Wendy Lamb and Dana Carey pushed me to bring clarity and precision to this story. Sharyn November gave a crucial read at a key time. Gail Hochman is always there, cheering for me. Dorothy Kelly helps keep my work life humming. My husband, Marc, is my constant companion in this sojourn of marriage and creativity. Both my boys, Sasha and Rafi, gave me insight into teenage speech. The friendship of Bonnie Friedman, and of our fellow writer-readers in the Grove Street Group, kept me running creatively even when my fuel gauge was empty. And a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction gave me more space for all my writing.

Wellfleet—that windswept bit of land at the edge of the continent—has provided sustenance, inspiration, and family rejuvenation for years.

Thank you all.

For more information:

Committee to Protect Journalists: cpj.org

National Immigration Project: nationalimmigrationproject.org

GHAZALS/SONGS

MIRZA GHALIB

Let’s Live in That Place / Rahiye ab aisi jagah

Let’s live in that place where there’s no one, let’s go,

Where no one knows our tongue, there’s no one to speak to.

We’d build a house without doors and walls,

Have no neighbours, watchmen forego.

In sickness no one to nurse us, enquire,

If we died, no one to mourn us, no!

rahiye ab aisī jagah chal kar jahāñ koī na ho

ham-suķhan koī na ho aur ham-zabāñ koī na ho

be-dar-o-dīvār sā ik ghar banāyā chāhiye

koī ham-sāya na ho aur pāsbāñ koī na ho

padiye gar bīmār to koī na ho tīmārdār

aur agar mar jāiye to nauha-ķhvāñ koī na ho

Permission is granted by Dr. Maaz Bin Bilal for use of “Let’s Live in That Place” as quoted from: https://scroll.in/​article/​803540/​three-love-poems-by-ghalib-for-every-day-of-the-year

MIRZA MUHAMMAD HAKIM

Partial lyrics for O King of the Holy Sanctuary / Tajdar-e Haram:

O king of the holy sanctuary

Bless us with your merciful gaze o king of the holy sanctuary

So that our days of woe may turn for the better

O patron of the poor, what would the world say

If we return empty-handed from your door?

O king of the holy sanctuary

Tajdaar-e-haram

Tajdaar-e-haram ho nigaah-e-karam

Tajdaar-e-haram ho nigaah-e-karam

Ham ghareebon ke din bhi sanwar jaaenge

Haami-ye be-kasaan kya kahega jahaan

Haami-ye be-kasaan kya kahega jahaan

Aap ke dar se khaali agar jaaenge

Tajdaar-e-haram

Tajdaar-e-haram

Permission granted by Zahra Sabri, translator, from “Tajdaar-e-Haram” lyrics song sung by Atif Aslam for Coke Studio Pakistan, a tribute to Sabri Brothers.

MOHAMMED QULI QUTUB SHAH

1

I can’t ever drink my drink without my love

I can’t ever breathe; I sink without my love

I should be patient, you say, without my love

How unfair! I can’t even blink without my love…

Piyaa baaj pyaala piyaa jaaye naa

Piyaa baaj jek til jiyaa jaaye naa

Kaheethey piyaa bin saboori karoon

Kahhiya jaaye amma kiyaa jaaye naa