The 26th death anniversary of renowned and legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz was observed nation-wide on Saturday. Tributes were paid to him by radio stations and news channels for his poetic works. Faiz was a poet as well as a journalist, who combined in his poetry the themes of love, beauty, and political ideals into a vision of a better world and goodness.
"Faiz is a "committed" poet who regards poetry as a vehicle of serious thought, and not a mere pleasurable pastime. He does not accept the maxim of "art for art's sake," a news channel reported. An admirer of Karl Marx and a poet of the people, Faiz was honoured by Soviet Union with the prestigious Lenin Award for Peace and his poems have been translated into the Russian language. His poetical collections include Naqsh-e- Faryadi (1943), Dast-e-Saba (1952), Zindan-Nama (1956) Dast-e-Tah-e-Sang (1965) and Nuska-Haye-Wafa.
Faiz's first language was Punjabi but he gained fame with his poems written in Urdu, a language similar to Arabic. Due to his opposition to the government and military dictators, Faiz spent several years in prison and was forced to go into exile at different times in his career. Next to Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Faiz is one of the best-known poets of Pakistan.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in Sialkot. His family were well-to-do landowners. Faiz's father was a prominent lawyer, who was interested in literature, and whose friends included several prominent literary figures, including Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938), the national poet of Pakistan. Faiz received his education at mission schools in Sialkot in the English language, but he also learned Urdu, Persian, and Arabic.
Faiz wrote first poems at school. He studied English and Arabic literatures at Government College, Lahore, receiving in 1932 his M.A. in English, and in Arabic from Oriental College, Lahore. Besides formal studies, very important for Faiz's development was participating in the activities of literary circles, which gathered at homes of established writers. After graduating he worked as a teacher from the mid-1930s in Amritsar and Lahore. Faiz became editor of the leftist English-language daily, the Pakistan Times. He also worked as managing editor of the Urdu daily Imroz, and was actively involved in organising trade unions. In 1951, Faiz and a number of army officers were implicated in the so-called Rawalpindi Conspiracy case and arrested under Safety Act.