When a physician speaks poetry

Express Tribune

07-07-2025

Dekhna taqreer ki lazzat ke jo uss ne kaha
Mein ne ye jana ko goya ye bhi mere dil mein he
— Ghalib
Dr Azra Raza has over the last several years won widespread acclaim and popularity in the US as an oncologist - but more so as a literary figure who can delve into the verses of Urdu master poets with effortless ease. Her mastery of English and Urdu alike makes her a captivating speaker who can spellbind an audience in the flicker of a glowing phrase. Her recent convocation address at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver was much more than a cancer-researcher's speech - it was a testament to her rare gift of blending the rigours of human anatomy with the depth of poetry and the warmth of the human spirit. Few people can stand before a hall of graduates and make the deadliest, most daunting topics blossom into something endearing - yet Dr Raza does exactly that. In her voice, even the harshest truths about cancer bend into lessons on courage, love, and the journey of being fully alive.
With her commanding yet gentle presence, she remains a speaker who must be heard - regardless of the subject. She can take the most daunting facts of life and death and breathe into them a dignity that uplifts. In her speech, she spoke of a lifetime spent in pursuit of a cure that still evades her grasp, yet she turned that unfinished quest into something luminous: "I did not attain what I had set out to seek, but in that pursuit, I swallowed the world." Such lines linger like verses that echo one's own hidden thoughts - just as many poets remind us.
At the heart of her message lies a truth both fierce and tender: that love - for an idea, a calling, or a person - is what gives our struggles meaning. She urged the young graduates to go forth with their hearts on fire, to bind themselves to what they cannot live without, and to carry that love with integrity. She shared stories of patients like Andrew, who faced the horror of cancer with quiet, heroic courage - reminding us how the human spirit can shine in the darkest places.
Even when she spoke of bold, cutting-edge hopes - like the 'Stentinel' device that may detect and destroy the very first cancer cell - her words never felt clinical. They glowed with the conviction that science must always serve the soul. In her telling, a stent is not just a piece of metal in a vein, but a promise that one day, no one's mother will have to stand by a hospital bed in helpless grief.
To hear Dr Azra Raza speak is to feel the burden of suffering soften - because she carries it with us. She turns the hard language of medicine into the soft music of hope. She reminds us that the work is not just to fight disease, but to hold onto our shared humanity, to love what we do, and to ease one another's pain.
In every line, her voice echoes one simple truth: to reduce the suffering of even one person is reason enough to dedicate a life. That is why whether she speaks of cells or souls, Dr Azra Raza remains a humanist whose every word is, in the end, a kind of healing.
Uss ne jalti hui paishani pe jab haath rakha
Rooh tak aa gayee taseer maseehaye ki
i.e.
When she placed her hand on a burning forehead, Its healing touch reached deep into the soul
This couplet by Parveen Shakir beautifully captures what Dr Raza does: she does not merely treat cancer patients - she soothes the spirit, with a healer's grace that lingers far beyond the boundaries of medicine.