19 pages • 38 minutes read
Agha Shahid AliPostcard from Kashmir
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Mailbox
The mailbox is the poem’s only hint to the speaker’s actual geographical location. The word “mailbox” (Line 1) itself is more commonly used for a postbox in the United States and Canada; in the Indian subcontinent, the usual term is “letterbox” or “postbox.” Therefore, the term suggests the speaker is possibly in America, far from their homeland of Kashmir. The image of a postcard from Kashmir arriving in the mailbox juxtaposes the speaker’s current reality with the reality of their dreams and memories. The mailbox becomes a symbol of the poet’s current reality as well as the confinement of Kashmir. Kashmir “shrinks” (Line 1) into the mailbox, symbolizing that the poet’s memory of Kashmir is trapped in the past and their own expectations. The mailbox also evokes claustrophobia, confinement, and diminishment. This idea is further reinforced by the statement that the speaker’s home is a “neat four by six inches” (Line 2). Thus, the mailbox and the postcard signify a small, enclosed, mathematically precise space for the speaker’s memories of Kashmir. In truth, however, such stiff geometry cannot contain the speaker’s complex emotions about their homeland.
The Half-Inch Himalayas
The “half-inch Himalayas” (Line 4)—also the title of the anthology in which “Postcard from Kashmir” was published—is a powerful and evocative symbol, juxtaposing the might of the Himalayan Mountain range with its shrunken image. While the Himalayas are the world’s tallest mountain range, the mountains in the postcard are small. This scaling down symbolizes variously the imperfection of the speaker’s memory, the degradation of Kashmir, and the speaker’s exile. The half-inch Himalayas are also a painful reminder of how the beautiful grandeur of the speaker’s childhood is forever transformed. Though the Himalayas are intact and tall as ever, the mountains of the speaker’s memory will never be the same. The symbol of the tiny Himalayas also has instant visual recall, reminding the reader of any small image they may have seen of mountain ranges. Just like a photograph scales down the mountains, memory and circumstance have scaled down the Himalayas of the speaker’s homeland. The half-inch Himalayas also symbolize the flattening of lived experience into a static, paper-thin memory.
The Jhelum River
Known as Vitasta in Sanskrit literature and the Hydaspes by the ancient Greeks, the Jhelum originates in India-administered Kashmir and flows down the Kashmir valley to ultimately join the Indus in Pakistan. Srinagar, the city in which Ali grew up, is situated on the banks of the Jhelum. The physical river of Jhelum is known for its clear, blue waters, its wide sweep across the Kashmir valley, and its rich, fertile alluvial soils. In “Postcard from Kashmir,” the Jhelum is a symbol for the beauty of Kashmir. However, this is a beauty that is complicated for the speaker because of their exile and the simmering conflict in Kashmir. The Jhelum, thus, also symbolizes loss. When the speaker does return to Kashmir, the waters of the Jhelum will not be “so clean, / so ultramarine” (Lines 8-9). The waters’ description as “ultramarine” is significant; used here as an adjective, “ultramarine” implies a blue so brilliant it is a hyperbole. This suggests that the speaker’s longing for Kashmir has made the Jhelum appear too vivid in their memory, and the river’s truth may be unable to live up to this longing. In this sense, the Jhelum becomes a motif to express the speaker’s nostalgia for Kashmir.
