Modern Poetry of Pakistan

by Iftikhar Arif

  AYAZ, SHEIKH (1923–1998): Born in Shikarpur, in Sindh (today Pakistan’s southernmost province), Sheikh Ayaz is regarded as the leading figure of twentieth-century Sindhi literature. His published work runs to more than seventy volumes, comprising poetry, short stories, memoirs, essays, aphorisms, and journalism. Well-versed in Urdu, he published two collections of his own work and a monumental verse translation of Shah Latif’s Risalo. He practiced law and also served as the vice chancellor of Sindh University. For his work as a poet, he was awarded the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 1995 by the government of Pakistan and also received the Writers Guild Award. A selection of his work is available in English as The Storm’s Call for Prayers.

  BANIHALI, TAOS (1933–2000): Banihali was born in the village of Banihal, in Kashmir. His published works include Kashmir Ki Lok Kahanian and Rishi Nama, as well as a versified Urdu translation of Sheikh-ul-Islam Nuruddin Rishi’s letters, written originally in Kashmiri. Banihali’s own verse is not known to have been published during his lifetime.

  BHATTI, NASREEN ANJUM (1948– ): Bhatti holds a master’s degree in both Urdu and Punjabi. An imagist whose manner of poetic expression is intense and forceful, she is the author of two poetry collections, one in Punjabi and one in Urdu. Bhatti is the editor of Apni Gawahi, an anthology of autobiographical sketches of prominent women from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. She lives in Lahore.

  DAMAN, USTAD (1911–1984): Born Chiragh Din in Lahore, Ustad Daman is the best-known Punjabi poet of the post-Partition Punjab oral tradition. He was a tailor by profession, and in the early days recited his revolutionary, anti-imperialist poetry at the nationalist political gatherings of the Indian National Congress, taking an active part in the freedom movement. At the time of Partition, his shop and house were burned down by rioting mobs and his wife and young daughter were killed. However, Daman decided to stay in Lahore and the newly created country of Pakistan. He remained, throughout his life, a fierce opponent of dictatorship, civilian or military, and all corruption and hypocrisy. His work was transcribed and published as Daman dey Moti after his death by devoted followers and admirers. The poems he wrote are still widely quoted in the Punjab as well as in other regions of Pakistan.

  FAIZ, FAIZ AHMAD (1911–1984): Faiz was born in Sialkot, which now lies near the Pakistani border with Kashmir, and educated in Lahore. A committed socialist, Faiz was one of the leading lights of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. His leftist beliefs and his commitment to the cause of the poor earned him two prison sentences. The best-loved poet of his day, Faiz is generally regarded as one of the greatest lyricists of Urdu poetry. He began his career as a lecturer in English literature and later edited a major English-language daily, the Pakistan Times. Although his first volume of poetry, Naqsh-i-Faryadi, was published in 1941, he became widely known after the publication of Dast-i-Saba, poems written during his second term in prison, ten years later. After General Zia-ul-Haq’s coup, Faiz went into exile in Beirut, where he edited Lotus, the journal of the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association, until his return to Pakistan in 1982. Faiz was the first Asian poet to win the Lenin Peace Prize (1963). He died in Lahore. Faiz was posthumously awarded the Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Sign of Excellence) in 1990 by the government of Pakistan.

  FARAZ, AHMAD (1931–2008): Faraz is one of the most important contemporary Urdu poets. Born Syed Ahmad Shah, he used Ahmad Faraz as his pen-name. He obtained master’s degrees in both Persian and Urdu from Peshawar University, where he also worked as a lecturer for a number of years. Starting with his highly acclaimed Tanha Tanha, Faraz published thirteen collections of his poetry during his lifetime. His collected works, Shahr-i-Sukhan Arasta Hai, were issued in 2004. Faraz also wrote a number of plays in verse, some of which have been translated into English. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2000. He was also awarded the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2004, though he declined to accept.

