Skip to main content

The Meaning of Headlines: 'harking back' - monuments




On July 18, 2015, the Dawn daily newspaper in Pakistan, in its local section, contained the headline ‘Harking back: Exquisite Naulakha Pavilion and its amazing origins.’ What does ‘harking back’ mean?

The word ‘hark’ on its own means to listen. Readers might recall the song, Hark the Herald Angels Sing – it means listen, the angels are singing (bringing news). Or readers may know the line in the poem, Hist! by Australian poet Clarence James Dennis (1876-193): Hist! … Hark! The night is very dark, And we’ve to go a mile or so, Across the Possum Park.’

American poet, Richard Eberhart (1904-2005) wrote a poem called Hark Back about Paris: To have stepped lightly among European marbles, Dwelling in a pantheon of air; To have altered the gods in a fact of being; To have envisaged the marriage, Of everything new with the old, And sprung a free spirit in the world, Is to have caught my own spirit, On a bicycle in the morning, Riding out of Paris, Heading South. My flesh felt so good, I was my own god (poetryfoundation.org). But I digress …

Hark back is not technically to listen back. To ‘hark back’ is, according to Encarta Dictionaries, ‘to think or speak again about something from the past.’ It is synonymous with ‘go back to’ or ‘revisit’ or ‘recall’ – to be reliving or returning to a past event or time.

If harking back means thinking about the past, does the article inform the reader of something in the past? It does. The article is about the Naulakha Pavilion in Lahore Fort, in the Pakistan city of Lahore, built in 1663 and included on the UNESCO World Heritage Monuments list in 1981. The author writes of the architecture and its history – its ‘fusion of the Bengal tradition of constructing sloping roofs … and the Baldachin structure style’ – the canopy style of a tent. It adds information about its Iraq, Kurdish, and Moghal heritage mixed together in the ‘beautiful merging of styles.’ Emperor Shah Jehan commissioned the Lahore Fort and its Naulakha Pavilion, some say to honour his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) named a novel after it, and even his house in Vermont in America. The article takes quite a nostalgic return to the once grand structure, now falling into disrepair.

Scorecard for the Dawn headline is 100% for its wistful return to the past. It harkened back to the time of the Emperor when love was depicted in architectural wonders, in the hope that they would stand the test of time. The phrase ‘to hark back’ is not commonly used anymore, but when it is, it can evoke a multitude of reminiscences of times gone, but not forgotten.



http://www.dawn.com/news/1195182/harking-back-exquisite-naulakha-pavilion-and-its-amazing-origins 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more