Urdu poet

Iftikhar Hussain Arif (Urdu: افتخار حسین عارف; born 21 March 1944), is an Urdu poet, scholar and littérateur from Pakistan. His style is romantic Urdu poetry. He has headed the Pakistan Academy of Letters and the National Language Authority. He has received the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Presidential Pride of Performance awards, which are the highest literary awards given by the Government of Pakistan.

Contents

• 1 Career
• 2 Achievements
• 3 Awards
• 4 Books and publications
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Career

He studied Urdu, English and Sanskrit. Iftikhar Arif did his M.A. in 1965 - at the Lucknow university, then studied journalism at New York University, before migrating to Karachi, Pakistan and working for Radio Pakistan as a newscaster and then went on to work for Pakistan Television Corporation (Karachi Center) where he teamed up with Obaidullah Baig for the PTV program Kasauti.

After doing Kasauti, he spent next 13 years of his life in England until 1990 working for Urdu Markaz there.

Achievements

A couplet by Iftikhar Arif}

Iftikhar Arif is an Urdu poet. Three collections of his poetry, Mehr-i-Doneem (1984), Harf-i-Baryab (1994) and Jahan-e-Maloom have been published.

Oxford University Press has published an anthology of Arif's translated poetry under the *le, Written in the Season of Fear. The introduction was written by Harris Khalique, a poet who writes in English, Urdu and Punjabi.

Awards

• Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence) Award by the President of Pakistan (2005)
• Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Award by the President of Pakistan (1999)
• Pride of Performance (literature) by the President of Pakistan (1990)
• Faiz International Award for Poetry from the Aalami Urdu Conference

Books and publications

• Mehr-i-Doneem (1984)
• Harf-i-Baryab (1994)
• Jahan-e-Maloom (2005)
• Shehr-e-Ilm ke derwazay per (2006)
• Written in the Season of Fear (English translation)
• The Twelfth Man (translation of Barhwan Khilari by Brenda Walker, 1989)
• Kitab-e-Dil-o-Dunya (2009)
• Modern Poetry of Pakistan (2011)

References

External links

• Iftikhar Arif expressing his views on today's poetry. and then reciting some of his poetry. 29/04/2011