First Urdu Review of My Book

M. Salimur Rahman just wrote the first printed Urdu-language review of my book, I Too Have Some Dreams. His article is entitled امریکہ میں ن م راشد کے خوابوں کی بازگش (The Return of N M Rashed's Dreams in America) and appeared in the Lahore-based weeky Hum Shehri. Salim Sahab is a respected poet, critic, and translator. His review, on the whole, was generous and, for the most part, positive. He calls attention to both the form of the book as well as aspects of the argument.

Salim Sahab also states quite correctly that I do not address all of Rashed's poetry but rather focus on thirty poems. Rashed's poetry is quite rich, and there is a lot more to be said about it by others. There are a few aspects of Rashed's poetry I may still want to write about in the future. I am especially interested in his experience and descriptions of New York in the 1950s, for example. I also hope to write or show more about Rashed's uses of sound in comparison to other modern and classical poets. In the process of writing the book I also cut out quite a lot. I may post some of those excerpts here in my blog.

Salim Sahab noted that I mistransliterated the name of Mughni Tabbasum as Mughanni Tabbasum in my book. I say Mughni when I speak, so I am not sure what happened there. I have created a list of errata and added those instances to it—all eighteen of them! There are some other minor (so far!) errors in the book that I have noted, and I am sure there will be more. There may be a revised edition in the future, so I hope readers will let me know if they see anything else.

I do hope my book can be released in India and Pakistan in a revised (and less expensive!) form. I would also be happy if it were one day translated into Urdu and Hindi as well.