Afzal Ahmed Syed (çÃÂöçàçÃÂàï óÃÂï) is a contemporary Urdu poet and translator, known for his mastery of both classical and modern Urdu poetic expression.
Born in Ghazipur, India, in 1946, Afzal Ahmed Syed has lived since 1976 in Karachi, Pakistan, where he worked as an entomologist until his retirement in 2005. He is the author of the modern nazm collections ÃÂþÃÂÃÂàÃÂÃÂæ êçñÃÂî (An Arrogated Past, 1984), ïàòèçÃÂÃÂú àÃÂú óòçààÃÂê (Death Sentence in Two Languages, 1990), and ñÃÂéÃÂéàçÃÂñ ïÃÂóñàïÃÂÃÂçæÃÂú (Rococo and Other Worlds, 2000). Another collection of classical ghazals is titled îÃÂàÃÂàóÃÂçà(The Dark Pavilion, 1988).
Syed's poetry was anthologized in An Evening of Caged Beasts: Seven Postmodernist Urdu Poets (New York: OUP, 1999). The Wesleyan University Press Poetry Series has published a selection of Syed's poetry in translation, titled Rococo and Other Worlds in 2010, which features poetry from his three Urdu nazm collections.
Syed has translated a wide and important body of works by contemporary poets, playwrights and novelists. He was one of the first Urdu translators of Gabriel GarcÃÂa Márquez and Jean Genet. His work has been widely published in leading Urdu literary periodicals such as Shabkhoon, Aaj, and Dunyazad. He currently teaches at Habib University.
Miroslav Holub (Czech), Yehuda Amichai (Hebrew), Dunya Mikhail (Arabic), Tadeusz Borowski (Polish), Zbigniew Herbert (Polish), Jan Prokop (Polish), Tadeusz Rozewicz (Polish), Wisà Âawa Szymborska (Polish), Aleksander Wat (Polish), Marin Sorescu (Romanian), Osip Mandelstam (Russian), Orhan Veli (Turkish)
Gabriel GarcÃÂa Márquez, Chronicle of A Death Foretold.
Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Between Clay and Dust
Jean Genet, The Maids. Goran Stefanovski, Sarajevo: Tales from a City