Description:
When Sleep Journeys first appeared in 1981, it took the Urdu poetry world by storm. Now considered one of the finest contemporary Urdu poets, Azra Abbas was among the first to embrace experimental, free verse poetry. A single book-length poem, divided into three cantos, Sleep Journeys is a dreamlike rumination that explores faith, female desire, and the subconscious mind. Abbas's language is simple and austere, the complexity of the work emerging through repetition, interweaving, and juxtaposition. The result is a gossamer thread that leads the reader through a labyrinth of metaphor, imagery, and awe.
Award-winning translator Daisy Rockwell expertly captures the rhythm and flow of the original. The result is a book that ushers us into a state between sleeping and waking, the world of hidden thoughts and desires. This edition brings one of the most celebrated Urdu poems of the latter twentieth century to a broader, worldwide readership.
Brief description:
Azra Abbas was born in 1950 in Kanpur, India, and emigrated to Karachi, Pakistan, as a child. She burst onto the contemporary Urdu poetry scene in 1981 with the publication of her book-length prose poem Sleep Journeys (nind ki musaafaten). Writing prose poetry was a daring choice at the time and her debut work was a fresh approach, heralding a new beginning in Urdu poetry. Azra's voice is undeniably the rawest within the Urdu feminist canon. Her unpretentious use of language and her effortless boldness make her poems startling, yet the depth of thought beneath the surface leaves the reader in a reflective mood. Azra has written seven collections of poetry, two memoirs, a collection of short stories, and a novel. She lives in Karachi and, after recovering from a long illness, continues to write poetry and compose a new novel.
Review Quotes: "A work of rapturous imagination. On every page, Abbas took my breath away with her astonishingly vibrant images, which Rockwell re-creates with riveting immediacy in her stunning translation. What a joy to read a translation in which the translator and poet are so well matched in their talent and inventiveness."--Idra Novey, judge, Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation