Afzal Ahmed Syed (افضال احمد سيد) is a contemporary

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

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 worked as an entomologist until his retirement in 2005. 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

ghazal ''Ghazal'' is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry that often deals with topics of spiritual and romantic love. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss, or separation from the beloved, and t ...

s 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 Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

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 one of the first Urdu translators of

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

and

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

. His work has been widely published in leading Urdu literary periodicals such as '' Shabkhoon'', ''Aaj'', and ''Dunyazad''. He currently teaches at Habib University.

Bibliography

Original works

In Urdu

* چھينی ہوئ تاريخ: نظميں - An Arrogated Past (Karachi: Aaj Ki Kitaben, 1984) * خيمہُ سياہ: غزليات - The Dark Pavilion (Karachi: Aaj Ki Kitaben, 1988) * دو زبانوں ميں سزاۓ موت: نظميں - Death Sentence in Two Languages (Karachi: Aaj Ki Kitaben, 1990) * روکوکو اور دوسری دنيائيں : نظميں - Rococo and Other Worlds (Karachi: Aaj Ki Kitaben, 2000)

In English translation

* ''Rococo and Other Worlds: Selected Poetry of Afzal Ahmed Syed'', Translated from Urdu by Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Translations by Afzal Ahmed Syed

Poetry

Miroslav Holub (Czech), Yehuda Amichai (Hebrew), Dunya Mikhail (Arabic), Tadeusz Borowski (Polish), Zbigniew Herbert (Polish), Jan Prokop (Polish), Tadeusz Rozewicz (Polish), Wisława Szymborska (Polish), Aleksander Wat (Polish), Marin Sorescu (Romanian), Osip Mandelstam (Russian), Orhan Veli (Turkish)

Fiction

Gabriel García Márquez, ''Chronicle of A Death Foretold''.

Novels

Musharraf Ali Farooqi, ''Between Clay and Dust''

Plays

Jean Genet, ''The Maids''. Goran Stefanovski, ''Sarajevo: Tales from a City''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Ahmed, Afzal Living people 1946 births Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Pakistani translators Pakistani dramatists and playwrights Muhajir people Pakistani entomologists Poets from Karachi Indian emigrants to Pakistan