Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ

South Asian Muslim Canadian artist Farheen Haq has developed a collaborative work entitled Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ (I pay my respects to you, Wild Rose) that will be presented in Contemplating Change (2025). Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ is a community-engaged textile work that has been bringing together primarily Indigenous and South Asian/Persian heritage communities. Farheen hosts stitching circles inviting people to slow down, connect and create art in community while grounding with rose medicine. Basic embroidery stitches are shared as folks embroider an Urdu poem by Mirza Ghalib about grief and joy encircled by KELKE,IŁĆ (Nootka roses). This project is funded by CRD Equity Grant and Open Space Arts Society.
 

ishrat-e-qatra hai dariyā meñ fanā ho jaanā

dard kā had se guzarnā hai davā ho jaanā

zo.af se girya mybaddal ba-dam-e-sard huā

bāvar aayā hameñ paanī kā havā ho jaanā

hai mujhe abr-e-bahārī kā baras kar khulnā 

rote rote ġham-e-furqat meñ fanā ho jaanā

ta ki tujh par khule ejāz-e-havā-e-saiqal 

dekh barsāt meñ sabz aa.ine kā ho jaanā

bakhshe hai jalva-e-gul zauq-e-tamāshā 

'ghālib'

chashm ko chāhiye har rañg meñ vā ho 

jaanā

- Mirza Ghalib

For the raindrop, joy is becoming the sea.

Unbearable pain becomes its own cure.

Travel far enough into sorrow, tears turn to sighing.

In this way, we see how water becomes air.

After the heavy rain, the storm clouds disperse.

Is it not that they’ve wept themselves clear to the end?

If you want to know the miracle; how wind can polish a mirror,

Look: the shining grass grows green in spring.

It’s the rose’s unfolding that creates the desire to see. 

In every colour and circumstance, may the eyes be open for what comes.