Check in every Friday for a new set of five! This week's collection includes poetry by Nund Rishi and Naseem Shafaie.
Poetry by Abdul Ahad Azad
He “started writing poems quite early under the pen name Anad which he later changed to Janbaz and finally in 1931 to Azad. Wrote first in Persian and Urdu and later in Kashmiri. Literary influence are Iqbal and the Progressive Writers. Politically, he remained a radical Marxist throughout his life” (from the introduction of An Anthology of Modern Kashmiri Verse).
His work is available on Rekhta and in translation on Poem Hunter.
Poetry by Nund Rishi
Curated and translated as The Book of Nund Rishi Shaikh Nur Ud-din Selected Poems by Paul Smith
A fourteenth century saint-poet, he used his work to criticize the pseudo-scholars of Islam, and gave expression to the lives of the common people of the valley. He spread his teachings or message through poems, commonly known as shruks, comprising of four to six lines each.
Poetry by Mahmud Gami
He "was one of the most outstanding poets of the medieval period. He is rightly called the father of the Kashmiri ghazal and naat. He was the first to introduce man as lover in Kashmiri literature. Though he had a great hold over Persian in which he initially tried his hand, after switching over to Kashmiri he served this language with a unique devotion. His idiom is necessarily homespun" (from Gems of Kashmiri Literature by T. N. Kaul).
His poems are available to read online.
Poetry by Hamidi Kashmiri
A recipient of the Padma Shri, Kashmiri was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry collection, Yath Miani Joye.
His work is available on Rekhta in Urdu as well as in translation.
Na Thsay Na Aks by Naseem Shafaie
Translated as Neither Shadow Nor Reflection by Indu Kilam
Shafaie's second poetry collection won her the Tagore Literature Award as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award, making her the first Kashmiri woman to do so. It explores a variety of topics including the turbulent atmosphere of Kashmir from a woman's perspective. The work has been widely translated.
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