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Translation: Parveen Shakir

Posted on October 29, 2006
Filed Under >Naveed E., People, Poetry, Urdu, Women
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Guest Post by Naveed E.

Perveen Shakir died young. Her legend lives on.

She is arguably the most popular poetess of the literary history of Pakistan. She expressed the sensibilities of young lovelorn girl with the innocence of a girl next door and innovation of an adept poet. Her romantic poems and ghazals stirred the sentiments of youthful readers.

She enlivened the tales and traditions of love in a manner that her first book “Khushboo� met an instant and incredible success. Within a span of seventeen years she wrote three more books of poetry, titled, “Sud Berg�, “Khud Kalamie� and “Inkar�.

“Barish Ki Nazmein� are very sentimental poems from “Sud Berg�.

On a rainy night, while posted in a far flung area of Pakistan, I was deeply touched with the enchantment of these poems.



My translations, below, are a tribute to the magic of Perveen.

A Poem of Rain
Barish mein kia tanha bhegna larki!
usay bula jis ki chahat mein
ttera tun mun bhega hai
pyar ki barish say barh kr kia barish ho gi
aur jub is barish kay baad
hijr ki pehli dhoop khilay gi
tujh per rang kay ism khulein gay

Why to soak alone in the rain, O! Girl
Beckon him in whose love
Your mind and body are drenched
There is no rain more than the rain of love
And when after this rain
The first sunshine of separation would glow
The mysteries of hues you’d know

Another poem of Rain
Peron ki mehndi mein nay
Kis mushkil say chhuraie thi
aur phir bairon khushboo ki
kaisi kaisi binti ki thi
pyari dheray bol
bhra ghar jag uthay ga
lekin jub us kay aanay ki ghari hoi
subah say aisi jhari lagi
umer mein pehli bar
barish achhi nahin lagi!

The henna on my feet
I scrubbed away so hard
And to insolent fragrance
Intensely I had begged
Dear speak lowly
Lest the full house might wake up
But when the time of his arrival came
Since morning the rain so set in
First time in my life
Rain didn’t amuse me!

Yet another poem of rain
Barish ab say pehlay bhi kai bar hoi thi
kia is bar meray rangrez nay chunri kachchi rangi thi
ya tan ka hi kehna such keh
rung to us kay honton mein tha!

It had rained often before
Did my dyer badly colored the scarf this time?
Or my torso had told the truth that
The colour was in his lips.

Naveed E. is a former civil servant, with a passion for poetry and writing.

Detroit Metro Airport Raises Long-Term Parking Pates.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News November 17, 2003 By Rajiv Vyas, Detroit Free Press Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 17–With the holiday travel boom on the horizon, Detroit Metro Airport has raised long-term parking rates at the McNamara Terminal to $11 a day. The $1 increase could generate $2.5 million more a year.

The airport has kept the daily rate at $5 for most of the Blue Deck adjacent to the Smith Terminal and at the Yellow lot near the Berry Terminal. Both are long-term. in our site detroit metro airport

The rate increase at McNamara took effect in early October, before the airport’s busy Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Northwest Airlines and 11 other carriers sent a letter to airport officials asking them to analyze and adjust parking rates to increase revenue.

Analysts said travelers are price-sensitive.

“Large as well as small corporations and individuals like me would count every cost, and parking is an important part,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of Business Travel Coalition, a lobbying group for corporate buyers of airline services.

“I have been parking at the McNamara Terminal since it opened,” said Larry Taylor, a builder who lives in Farmington Hills. “It’s working out well, but $11 is a little stiff.” Parking is big business at many airports. At Metro, it is the second-largest source of revenue, accounting for 16 percent of the budget, or $38.5 million. The biggest chunk of money, 46 percent, or $107 million, comes from the fees the airport charges airlines to land planes. go to website detroit metro airport

Airport officials are trying to increase revenues so they can reduce the landing fees for struggling airlines, which have lost a combined $20 billion since 2001. Officials already increased landing fees because of the drop in passenger traffic and increased operating costs. Airlines protested, citing their huge losses.

