With me, you must walk along)It is with these words from Kaifi Azmi’s iconic poem, “Aurat | Woman”, that Sudeep Sen opens his compendium of English translations of Kaifi’s poems. Kaifi Azmi: Poems | Nazms brings together Sudeep’s selection of 50 Urdu poems of Kaifi Azmi, presented in the Devanagari script and translated into English by five different translators—Husain Mir Ali, Baidar Bakht, Sumantra Ghosal, Pritish Nandy and Sudeep Sen himself. Sudeep’s selection of Kaifi’s poems reveals not only his grasp over the poet’s wide canvas but also his vast understanding of Kaifi, the man. In terms of lyricism and cadence, Sudeep’s own translations of Kaifi are the best. Kaifi, who spent a lifetime resisting wrongs, ended his pièce de résistance, “Inteshaar | Disarray”, beseeching his people to rise and churn out a revolution.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 12, 2019 12:33 UTC