Poetry-In Translation-Urdu
By Zehra Nigah. Translated from the original Urdu by Rakhshanda Jalil
On the whole, this anthology offers a good sampling of Nigah’s poetry insofar as it touches upon many significant aspects of her poetic vision. A good number of poems also dwell on the theme of aging and its attendant issues of neglect and loneliness. While the inevitability of the ageing process is acknowledged and its losses and gains accepted (‘Ab to Lagta hai Kuch Aise’), Nigah also calls out the hypocrisy of ‘cultured people’ who mouth the Islamic belief that Heaven exists beneath the feet of their mothers but in fact are indifferent to them (‘Ek Sacchi Ma ki Kahani’).
Reviewed by: Deeba Zafir