Agha Shahid Ali

As a prelude book Shalimar the Clown the author Salman Rushdie placed a poem by Agha Shahid Ali that emphasizes a similar strain of exilement that appears throughout the entirety of the novel.

“I am being rowed through Paradise on a river of Hell:
Exquisite ghost, it is night.
The paddle is a heart; it breaks the porcelain waves…

I’m everything you lost. You won’t forgive me.
My memory keeps getting in the way of your history.
There is nothing to forgive. You won’t forgive me.
I hid my pain even from myself; I revealed my pain only to myself.
There is everything to forgive. You can’t forgive me.
If only somehow you could’ve been mine,
What would not have been possible in the world”?
-Agha Shahid Ali

When I first read this poem, I initially thought of India, and her exile from both of her parents. Which could certainly be true, for there is a reason why Rushdie placed this particular poem at the beginning of the novel. It set the mood for the mood for this dreary, complex narrative, full of different people suffering and enduring life.

The beginning of the poem reminds me of the beginning of the book, where India’s sleep-talk is explained, which could be a psychological effect of her mother’s death/abandonment. Especially the line: “My memory keeps getting in the way of your history” (5) which crosses with her India’s own life and her mother’s death.

This poem also relates to Shalimar’s love for Bhoonyi, and the betrayal he felt for Max when he stole her away from him. It is filled with a certain angst, hopefulness and nostalgia, but deep and dark. The last two lines: “If only somehow you could’ve been mine, /What would not have been possible in the world”? emphasize Shalimar’s loss, and exile, as he is left to endure a dirty betrayal, and lost love one.