Afzal Ahmed Syed

Afzal Ahmed Syed Poems

Afzal Ahmed Syed Biography

Afzal Ahmed Syed (افضال احمد سيد) is a contemporary Urdu poet and translator, known for his mastery of both classical and modern Urdu poetic expression. Born in Ghazipur, India, in 1946, Afzal Ahmed Syed has lived since 1976 in Karachi, Pakistan, where he works as an entomologist. He is the author of the modern nazm collections چھينی ہوئ تاريخ (An Arrogated Past, 1984), دو زبانوں ميں سزاۓ موت (Death Sentence in Two Languages, 1990), and روکوکو اور دوسری دنيائيں (Rococo and Other Worlds, 2000). Another collection of classical ghazals is titled خيمہُ سياہ (The Dark Pavilion, 1988). Syed’s poetry was anthologized in An Evening of Caged Beasts: Seven Postmodernist Urdu Poets (New York: OUP, 1999). The Wesleyan University Press Poetry Series has published a selection of Syed's poetry in translation, titled Rococo and Other Worlds in 2010, which features poetry from his three Urdu nazm collections. Syed has translated a wide and important body of works by contemporary poets, playwrights and novelists. He was the one of the first Urdu translators of Gabriel García Márquez and Jean Genet. His work has been widely published in leading Urdu literary periodicals such as Shabkhoon, Aaj, and Dunyazad.)

The Best Poem Of Afzal Ahmed Syed

If My Voice Is Not Reaching You

If my voice is not reaching you
add to it the echo—
echo of ancient epics

And to that—
a princess
And to the princess—your beauty

And to your beauty—
a lover's heart
And in the lover's heart
a dagger

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