Defiance of the Rose

Without a doubt, Perveen Shakir is one of the best-loved poets of the Urdu-speaking world. This long-awaited translation makes her work accessible to a more diverse audience. Rendered into English with the steady hand of a poet, these translations capture the resonance and flow of the originals. Both for the reader who knows Perveen Shakir as well as the one who does not, the poems in this volume offer a glimpse into the full breadth of her work. Between the chilling piece that opens the collection, and the troubling finale, many poems here will surprise even those who are already familiar with her work in Urdu.