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This book is meant to introduce the reader to the poetry of Iqbal, a great poet, often bracketed with Ghalib, the all-time great in Urdu poetry. While Ghalib is a specialist of the ghazal, Iqbal is essentially a poet of the nazm, a poetic form, better suited than the ghazal for the logical development of a thought or theme.

The book contains the text and translation of some of the finest poems of Iqbal including Tarana-e-Hindu, Naya Shivala, Shikwa, Jawab-e-shikwa, Saqi Nama, Taloo-e-Islam, Tasweer-e-Dard, Walida Marhooma ki Yaad mein, The poet and the Candle, etc. There are in all 61 nazms and 26 ghazals, drawn mostly from Bang-e-Dara, and Baal-e-Jibreel. The poems are thoughtfully chosen and faithfully rendered into English, which is lucid, rhythmical and appropriate. The translation also attempts to retain the beauties of the rhyme and assonance, the special ornaments of Urdu verse.

For the benefit of the readers who are not familiar with Urdu language in the Persian script, the author has given the transcription of the Urdu text in the Roman Script. The book begins with an Introduction which discusses the important aspects of Iqbals’s life and art. As the reader will discover for himself, Iqbal’s poetry is remarkable for the musicality of its style, for the felicity of word and phrase, for its lofty thought, and for the animating quality of its message. It is hoped that the reader will find this selection interesting and inspiring.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:

K C KANDA has had a long and distinguished tenure as a Reader in English at Delhi University. Reader in English at Delhi University. Dr Kanda was given the Urdu Academy Award for excellence in translation in 1997. He is currently working on Bahadur Shah Zafar and his Contemporaries.