We are pleased to announce a new book of poetry in translation, “Rococo and Other Worlds,” by Afzal Ahmed Syed, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. It is the first English language publication of Urdu’s greatest modern poet.
Here is a section from one poem in the book, “Tell Me a Story”:
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Tell me a story
other than how from the museum
the witness table of the peace pact disappeared
other than that a continent is called by the wrong name
Tell me a story
other than that you do not like to kiss lips
other than that I was not the first man in your life
other than that it was not raining that day
*******
Afzal Ahmed Syed holds a unique place among contemporary poets of the Urdu language, as a master of both the classical and modern Urdu poetic forms. The poems in “Rococo and Other Worlds” explore the mythology and historical realities of South Asia and the Middle East; their bold imagery creates narratives of voluptuous perfection, which remain inseparable from the political realities that Syed witnessed as a young observer of the violent separation of East Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 and of the Lebanese civil war in 1976. Musharraf Ali Farooqiís sensitive translations bring this extraordinary work to English readers for the first time.
For more details, click Rococo and Other Worlds
(Submitted by reader)