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Sunday, August 04, 2013
‘Literature a reflection of collective mind of nation’Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Literature is a reflection of collective mind of any nation, said Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) Chairman Abdul Hameed during a briefing on the occasion of publication of 98th issue of quarterly Adbiyat.
PAL has recently brought out quarterly Adbiyat in which besides creative writings of the distinctive writers and poets, young writers, women and writers form Balochistan have been provided an opportunity to get their literary attempts published.
Abdul Hameed said that changes among nations occur with the advent of time and literature is the best medium to interpret these changes. It inculcates changes in our lives imperceptibility. “After reading a masterpiece of literature, apparently we remain the same but we are inwardly changed and this is the fundamental function of literature,” he added.
He said that our beautiful motherland is a multilingual country and most of Pakistani languages pertain to different regions. But one thing that puts them in order on the same string is the literature written in these languages, which is the true mirror image of collective mind of Pakistani nation.
It is the need of time that literature in Pakistani languages get translated in Urdu, English and other international languages as much as possible, so that literature of these languages can be introduced internationally. PAL is already making its efforts, he said.
He said that is has been the pivot objective of PAL that besides original creative works, translations of Pakistani languages be also given due importance. In this quarterly several translations of Pakistani languages have been included. It represents writers from all over the country, as their pieces have been included in the form of literary genres as Hamd, Naat, fiction, ghazals, poem, criticism and autobiography.
The prominent contributors are Khalida Hussain, Zaitoon Bano, Salma Awan, Anwar Zahidi, Noorul Huda Shah, Muhammad Hameed Shahid, Altaf Feroze, Shahid Jamil Ahmed, Abid Mir, Zafar Iqbal, Aslam Ansari, Sarwar Kamran, Nusrat Siddiqui, Anwaar Feroze, Yusuf Hassan, Suraj Narain, Baqi Ahmed Puri, Aftab Iqbal Shamim, Amjad Islam Amjad, Ahmed Sagheer Siddqui, Shahid Hassan, Dr Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, Dr Saleem Akhter, Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik, Parto Rohila, Dr Shaheen Mufti, DrAlsam Farrukhi and Agha Nasir.
Among translations form Pakistani languages Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraiki, Brahvi, Hindko, Potohari and Shena, the works of Sheikh Ayaz, Adal Somro, Ishaq Samejo, Dr Muhammad Azam Smore, Khalid Farhad Dhariwal, Parveen Malik, Ajmal Khattak, Ghani Parwaz, Mehmood Ayaz, Razzaq Nadir, Hafeez Khan, Afzal Murad, Ahmed Hassan Mujahid, Ali Adalat, Abdul Ghafoor Chilasi have been included in the quarterly Adbiyat. A selection from world’s literature has also been included in this collection. This quarterly Adbiyat has been embellished with the masterpieces (paintings) of Chitra Pritam.
Managing Editor of Adbiyat is Zaheerud Din Malik, Editor-in-chief is Nighat Saleem, Editor and Assistant Editor are Muhammad Asim Butt and Akhtar Raza Saleemi, respectively. The Adbiyat consists of 320 pages.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk