Pakistani Urdu Poetry: An Anthology of the Post Iqbal Urdu Nazm

Description

Winner of the UBL/Jang Literary Excellence Award 2012

The introductions to the poets, the translations, and the range of poetic styles on display represent indeed a staggering achievement to which the austere attribution “Translated and Edited by Yasmeen Hameed” does but scant justice.

The book is a bilingual anthology of the twentieth century Urdu nazm. Two poems of each poet with their brief introduction is the format. The poets included in the anthology are all recognized Urdu poets with a sound and worthwhile contribution to literature. This would be the first anthology of its kind as it represents almost the entire post-Iqbal period in Urdu poetry. The various movements and shifts in styles and preferences are discussed in the introduction.

The book is an anthology of the twentieth century Urdu verse from Pakistan, representing sixty-three poets from the region. The selection focuses on the verse-form called the nazm, and is a compilation of a diverse range of themes and practices that popularized the genre as it developed through the modern and post-modern literary trends of the century.

Two poems of each poet with their brief introduction is the format. The poets included in the anthology are all recognized Urdu poets with a sound and worthwhile contribution to literature.

The Urdu nazm entered a new phase of evolution when poets like Noon Meem Rashed and Meeraji broke away from the traditional confines of this form and opted for something more amenable to themes defining a new sensibility. Structurally, thematically and linguistically, the twentieth century Urdu nazm, either suggests a complete shift from earlier practices or is a fusion of the new and the traditional. The selection in this anthology represents these trends, some of which became popular, whereas, some remained and continue to remain significant as agents of change.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. N. M. Rashid
3. Faiz ahmed faiz
4. Meera ji
5. Majeed amjad
6. Ahmed nadeem qasmi
7. Aziz hamid madani
8. Wazir agha
9. Munir niazi
10. Ada jaffery
11. Gilani kamran
12. Saleem ahmed
13. Ahmed shamim
14. Hasan abidi
15. Ahmed faraz
16. Akhtar husain jafri
17. Asad muhammad khan
18. Javed shaheen
19. Shahzad ahmed
20. Aftab iqbal shamim
21. M. Salim-ur-rahman
22. Zehra nigah
23. Iftikhar jalib
24. Saqi farooqi
25. Zahid dar
26. Anis nagi
27. Faruq hasan
28. Ahmed hamesh
29. Kishwar naheed
30. Khurshid rizvi
31. Shabnam shakeel
32. Iftikhar arif
33. Amjad islam amjad
34. Abdur rashid
35. Nasreen anjum bhatti
36. Sarmad sehbai
37. Fahmida riaz
38. Afzal ahmed syed
39. Shaista habib
40. Muhammad izhar-ul-haque
41. Saadat saeed
42. Sarwat husain
43. Azra abbas
44. Ghulam husain sajid
45. Perveen shakir
46. Fatema hasan
47. Shahida hasan
48. Abrar ahmed
49. Naseer ahmed nasir
50. Shaheen mufti
51. Ali muhammad farshi
52. Ishrat aafreen
53. Zahid masud
54. Tanveer anjum
55. Mansoora ahmed
56. Samina raja
57. Waheed ahmed
58. Rafiq sandeelvi
59. Zeeshan sahil
60. Harris khalique
61. Ravish nadeem
62. Farrukh yar

Author Biography

Yasmeen Hameed has over thirty five years of experience in the fields of education, literature and art. She has authored five books of poetry in Urdu. These are Pas-e Aina (1988), Hisar-e Be Dar-o-Divar (1991), Adha Din Aur Adhi Rat (1996), Fana Bhi Ek Sarab (2001) and Be Samar Peron Ki Kvahish (2012). The first four books were collectively published under the title Dusri Zindagi (700 pages) in 2007. A selection of her poetry titled Hum Do Zamanon Men Paida Hue was published in 2018. Her book, Pakistani Urdu Verse (English… 513 pages) was published by Oxford University Press in 2010.

She has compiled and edited Daybreak: Writings on Faiz published by Oxford University Press in 2013. She has also compiled and edited Naya Urdu Afsana by Sang-e Meel Publications in 2014. Her poem was published in translation in Granta, 112 Pakistan from London, UK and five of her poems in translation are included in an anthology called Modern Poetry of Pakistan, published by Dalkey Archive Press, Champaign and London, USA.

Her poems in translation were also published in Atlanta Review: Pakistan, Spring and Summer 2014. Fourteen of her poems with English translation were published in Three Contemporary Artists by Iffat Sayeed, published in 2019 by the University of Punjab, Lahore. She was Guest Editor of Pakistani Literature (English), published by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad and has edited seven volumes of the journal, including two volumes of a special issue on women writers from Pakistan. She has contributed to the column called Poetic Justice of the Books & Authors section of the daily Dawn. She has also hosted music and literary programmes for Pakistan Television. Her third collection of poetry was awarded the National Allama Mohammed Iqbal Award for the best book of poetry for the year 1996.

Her fourth collection was awarded the Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi Award for the best book of poetry for the year 2001. Her book, Pakistani Urdu Verse was awarded the UBL/ Jang Literary Excellence Award in 2012. In 2006, she received the Fatima Jinnah Medal for Literature by the Government of Punjab. In 2008, she was awarded the Tamgha-e Imtiaz for Literature by the Government of Pakistan. Yasmeen Hameed was the Founder Director of the Gurmani Centre for South Asian Languages and Literature in the Social Sciences Department at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

She also developed and taught courses in Urdu Literature at LUMS. She worked there from August 2007 to 2016. She owns and has established The Lahore Alma (Junior/ Senior School) in DHA, Lahore. The school was established in 1986. It now has a strength of over 800 students from Playgroup (age 3) to A-Levels (age 18). The school is registered with the University of Cambridge, UK. She is director of the school. She has a Masters degree in Nutrition for which she was awarded a gold medal in 1972 by the University of Punjab, Lahore.