Dom Moraes letter and manuscripts addressed to Naseem Khan

Description

One typescript letter and seven manuscript and typescript poems addressed or dedicated to Naseem Khan, written by Dom Moraes. Moraes and Khan had been in a relationship whilst living in Delhi in1969.

Material is listed as follows:


1) “Dear friend: shortly before I trundle home . . .”: six-line typed poem, untitled. Apparently unpublished.


2a) and 2b) “The heat smells of lions and of yeast . . .”: 14-line poem, in two separate drafts, one typescript, the other (headed “For you for me”) handwritten and signed “Dom 26/6/69”; neither titled. Apart from several differences in punctuation, the manuscript version offers four substantive variations in the text. The poem was printed in The Illustrated Weekly of India, 28 December 1969, and collected in both Collected Poems 1957–1987 (1987) and Collected Poems 1954–2004 (2004). Later printings may have the poem dedicated to Leela Naidu.


3 and 4) “Announced to you by trumpets & by tears”: 14-line manuscript poem, in two separate versions, both headed “NASEEM”, the first signed “Dom”, the second with more alterations than the first and signed “D.”; there are substantive variations in 10 lines of Moraes’ texts. The first is written on the verso of a typescript of the first 300 words of an article by Moraes for The Sunday Standard, “The Comex Collapse”, on Comex 3, the third Commonwealth Expedition to India, in 1969. The first four lines are lifted more or less verbatim from either Robert Horan (printed in his only book of verse, A Beginning, foreword by W.H. Auden, 1948) or James Dickey (the first of "Two Sonnets" sent home in a letter to his mother, 1947, and later printed in Accent: A Quarterly of New Literature, 1966). Moraes printed a version in The National and English Review, 1958 – but dedicated “for Henrietta with love”.


5) “Especially for you there verses are . . .”: eight-line manuscript poem, headed “Naseem” and signed “Dom”. Apparently unpublished.


6) “Tears pouring from this face of stone . . .”: 14-line poem by Stephen Spender – written out (from memory?) by his protégé. “The Vase of Tears” was first collected in Ruins and Visions (1944). Spender had first met Moraes in 1954, in Bombay, with W.H. Auden.


7) “In clothes the colour of leaves . . .”: 18-line manuscript poem entitled “FORMAL EULOGY”, inscribed at the foot “for Naseem with all of love Don 8/7/69”. Apparently unpublished.


8) Typed letter (“Darling, since you seem to have taken all the functioning pens with you, I have to type this”) signed (in type) “ALL MY LOVE D”. undated [1969], c450 words.

Biography or history

Naseem Khan (b.1939) is a writer and journalist, who has spent most of her working life in London, and has regularly campaigned on issues of diversity; she was Head of Diversity for Arts Council England, 1996–2003.


Khan lived with Dom Moraes for a time in 1969, whilst both were resident in Delhi. She maintained contact with Moraes long after their relationship broke up, and in 2000 he contributed to the anthology she edited with Ferdinand Dennis, 'Voices of the Crossing: the impact of Britain on writers

from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa'.

Provenance

The collection was acquired by Special Collections directly from Naseem Khan in 2016.

Access and usage

Access

Material in this collection may remain in copyright but further details are unknown. Photocopies or digital images can only be supplied by the Library for research or private study. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available for tracing copyright status and ownership.

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