Afzal Ahmed Syed
Foto: Goethe-Institut / Madiha Aijaz
Afzal Ahmed Syed, born in 1946 is a leading contemporary Urdu poet. He is well known for his experimental style of writing, and has published three collections of free verse and prose poems and one of ghazals. His collected works were published as Mitti ki Kan in 2009. In 2010, the Wesleyan University Press, USA, published a selection of his poems, Rococo and Other Worlds, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. In India, translations of his poetry have been published in Hindi in 1992 and in Bengali in 2010. He frequently translates from English and Persian. His translation of the complete Persian works of Mir Taqi Mir was published by Oxford University Press under the title Divan-e-Mir Farsi Maa Urdu Tarjuma.
It’s interesting to note that Afzal Syed had witnessed civil wars in Beirut in the 1970s during his stay there as a university student as well as Dhaka in 1971. He has been living in the volatile city of Karachi for decades. This violence and crises resonate in his poems.
Eine gestohlene Vergangenheit
ہمارا قومی درخت /
Unser Nationalbaum
اگر تم تک میری آواز نہیں پہنچ رہی ہے /
Wenn du meine Stimme nicht hören kannst
اگر آپ مریم کانسکی وچ ہوتے /
Wenn Sie Miriam Kenskivic wären
It’s interesting to note that Afzal Syed had witnessed civil wars in Beirut in the 1970s during his stay there as a university student as well as Dhaka in 1971. He has been living in the volatile city of Karachi for decades. This violence and crises resonate in his poems.
Poems
چھینی ہوئی تاریخ /Eine gestohlene Vergangenheit
ہمارا قومی درخت /
Unser Nationalbaum
اگر تم تک میری آواز نہیں پہنچ رہی ہے /
Wenn du meine Stimme nicht hören kannst
اگر آپ مریم کانسکی وچ ہوتے /
Wenn Sie Miriam Kenskivic wären
