Acta Scientiarum http://periodicos.uem.br/ojs ISSN on-line: 1983-4683 Doi: 10.4025/actascilangcult.v44i2.60893 LITERATURE / LITERATURA Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culuture, v. 44, e60893, 2022 South-Asian niche as the poetic helicon of Taufiq Rafat: a metapoetic study Asim Aqeel 1* , Saba Rasheed 2 and Hafiz Nauman Ahmed 3 1 Department of Humanities & Linguistics, University of Agriculture, C3HG+483 Jail Road، near Al-Khidmat Police Markaz، Police Line, Faisalabad, Pakistan. 2 Department of English, GC University Faisalabad, Pakistan. 3 Riphah Institute of Language and Literature, Riphah International University, Lahore, Pakistan. *Author for correspondence. E-mail: asimaqeel@hotmail.com ABSTRACT. The genre of metapoetry thematizes the fictional elements – the inspiration of a poet, his poetic process, meta-poetic metaphors, the role of the poet in society, and intertextual references – partaking in the making of poetry explicitly or implicitly carried through a poem within a poem technique. This paper presents Eva Müller-Zettlemann’s theoretical pronunciation of meta-poetic elements, i. e., poetic inspiration, poetic process, and meta-poetic metaphors, at play in the metalyrics of Taufiq Rafat from his anthologies Arrival of the Monsoon: Collected Poems 1947-78 (1985) and Half Moon: Poems 1979- 1983 (2008). Rafat’s inspiration is the South-Asian terra firma and lived experience that makes him infuse the regional sensibility through a poetic process of perceiving and penning down immediately. His meta- poetic metaphor involves the invention of an image of cultural genesis that informs the process of poetic creativity. Moreover, the study also considers the explicit expression of the role of the poet in society and the functions of poetry in Rafat’s poems, otherwise a prose phenomenon. Thus, the paper analyzes the conscious expression of the construction of South-Asian singularity inspired by the cultural kernel in content and form in Rafat’s metalyrics. Keywords: metapoetry; poetic inspiration; creative process; meta-poetic metaphor; self-reflexivity; pakistani idiom. Nicho Sul-Asiático como o Helicon Poético de Taufiq Rafat: um Estudo Metapoético RESUMO. O gênero da metapoesia tematiza os elementos ficcionais – a inspiração de um poeta, seu processo poético, as metáforas metapoéticas, o papel do poeta na sociedade e as referências intertextuais – participando do fazer poético explícita ou implicitamente realizado através de um poema no interior. uma técnica poética. Este artigo apresenta a pronúncia teórica de elementos metapoéticos de Eva Müller- Zettelmann, i. e., inspiração poética, processo poético e metáforas metapoéticas, em jogo na metalírica de Taufiq Rafat de suas antologias Arrival of the Monsoon: Collected Poems 1947-78 (1985) e Half Moon: Poems 1979-1983 (2008). A inspiração de Rafat é a terra firme do sul da Ásia e a experiência vivida que o faz infundir a sensibilidade regional através de um processo poético de perceber e escrever imediatamente. Sua metáfora metapoética envolve a invenção de uma imagem de gênese cultural que informa o processo de criatividade poética. Além disso, o estudo também considera a expressão explícita do papel do poeta na sociedade e as funções da poesia nos poemas de Rafat, outrora um fenômeno em prosa. Assim, o artigo analisa a expressão consciente da construção da singularidade sul-asiática inspirada no núcleo cultural em conteúdo e forma na metalírica de Rafat. Palavras-chave: metapoesia; inspiração poética; processo criativo; metáfora metapoética; auto-reflexividade; idioma paquistanês. Received on September 14, 2021. Accepted on May 24, 2022. Introduction The primary concern of newly liberated countries is to invent native idiom or the expression of cultural experiences to delineate their distinct identity as seen in the case of America, Australia, West Indies, Africa, and India. The creative faculty in Pakistan appears to be colored by a servile replica of colonial representations by the first generation of the comprador class to appease their colonial masters. But the second generation of the post-independence intelligentsia, to which Taufiq Rafat belongs, is more aware of its political role in the construction of native identity (Hosain, 2017). They employ the medium of poetry as an intuitive art to create South-Asian sensibility (Awan & Ahmed, 2011). The mental response to this sensibility encompasses the