Water as a Divine Mirror in the Poetry of Daud Kamal

Abstract

In the poetry of Daud Kamal, water figures as an image of mercy, as in the Quran, and as a mirror that reflects a divine hidden presence. The rock pool evokes the memory of Gandhara and other foundational civilizations born in love and creative ferment. Conversely, the images of drought, heat, and dust symbolize a parched spiritual order. The river, a recurring archetypal image in Kamal’s poetry, represents the fluid self that is subsumed into collective identity to become a poetic distillate of history.