem suggests, has spoken with real authority. This mistrust exposes the perception of intellect: despite meeting the clever, the learned, and the wise, the speaker laments being viewed as a piece of fish—an image of low worth or mockery. The poem does not resolve these injustices but presents them as marvels in their own right. In view of the intense use of paradox and irony, definitions of poetry remain contested, highlighting cultural and historical shifts as we read Aristotle’s formalism to postmodern fluidity.
Azad is aware of the fact that situational irony in the current ghazal can play its part so he has curated a charter mentioning nightingales abandoning what owls preserved, though the ‘wonder’ framing makes this subtle. He has piled up such situations in other couplet:
What can a thief rob from the unaware, and what is left for the lost?
Now, if someone loses a lady from his hem— isn’t it a wonder?
Paradox is the language appropriate and inevitable to poetry. It is the scientist whose truth requires a language purged of every trace of paradox; apparently the truth which the poet utters can be approached only in terms of paradox. Cleanth Brooks’ The Well-Wrought Urn.
The poet is not bound to use notations like the scientist, but applies language to work by analogies, metaphors and paradoxes as a tool reshape his expressions.
A central theme is the relationship between fate and agency. “Truth is fate’s decree,” the poet writes, yet follows it with the possibility that “strategy may alter it.” This contradiction speaks to the human condition: we are both bound and free, and our attempts to act within or against destiny are themselves worthy of reflection. The line “if one still dares to peer into the blue” suggests a persistent hope or defiance, which the refrain labels again as a kind of marvel (Schimmel, 1975).
Nature imagery appears throughout: the chinar tree, owls, and nightingales evoke a lost harmony. When nightingales leave what “endured,” perhaps representing beauty or tradition, and owls (symbols of misfortune or misdirection) take their place, the speaker again notes the tragedy as a “wonder.” The poem suggests that even the most unsettling transformations deserve our attention, not as catastrophes, but as paradoxes to contemplate. The poet notes the futility of robbing the ignorant and the tragedy of someone “losing a lady from his hem”—a deeply intimate, metaphorical loss. Even when all promises (“a message would reach me any day”) prove false, the speaker does not cry out; he wonders.
Apart from paradoxes and use of irony Azad seems familiar with grotesque similes comparing head of the speaker with a piece of fish. This seriously acts as a critique of dehumanization and ecological fragility, the image in the verse attains a state of uncertainty, jeopardising absurdism over profundity.
The final couplet crystallizes the poem’s ethos: “It matters more to believe in self-worth than to dress it up.” In a world obsessed with projection and performance, to quietly weave one’s dignity is, indeed, a wonder (Merton, 1985).
This poem seems unique when we talk about disillusionment—a state usually associated with despair—and reframes it as a source of wonder. In each couplet, the poet not only adds beauty of existence but also absurdity, betrayal, and irony. The refrain “Isn’t it a wonder?” is not merely rhetorical—it is a philosophical gesticulation, an embrace of life’s duality.
Keeping this in view, one can say that Abdul Rehman Azad’s poetry is a significant collection already known to poets. However, the family legacy of such a nature must be especially promoted—not only to explore the poet himself, but also the aura surrounding him, the epoch he belonged to, the social conditions, the literary history, and above all, the technique of versification. It is the prime duty of the bard’s family to bring his contributions to the public and create awareness of a poet whose work exhibits variety in form and versatility in treatment.
Dr.Mushtaque B.Barq is a Columnist, Poet and Fiction Writer. He is the author of “Feeble prisoner, “ Wings of Love” and many translation works are credited to the author like “ Verses Of Wahab
