1. Zehra Nigah was born in Hyderabad, India in 1936 and migrated to Pakistan with her family in 1947. She began to recite her poetry at mushairas at a fairly young age, which was considered unusual at the time. Treading the fine line between feminism and feminine poetry, she has acquired enormous respect and popularity in a career spanning six decades. She has also published four celebrated collections of poetry: Shaam ka Pehla Tara (‘The First Star of the Evening’), Warq (‘Page’), Firaq (‘Separation’), and Gul Chandni (named after a flower that blossoms at night). 2. Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer and literary historian. She has published over 25 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Her books include Love in the Time of Hate: In the Mirror of Urdu; Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu; a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan: A Rebel and her Cause; and a translation of Intizar Hussain’s The Sea Lies Ahead.
<p>Among the first women to gain recognition and fame in the almost entirely male-dominated field of Urdu poetry, Zehra Nigah (born in 1935) is today taller than any Urdu-language poet writing in South Asia or beyond. She is also an eagerly awaited figure on the mushaira circuit in India and Pakistan. </p><p>A classicist in style, her themes are urgent and contemporary—she has been hailed for ‘saying “big” things in a seemingly conversational manner’. This selection contains her best-known nazms and ghazals, which showcase her lyricism and also her deep insight into the human condition and the social and political realities of our age and our region. </p><p>Among the gems in this collection are poems like ‘Bhejo Nabi ji Rehmatein’, ‘Mein Bach Gayi Ma’, ‘Qissa Gul Badshah’ and ‘Insaf’, which have as their themes.</p><p>sexual war crimes against women, female infanticide, repressive Shariah laws and child soldiers in a ‘religious’ war; tender, bitter-sweet poems about love and family relationships, like ‘Shaam ka Pehla Taara’, ‘Ek Sachchi Amma ki Kahani’ and ‘Qurbaton se Kab Talak Apne ko Behlayenge Hum’; and wise and moving reflections on the emotional and social life of a woman—‘Samjhauta’, ‘Hawwa ki Kahani’ and ‘Sylvia Plath’.</p><p>Translated with regard and respect for both the poet and the English-language reader, this collection is a splendid introduction to the work of a legend of Urdu poetry.</p>
