Forum Pakistan

Faiz, Faiz Ahmad (1911-84)
Poet. Born in Sialkot, Faiz was an *Urdu poet, arguably one of the greatest of his time. He was also a journalist, critic and public figure. He attended various colleges in Lahore and lectured and wrote for the press. Faiz was editor-inchief of the literary journal Adab-i-Latif(1938-41) and the newspapers Pakistan Times and Imroze. He was Famous Poet, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, repeatedly arrested (1951-55, 1958) for his left wing opinions and activities. Faiz was a member of the World Peace Council and one of the leaders of the Movement of Afro-Asian Writers. He chaired the Arts Council under the first PPP administration and published the political and literary journal, Lail-oNahar ('Days and Nights').

After 1977 he lived in exile in Lebanon for a few years, before accepting the position of editor-in-chief of the magazine Lotus in 1979. From 1935 he was a member of a Communist study group. His early poems of 1927-35, which made up the first part of his collection Naqsh-i-Faryadi ('The Features of the Supplicant'), 1941, are written in a semi traditional manner and reflect Faiz's romantic nature. His collections Dast-i-Saba ('The Hands of the Wind'), 1952, and Zindan Nama (,Prison Verse'), 1956, intensified the revolutionary sentiments in *Urdu literature, widening the gap between progressive writers and followers of traditional literature. The theme of national and spiritual liberation occupies an important place in Faiz's work, e.g., Mere Dil Mere Musafir ('My Heart My Wanderer'), 1982. The poetry of his later years is marked by reflections about the fate of man: