Colours of My Heart, The

Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1912–1984) was one of the most exemplary poets of the Indian subcontinent. His poetic voice, full of revolutionary fervour and also revolutionary melancholy, tugged at the heart of the Urdu reader particularly because he filled his poetry with words used mostly in pre-modern ghazals which have a resonance of their own. Faiz was able to convey the message of revolution without compromising the delicate subtlety of Urdu literary vocabulary. He published eight volumes of poetry in his lifetime. His popularity remains undiminished even now. Baran Farooqi is a distinguished translator into English from Urdu. Among her important published translations are the well-known short-story collection Baad-e Saba ka Intezar by Syed Muhammad Ashraf and many critical writings of the great Urdu critic Muhammad Hasan Askari. She has also written about and translated some of the leading woman modern Urdu poets. She is a professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.