  GUL, HASINA (1966– ): A well-known Pashto poet of the younger generation. Gul works as a broadcaster at Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation’s Peshawar station. In addition to her collections of poetry—Shpoon Shpole Shpelai, Khutah Khabray Kava, and Da Hum Hagasey Mausam Dey—she is also the author of a monograph on the Pashto writer Afzal-Afzal Shauq. She lives in Nowshera, not far from Peshawar, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

  HAMEED, YASMEEN (1951– ): Hameed is Writer in Residence at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where she is responsible for developing and teaching courses in Urdu literature. An Urdu poet who writes with a distinctly modern sensibility, she has produced four collections of verse to date—collected in one volume in 2007 as Doosri Zindagi—and has received several prizes for her work, including the Allama Iqbal Award. Also an accomplished translator, Hameed has produced numerous English-language versions of Urdu poetry (including a number of the poems contained in the present volume), as well as both editing and translating an anthology entitled Contemporary Verse from Pakistan. Hameed has received the Fatima Jinnah Medal in 2006 as well as the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence) in 2008.

  IMDAD, SEHAR (1951– ): A poet who writes in both Urdu and Sindhi, Imdad is the author of Choddenh Chand Akaas, a collection of her Sindhi verse. She is also a scholar, teaching at the University of Sindh, and has edited a number of Sindhi-language publications. Sehar Imdad was awarded the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan in 2008. She lives in Hyderabad.

  IQBAL, ALLAMA MUHAMMAD (1877–1938): Today revered as Pakistan’s national poet, Iqbal was born in Sialkot, where he studied under the tutelage of his mentor, Sayyed Mir Hassan, at the Scotch Mission College. Impressed by Iqbal’s keen intelligence and natural talent for both poetry and scholarship, Hassan encouraged his pupil to pursue his education further. After taking his master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Punjab in Lahore, Iqbal went to Britain and was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study philosophy, while simultaneously studying law at London’s Lincoln’s Inn. Having qualified as a barrister in 1908, he was called to the bar in London, but he continued his studies, ultimately producing a dissertation on Persian metaphysics for which he was awarded a PhD by Heidelberg University. He emerged as a notable poet while he was still young and gained immense prestige and popularity in the literary circles of his day for his outstanding works of poetry, written in both Urdu and Persian. Collections of his poems have been translated into many of the world’s major languages. Among his other works, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, a collection of lectures originally given in English, is still widely used by religious scholars and reformists. While he was still pursuing his studies abroad, Iqbal developed an interest in politics, and, upon returning to India, he became an important leader of the independence movement. In 1930, in his presidential address before the annual meeting of the All-India Muslim League in Allahabad, he articulated his idea for the creation of a separate state for Indian Muslims. In 1947, this separate state emerged onto the world map as Pakistan. Now honored as Mufakkir-i-Pakistan (The Thinker of Pakistan), Shair-i-Mashriq (The Poet of the East), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (The Sage of the Ummah—that is, the people of Islam), Iqbal never lived to see Pakistan become a reality: he died in Lahore in 1938.

  IQBAL, ZAFAR (1932– ): Zafar Iqbal is an Urdu poet known for his innovative approach to the ghazal. Two of his earlier collections, Aabi-Rawan and Gulaftab are considered landmarks in the development of the form in Urdu. He regularly contributes literary articles to newspapers. His complete verse was recently published in a three-volume edition titled Ab Tak (2004). He lives in Lahore and Okara.

  JAFFERY, ADA (1924– ): Jaffery, who was born in Badayun (now in north-central Uttar Pradesh, in India), is regarded as one of the great pioneers among modern Urdu poetry’s female poets. She has published numerous collections, as well as an autobiography, Jo Rahi So Bekhabari Rahi; her complete poems are now available in a volume titled Mausam Mausam. Jaffery has received numerous awards, including the Adamjee (1967), the Tamgha-i-Imtia
z (1981), the Baba-i-Urdu (1994), the Wasiqa-i-Aitaraf (1994), the Quaid-i-Azam Adabi (1997), and the Pride of Performance (2002). In 2003, she was honored with the Kamal-i-Funn by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. She lives in Karachi.

  JALANDHARI, HAFEEZ (1900–1982): Jalandhari was named for his birthplace, Jalandhar, which now lies in India’s portion of the Punjab. Obliged to earn a living at an early age, he moved from job to job—keeping time for the railroad, selling perfume, and doing calligraphy—until he found his true calling, as a literary journalist, when he started the literary magazine Ejaz. In 1922, he settled in Lahore, the literary capital of the Punjab, where he worked at a number of monthly journals, as well as at the children’s magazine Naunehal. He subsequently served as the editor of Tehzeeb-i-Niswan and of Phool, another magazine for children. In 1926, he joined the literary magazine Makhzan and in 1930 launched a literary weekly called Karzar. Among his collections of Urdu poetry are Naghma Zar, Soz-o-Saz, Talkh aab-i-Shirin, and Chiragh-i-Seher, as well as Shahnama-i-Islam, which is considered his magnum opus. Jalandhari also wrote poems and short stories for children and is the author of Pakistan’s national anthem. He was given the name Abul-Asr (“Master of the Age”) by his mentor, the Persian poet Maulana Ghulam Qadir Girami.

  JALANDHARI, ZIA (1923– ): Zia Jalandhari is the pen name of Sayyed Zia Nisar Ahmad, a native of Jalandhar. His first volume of Urdu poetry appeared in 1955, and three more followed; these were later gathered into a single volume entitled Sar-i-Sham Se Pase-Harf Tak, published in 1993. In addition, his complete works are available under the title Kulliyat-i-Zia, and English translations of his poetry have also appeared. The government of Pakistan awarded him the Pride of Performance in 2005. He retired from Pakistan Television in 1985, where he had served as managing director. He lives in Islamabad.

  JALIB, HABIB (1928–1993): Born in Hoshiarpur, East Punjab, Jalib started writing poetry by the age of fifteen. He moved to Karachi after Independence, and in 1954 moved again to Lahore, where he lived until his death. Starting his career as a lyrical ghazal writer, Jalib soon became an influential political author. A poet of the people, Jalib dedicated his life to fighting tyranny and oppression, even when his work led to jail sentences and poverty. His books, which were mainly censored or banned outright during his lifetime, include Barg-i-Awara, Sar-i-Maqtal, Ahd-i-Sitam, Harf-i-Murad, Goshe-mein Qafas Kay, Zikr Behtay Khoon ka, Iss Shehar-i-Kharabi Mein, Kuliyat-i-Jalib, Harf-i-sar-i-Dar, and Jalib Beeti. The government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 1993 and the Nishan-i-Imtiaz posthumously in 2008.

  JATOI, JANBAZ (1924–1994): Jatoi wrote in Seraiki, producing poems that are generally regarded as unique in style and idiom, inspired by the folk traditions of the region. He is the author of the collections Ardasan, Tanwaran, Hawaran, and Sassi. In 1993, the government of Pakistan awarded him the Pride of Performance, and the following year he received the Khawaja Fareed Award, bestowed by the Pakistan Academy of Letters.

  KAZMI, NASIR (1925–1972): Kazmi was born about 125 miles north of Delhi, in Ambala, but migrated to Lahore following Partition. A very popular poet of the ghazal, he was able to capture the experience of migration and the anguish of adjustment to life in a new country. In Lahore, he edited the literary magazines Auraq Nau and Khayal, as well as working at a local Radio Pakistan station. He produced several collections of Urdu poetry over his relatively short life, including Barg-i-Nay, Dewan, Pehli Barish, and Nishat-i-Khawab, as well as a verse play, Sur Ki Chaya.

  KHAN, GHANI (1914–1996): A noted poet of the Pashto language, as well as a painter and sculptor, Ghani Khan was born in Utmanzai, in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. He received a broad education, studying at the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, and at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan in West Bengal, and subsequently in England and then the United States. His first collection of poems, De Pinjray Chaghar, was published in 1956, and a second volume, Panoos, in 1978. A combined collection of his works appeared in 1985. He is also the author of a short treatise on Pashto society, written in English. For his outstanding contribution to Pashto poetry and for his artistic work generally, Ghani Khan was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan in 1980.

  KUNJAHI, SHARIF (1911–2006): Kunjahi was born in Gujrat, a town that today lies in the northeast of Pakistan’s Punjab. A versatile man of letters, he earned two master’s degrees, one in Urdu and another in Persian, and taught literature in a number of colleges. From 1981 to 1988, he was associated with the publications division of the Urdu National Language Authority. He then returned to Gujrat, where he spent the rest of his life, ultimately producing a total of thirty-three books. These included collections of poetry in Punjabi (Jhatian, Audak Hondi Loo, Jagrate), Urdu (Sooraj Such Aur Sa’ai, Lamhon Ka Sehra), and Persian (Do Dil), as well as Urdu translations of Heer, the famous Punjabi romance by the Sufi poet Warras Shah, as well as Bertrand Russell’s Road to Freedom. Kunjahi also translated the Qur’an into Punjabi. His honors include the Nishan-i-Gujrat, presented by the Literary Award Council of Gujrat in 1980, the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz in 1983 and Pride of Performance in 2000, both awarded by the government of Pakistan, and then a symbolic crown bestowed by the Bazm-i-Ghanimat, a local literary organization established in the name of classical Persian Poet Ghanimat Kunjahi of Kunjah, Gujrat, in 2004.

  MALIHABADI, JOSH (1894–1982): Born in the village of Malihabad, in the area around Lucknow, Josh Malihabadi studied at St. Peter’s College in Agra, and passed his senior Cambridge examination in 1914. He went on to study Arabic and Persian and in 1918 spent six months at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. His first collection of poetry appeared in 1921. He also founded and edited the magazine Kaleem, in which he openly wrote in favor of independence from the British Raj. In 1947, he became the editor of another magazine, the Aaj-Kal, Delhi. He migrated to Pakistan in 1955 and worked for the Anjuman-i-Taraqqi-i-Urdu, an organization promoting Urdu language and literature. Malihabadi was a prolific poet, known for his masterful command of the Urdu language and his strict observance of its grammar. He is popularly known as the Shair-i-Inqilab (Poet of Revolution). Although not all of his poetic work has been published, numerous collections have appeared in print, including Shola-o-Shabnam, Junoon-o-Hikmat, Fikr-o-Nishat, and Mehrab-o-Mizrab. He also wrote an autobiography entitled Yadoon Ki Barat, which is one of most read biographies written in Urdu.

  MEERAJI (1912–1949): Meeraji was the pen name adopted by Muhammad Sanaullah Sami Dar, whose modern verse broke new ground in Urdu poetry. In his earlier years, he edited Adabi Duniya, Maulvi Salahuddin’s literary magazine, and later worked for All-India Radio. He was also instrumental in establishing the Halqa-i-Arbab-i-Zauq, an institution that has played an important role in nurturing and encouraging new writers. Among his volumes of poetry are Meeraji ke Geet, Meeraji ki Nazmein, Geet hi Geet, Paband Nazmein, and Teen Rang. He died young, and a complete collection of his poems, titled Kulliyat-i-Meeraji, was compiled in 1988 by the Urdu Markaz, London, some four decades after his death.

  NAHEED, KISHWAR (1940– ): Educated in Lahore, Naheed is a prolific writer of both poetry and prose who has a keen interest in women’s issues. Her numerous collections of modern Urdu verse and ghazal have been gathered into a volume titled Dasht-i-Qais Main Laila. She is also the author of numerous works in various genres of prose, as well as a translator and writer of children’s books. She was presented with the Adamjee Award for Literature in 1969 and won the UNESCO Prize for Children’s Literature in 1974. She has also been honored by the Pakistani government with its Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2000. Naheed lives in Islamabad, where she heads a non-governmental organization for women artisans called Hawwa.

  NASEER, GUL KHAN (1914–1983): Born in Nushki, in Balochistan, Naseer was educated in Quetta and Lahore. One of the founders of the Balochi nationalist movement, he went to prison a number of times for his political views as well as his revolutionary poetry. In 1972–73, he served briefly as a minister in the first elected gov
ernment of Balochistan. Among his major poetical works are Gulbang, Dastaan-i-Dosheen-o-Shireen, Shup Garook, Grund, Hon-a-gwank, Purang, GulGal, and Shablank. Naseer has come to be regarded as the poet laureate of the Balochi people.

  NIAZI, MUNIR (1928–2006): Niazi numbers among the most influential of contemporary Urdu poets. His short poems generate a subtle mystery by mingling elements of the real and the unreal. Numerous collections of his Urdu poetry have appeared, and the poems he wrote in Punjabi are also very popular. He received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz twice in 1995 and 2004 from the government of Pakistan and was honored with a Kamal-i-Funn by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2002.

  NIGAH, ZEHRA (1935– ): One of Urdu’s best-loved female poets, Nigah rose to prominence in the 1950s, at a time when poetry was still predominantly a male domain. Her melodic renditions of her verse made her a popular figure at mushairas, where poets gather to read their work. Thus far, three collections of her poetry have appeared: Shaam ka Pehla Tara, Waraq, and Firaq. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to literature, the government of Pakistan awarded her the Pride of Performance in 2005. Born in Hyderabad, she now lives in Karachi.