A recent Book on Faiz Ahmed Faiz
The monthly Herald has published my review of Khalid Hasan’s book - “O City of Lights” in its June issue. It is a comprehensive selection with some gems such as translated versions of Faiz’sinterviews and conversations. Khalid Hasan is a well known Pakistani writer and journalist now based in the US. He was a close friend of Faiz and has this particular advantage as a biographer and a translator. He has translated more poetry and this is a welcome step to introduce and popularize Urdu poetry to non-urdu readers.
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Against Forgetting - Manglesh Dabraal
I also found this translation on the site you mention - I find the poem moving and profound. Do you know if any more of Manglesh Dabraal’s poetry is available on the internet in translation into English ? Is there a collection or anthology of similar poetry published in English?
Kind Regards
William
Comment by William — June 17, 2007 @ 8:23 am
Dear William: thanks for stopping by -
The poems that you referred are in Hindi and have been translated by a blogger Annie Zaidi.
To my knowledge, Manglesh’s works are not available online in English.
You may wish to contact Annie Zaidi at http://www.anniezaidi.com/
regards, RR
Comment by RR — June 17, 2007 @ 8:43 am
Nice writeup. You have correctly pointed out that Urdu poetry can’t be translated into English. The reader can get the gist and substance of the verse but it’s form and beauty of words is lost in translation. Faiz no doubt was a great poet but I like his ghazals on “Ishq-e-majazi†more than his revolutionary types of verses.
Day Day
Raseelay hont, haseen aankhain, masoomana peshani
Kay mein ek baar phir ranginion mein ghark ho jaoon
Meri hasti ko teri ek nazar aaghosh mein lay lay
Hamesha kay liye is daam mein mahfooz ho jaoon
Comment by Skeptic — June 17, 2007 @ 11:20 am
Thanks for the review, Raza.
Comment by bhupinder — June 17, 2007 @ 12:57 pm
Bhupinder ji and the skeptical friend..
thanks for the comments
RR
Comment by Raza — June 17, 2007 @ 4:54 pm