Fiaz Ahmed Faiz is the most famous contemporary Urdu poet of the twentieth century who appeals both to the common man as well as the elite connoisseurs of poetry. Faiz’s ghazals reflect a strong influence of the Persian style and diction, because of which he is often considered the inheritor of the tradition of Ghalib: and at the same time several of them are written in a simple conversational style dealing with the problems of the common man. Faiz was a committed poet who regarded poetry as a vehicle of serious thought rather than just a pleasurable pastime and often used it to champion the cause of socialistic humanism

Born in Sialkot in 1911, Faiz began his career as a lecturer in English but soon turned to journalism where he excelled, rising to the post of editor of The Pakistan Times. In 1951 the Pakistan government sentenced him to four years imprisonment on the charges of complicity in a failed coup attempt known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case. While in jail he wrote two of his greatest works, Dasta-e-Saba and Zindan-Nama. During the regime of Zia-ul-Haq he was forced into exile to Beirut. He returned to Pakistan in 1982 and two years later he passed away.

This book offers a selection of the best of Faiz’s ghazals and nazms along with their English translations as well as transliterations so you can enjoy the beauty and richness of Urdu language as you read the English transliteration while the translation helps you understand the meaning with all its subtle nuances.