Shakila Azizzada was born in Kabul in Afghanistan in 1964. During her middle school and university years in Kabul, she started writing stories and poems, many of which were published in magazines. Her poems are unusual in their frankness and delicacy, particularly in the way she approaches intimacy and female desire, subjects which are rarely […]
Professor Obaidullah Darwesh Durrani, commonly knows as Darwesh Durrani in the literary world, is one of the most famous contemporary Pashto poets. His family is originally from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan; they later settled in Quetta, Pakistan. He has a Masters degree in English literature, a subject he teaches to college students in Quetta. He […]
Mohammad Bagher Kolahi Ahari was born in 1950 in Mashhad, Khorasan. His first collection Above the Four Elements was published in 1977. He published six more collections of poetry. Kolahi has developed his distinct voice inspired by lyrical and elegiac traditions of Persian poetry combined with his story-telling talent. Many of Kolahi’s poems contain a […]
Abdul Bari Jahani is considered to be one of the most famous contemporary poets of Pashto language. He was born in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, in 1948 and got his BA degree from Kabul University’s Faculty of Literature in 1972. He was the editor of Kabul magazine. Two years before the Soviet invasion he was appointed […]
Mujib Mehrdad is an established poet of the younger generation who writes free verse and is highly respected both as a poet and as a scholar. You can foillow him on twitter here.
The poet, Rahmat Shah Sayel, is also a political activist campaigning through his poetry for the rights of his fellow Pashtoons. Pashtoons (Pakhtoons/Pakhtuns), also known as Afghans, Pathans, are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second biggest in Pakistan. He was born in the Dargai village of Wartier in Malakand Agency, Pakistan. At […]
Translator Hamid Kabir writes how the commission to co-translate Reza Mohammadi’s poems was an entirely new experience for him and how it enriched his appreciation both of poetry in Persian and his knowledge of English.
Nick Laird describes stages he went through translating Reza Mohammadi’s poems – from unsuccessful early drafts through a transformative experience of hearing Reza read – that led to the ‘weird pleasure’ of translating: ‘like opening your mouth and finding someone else’s voice come out’.
Poet Mimi Khalvati describes how much she enjoyed the experience of translating Afghan poet, Shakila Azzizada with Zuzanna Olszewska, a process she found much easier having translated Kurdish poet, Kajal Ahmad, with us in 2008.
Zuzanna Olszewska writes about the challenges and pleasures of translating Afghan poet, Shakila Azizzada, with Mimi Khalvati for the PTC’s Persian Poets’ Tour 2012