The last time Metro raised parking rates was May 1, 2000, when it raised the daily rate at the Blue Deck from $10 to $12. The rates were later dropped to $5 as much of the demand for parking shifted to the McNamara Terminal.

The new increase at McNamara is “part of the airport authority’s continued goal to generate as much non-airline revenue as possible to reduce costs to struggling airlines,” said airport spokesman Brian Lassaline.

Valet parking rates at the McNamara Terminal’s Westin Hotel also increased early last month from a daily maximum of $26 to $28.

When the McNamara Terminal parking deck opened in early 2002, the daily rate was $13. It was reduced six months later to $10 to draw more travelers and increase revenue.

Although the airport has increased the parking rate at its most popular lot, off-site parking lots have kept their rates about the same since July.

“The McNamara Terminal structure is high-demand, premium-convenience parking,” said airport spokesman Michael Conway.

Travelers who park at the Blue Deck or other off-site parking lots must take a shuttle to the McNamara Terminal, setting aside about 30 minutes to reach the terminal.

NWAC,

27 comments posted

Comment Pages: « 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All

  1. December 1st, 2007 3:12 pm

    Parveen shakir was, without saying, a great poetess of urdu. She inspired young generation in pakistan by her poetery that reflects deep feelings of an extra ordinary woman. She set new trends in urdu poetery and peaved a way for urdu poets and poeteses for all times to come. Infact, she brought new ideas in her poetic endeavours and thus impressed all the intellectuals of the contemprary times. Her untimely death is great loss to the urdu poetery but the asset she has left in the shape of her collections would remain evergreen like her charismatic personality. Ghulam Mustafa Solangi.

  2. atif says:
    November 27th, 2007 1:53 am

    she was greatest poet.my lover inspiar her poetry and she is started poetry for me .this credit goes to parveen shakir

  3. M.Tanveer says:
    July 11th, 2007 12:05 am

    si,Im a research scholer in jawaharlal nehru university in new delhi my topic,parween shakir ke sheri majmua’INKAR’ka tanquidi mutala.plz help me.Thank you

  4. tina says:
    July 1st, 2007 11:13 am

    From my standpoint, I think these poems must be losing a great deal in translation, or perhaps they haven”t found the right translator for English yet. Karachiwala’s favorite translated by Naim is the only one that even makes any sense. It is sweet, and a simple testament to how actions are worth more than words, but no classic.

  5. February 22nd, 2007 3:05 am

    [...] An email from a Pakistan based writer friend made me recall Parveen Shakir. The poem, Tomato Ketchup, written most probably in the memory of Sara Shagufta (the modernist Pakistani poet who committed suicide in the footsteps of Sylvia Plath). [...]

  6. Hina Zafar says:
    December 10th, 2006 1:15 am

    [quote comment="15099"]@az
    “Neither I found her poetry very attractive. ”

    Just because you din’t find her poetry very attractive doesn’t mean She can’t be a legend.
    She is a legend, does anybody know what happend to her and how she died?
    She will always be remembered as a great poet of Urdu and Pakistan.[/quote]

    Parveen Shakir captured the emotions of a young girl beautifully in “Khushboo”, her first compilation and probably her best and most honest work. That was the book which made me fall in love with poetry as a young girl. Her later compilations spoke about more than simple romanticism but were probably not as effective as it wasn’t her core strength.
    Coming back to the question, she is reported to have died in a car accident. This was the same year we lost Nusrat Fateh Ali, Lady Diana and Mother Teresa. I can still recall the shock my friends and I were in when we heard the news. And then to offer our small token of appreciation we wrote a per on her life and poetry with translation as part of our degree assignment. Like any sensitive soul, I think life’s cruelty seeped too deep into her soul and too soon.

  7. Baber says:
    December 8th, 2006 1:04 pm

    @az
    “Neither I found her poetry very attractive. ”

    Just because you din’t find her poetry very attractive doesn’t mean She can’t be a legend.
    She is a legend, does anybody know what happend to her and how she died?
    She will always be remembered as a great poet of Urdu and Pakistan.

  8. az says:
    November 26th, 2006 11:23 am

    Sorry but I don’t think that Perveen Shakir is a legend. Neither I found her poetry very attractive.

Comment Pages: « 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All



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