own imagination. He thus transmutes the connotations of his language and interiorizes his symbiotic-lyric articulations into his own cultural cosmos, establishing a continuum in a dynamic—and poetic—conception of ecriture, textuality, and history. Acknowledgments: Thanks are due to Professor Carlo Coppola, Editor of the Journal of South Asian Literature, and the Zentralbibliothek Zurich for the English and Urdu texts of the Rashed interviews referred to in this paper, also to the helpful staff of Nord-Amenka Bibliothek in Zurich and the Stadtbibliothek Winterthur for prompt access to the Lowel! and Symons cited, and to Beatrice, my wife, who kept me supplied with a bottomless cup of tea while I wrote (and then typed) this paper Annual of Urdu Studies, #5 48