Born in India and considered the leading poet on the South Asian subcontinent, Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) was a two-time Nobel nominee and winner of the 1962 Lenin Peace Prize. His evening readings in Hindi/Urdu-speaking regions drew thousands of listeners. Associated with the Communist party in his youth, Faiz became an outspoken poet in opposition to the Pakistani government. This volume offers a selection of Faiz's poetry in a bilingual Urdu/English edition with a new introduction by poet and translator Agha Shahid Ali.
FAIZ AHMED FAIZwas not only a prize-winning poet, but also a professor of English Literature, a distinguished editor, and a major figure in the Afro-Asian writer's movement.AGHA SHAHID ALIis on the MFA poetry faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His most recent books of poetry areA Nostalgist's Map of AmericaandThe Beloved Witness: Selected Poems.
Though privileged by birth and education, Faiz was, by both his words and his actions, a champion of the world's voiceless and suffering peoples. . . . He wrote eloquently of the human aspiration for freedom, dignity, and, of course, love. . . . Ali's may well be the touchstone for English translations of Faiz to date. South Asia
Agha Shahid Ali has done with these Faiz poems what we hope from any translation: he has brought the original closer to us, made it possible for us to have a sense of what it may be like to read the poetry of a great talent from a language and tradition very far from our own habits. W.S. Merwin
[Faiz] was read and listened to both by the literary elite and by the masses. . . . He was, I think, one of the greatest poets of this century, and was honored as such throughout the major part of Asia and Africa. Edward W. Said
![The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/1/6/8/2_1399775.jpg "The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems [Paperback]")