The Gandhara Hindko Academy has translated the selected works of the Hindko language poets into Urdu. Ali Awais Khyal, a young research associate at the academy, has rendered the translation. The 111-page book has been named "Chiragh-e-Sukhan. The six poets whose Hindko language "Harfis" (couplets) have been translated are Raza Hamdani, Ghulam Rasool Ghail, Agha Muhammad Josh, Abdur Rasheed Taj, Khwaja Muhammad Yaqoob Akhtar and Syed Saeed Gilani.
In the preface to the publication, the author says he undertook the translation project after encouraged by a noted Hindko writer, poet and research scholar, Muhammad Ziauddin who wanted the Hindko poetry translated into poetic Urdu to take the language to a wider readership.
Director of Gandhara Hindko Academy, Dr Zaffar Iqbal has termed the poeticized translation an achievement of the young writer. He believes translating Hindko into Urdu and other Pakistani languages will expand the various dimensions of the language. Eminent research scholar, Muhammad Ziauddin, in the foreword to the book, says the Hindko language poetry thrived in the past.