A collective catastrophe may, for many, be a spell of untimely suffering, but for a bard it becomes a never-ending agony hanging around his battered breast. No devastation or cultural onslaught can keep his penetrating eye barren. His cogitation grants wings to his imagination, owing to which he soars high and views the world under his poetic paws. Shelley puts it, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” The inner itching unlocks the poet’s lips, and his expressions take the contour of autumn leaves that scarcely know the time of their fall or the nature of the trampling beneath boots. They fall from a towering state and realise the agony of the fall only when a gentle breeze tosses them like a wanton boy’s sport. It reminds us of Keats’s belief that “suffering sharpens poetic intensity.” Human suffering, historical consciousness, and violence engrave unforgettable events upon the poet’s mind; with the passage of time, these either take the route of the bard’s personal suffering or the pain that oozes from his bleeding heart onto paper. We are reminded of T. S. Eliot’s concept of the “objective correlative,” which G. R. Nazki has vividly utilised to highlight how the poet’s private plight evolves into a universal symbol. This adds up his voice and creates a mega echo, sending shivers across boundaries. We read only the composed words and praise the poet’s creativity and capability, but we rarely reach the state of mind of the poet who shapes his mental turmoil into verses. His intricate woes are arcane. Verses that carry human suffering have always represented the voiceless voices of the masses. Thus, poets become the carriers of human suffering for generations down the line. This exceptional elegy carries an undercurrent of a common narrative and collective tragedy, describing total devastation. It sets a tone of existential anguish through the apt symbol of fire. R. Nazki has utilised the image of fire not explicitly; rather, it evolves as a powerful symbol of the loss of human values and the consequences of fissure to a rich composite culture. This unique elegy by G. R. Nazki represents a collective calamity, encompassing the total wreckage of both physical and moral order. It sets a tone of existential anguish through the apt symbol of fire, an image long linked with destruction. His fire symbol throughout the poem has emerged as an unending process of wreckage. This fire peregrinates in his surroundings and consumes even a smidgen of entity that comes under its influence. Nazki does not deploy fire merely as an explicit expression; rather, it acts as an authoritative metaphor for the attrition of human values and the consequences of rupture to a rich composite culture, recalling Theodor Adorno’s assertion that “poetry after catastrophe must grapple with ethical rupture rather than aesthetic beauty alone.” Looking at the intense symbol of fire in the poem, it acts as an agent of absolute annihilation. The severity of the fire is such that nothing escapes from its ill-planned hold. Every house burned, / the lawns burned, / deserts and gardens too. The market was devoured by fire, / the sky itself ablaze. The image of the fire does not seem desultory but rather influenced by a wicked trick that sets it wildly in motion. The fire has erased all distinctions. It moves like a wandering woe, smashing civilized and uncivilized spaces and fertile lands alike. It has not even spared barrenness, sacred places, or the dwellings of the poor masses. This hubristic flame has become a cosmic force, as seen in apocalyptic imagery found in religious and literary traditions. Moving ahead in the movement of fire, it acts as a byzantine metaphor. It erodes ethical, spiritual, and cultural ethos. The chastity and the craving, / the household things burned. Chambers of the spirit burned, / everything it once held. This unimaginable, masochistic fire has peeped down the annals of morality. It has chased chastity, memory, and conscience. The most valuable edifice on which humanity banks has been the worst hit; it collapses the innermost architecture of society. Nazki has created a mega scene where devastation is not merely a process of ‘forward movement’ but a mighty antagonist who rules time and tide. The hint is clear: the poet, under the garb of metaphors and scenic sequence, is narrating the tale of his woes when his homeland was caught under the ruthless fire of political turmoil. He stands as an eyewitness to the loss of accountability, breakdown of the economy, delay of justice, and social disorder. Thus, his fire becomes a metaphor for systemic corruption and the failure of civil institutions. He laments the loss of his homeland. It has been a feature of bards to mention a mini event in their poems, so Nazki follows suit by giving space to the episode of the fisherman. He gathered people and saved the vessel, / yet he himself was devoured by the fire. This episode opens a new chapter of debate in the poem, that of the irony of history. The innocent fisherman represents a class of people who are cut off from political dogmas and are put to fire for no reason. This episode aligns the poem with tragic humanism. Illegitimate bloodshed does not fade into oblivion is a vivid image of historical violence under which the general gender, irrespective of region, religion, and caste, is being deprived of basic amenities. This unbelievable trauma has engulfed even the Panglossian dream, not to talk of the common sufferer who is left with no choice but to submit to the fire. Time is a blade, / lightning, a cloudburst—does it know who perished? The fire that knows no boundaries reminds us of Albert Camus’s concept of absurdity, which reveals that when distress befalls without reason, its intensity must be derived from the chaos it creates. This fire once again unfolds one more layer of tragedy, and that is existential uncertainty. The fire, as used in the poem, is a carefree agent of malicious minds that does not discriminate, that leaves no clue of its might that hardly justifies its scope, not to speak of its consequences. It seems a power beyond control, a supernatural agent escaped from the lamp of Aladdin, who has gone mad and openly disobeys his own master POEM In the waning hours of night, all of a sudden, the fire broke. Every house burned, the lawns burned, deserts and gardens too, even the wasteland burned. The lightning branched over, the entire locale blazed with its glow and something lingered  in the shadow. Oh, poor me, what can I say? The granary consumed, and in what devastating manner it burned. The chastity and the craving, the household things burned. Chambers of the spirit burned, everything it once held, all consumed in flame. The boat upon the river ignited, the fisher man raised a cry of agony, He gathered people and saved the vessel, yet he himself was devoured by the fire. Illegitimate bloodshed does not fade into oblivion; a killer never grows Through the night, the candle burned, yet the moth submitted before the dawn. A twisted glance was cast, and from within emerged a severe sigh. The Rinda sank into unconscious, Saqi lost his awareness and the tavern was consumed in flame. From the ablaze breast, when the Majnoun heaved a sigh last night, Najd burned, gazelle burned, even the palanquin of Laila burned.   Time is a blade, lightning, a cloudburst, does it know who was seized by the collar, who perished, which hem was burned.   The market was devoured by fire, the sky itself ablaze. Shopkeepers rent their garments in despair. The ledger burned, the standard weights burned, stores went up in flames, and provisions were reduced to ash. R. Nazki has placed the load of the composition on the backbone of the fire symbol. Its repetition has evoked ebullition along with a hue and cry. Each stanza circulates around fire as a unique refrain of lament, thus maintaining narrative coherence. One of the features that establishes the strong structure of the poem is emotional escalation, as the fire reaches the farthest ends of human habitat, thereby lowering values and virtues equally. Above all, the fire carries within its reckless flames a lament—a symbol of collective suffering, an unending phenomenon of devastation. It has burnt down chronicles, memories of composite culture, and identity. This poem is, by all means, our own narrative, our own plight and suffering that we have experienced in the past. G. R. Nazki has brilliantly put forth his observations, which have relevance befitting both our past and our future. (The Author is a distinguished Kashmiri novelist, poet, translator, columnist, reviewer and TV anchor with over two decades of contributions to literature and education and guiding aspiring writers through creative writing workshops and pedagogy training)