Selected Poetry of Kishwar Naheed

Selected Poetry of Kishwar Naheed” is a book comprising of Kishwar’s poetic work. Covering diverse and unique themes Kishwar does a good job of presenting life, not only the life from different angles. From religious poems to love poems, she has not neglected any theme and not did she write about them, she did an outstanding job of using words in a perfect manner.
The book consists of her Urdu and English translated version of the poems in a parallel order so the poem can be read in both languages back to back which made it much easier to compare.
You should definitely give this book a try especially if you love Urdu / English poetry because whichever theme you like reading about Kishwar has got it all covered in this book. If you can read Urdu I would suggest reading the Urdu version of the poems because they have a greater impact, I’m personally an English reader so when I got this book I was only intending to read the translated poems but the Urdu poems have much more soul and depth into them which got me appreciating Urdu ghazals and poems.
In case I have still havenot convinced you to read her poetry, here’s a sneak peak of one of my favorite poems from the book, called “Belief”;

When you are with me,
The breeze does not ask for my name,
The rain hugs me
And the river wants to embrace me,
Birds chirp inside me
And sea shells
Look like my womb.
I feel
That in my weak moments
God loves me more than usual.

Fatima Ayyub