O Shakespeare, dear!

S. Qasim Hasany

 

O Shakespeare, dear!

O William Shakespeare, O Shakespeare dear!

They say you were merely an stage actor

And not that famed genius and play writer,

 But the real writer was Henery De Vere

Who was an Elezabethan courtier?

All were duped, when shown what not you were!

 

This paradox of English history and literature

Michael Hart for us has made crystal clear,

In his "Hundred Great", of all times, of everywhere.

That shows English peoples' sense of history so poor.

A book on war lords of all times from a London publisher

Enlisted not even one Muslim military leader.

 

Be he Saad Bin Vaqqas, Iran's conqueror

Or Sultan Saladin, the crusader's power smasher,

Nor even General Tariq, famous for capturing Gibraltar.

Not even Sultan Mahmood, the great idol breaker.

Neither even Mohammad II, Istanbul's conqueror.

Nor Sulaiman the Magnificent, Vienna's holder.

 

The book failed to enlist names of times near

Not of even that Turkish commander, to the West so dear,

Who decimated an allied force at Galipoli's coast and water

 Does not the British press know Ayub, Musa and Asghar?

Can the world forget M.M. Alam, the peerless air fighter

And so many other heroes of war of September?[1]

 

By the above stanzas it is made further clear

The English people's sense of history so much poor.

I wonder someday a scholar in future

May not tell us Elezabeth I was not a female ruler,

But a male, ingeniously disguised as a virgin ruler.

Inducing us to think the British unreliable in all matter.

 

However whatever the Britons behavior

I like their language, herein I am a writer.

Out of whole English race, proud and self-preserver

I praise merely three, though there may be several other:

Mohammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Quran's translator.

Michael Hart and Keat Stevens now Yousuf Islam, a former singer.



[1] Refers to war between India and Pakistan in 1965


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