Asad Zaidi

Asad Zaidi (Hindi: असद ज़ैदी; born 31 August 1954)[1] is an Indian poet, editor, translator, and publisher. He has been a noted Hindi poet since the early 1980s.[2][3][4][5]

Biography and works

Zaidi was born in Karauli, Rajasthan.[6] He first came to Delhi in 1974, where he has lived mostly ever since.[7] From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, he attended the Jawaharlal Nehru University.[8][9] Zaidi is married to the historian Nalini Taneja.[10]

Reception of poetry

Zaidi's first collection of poems Behne aur Anya Kavitaein (1980) established him as 'a distinctive voice in contemporary Hindi poetry' early on.[11] In 1981, Zaidi was awarded the Sanskriti Award in recognition of his contributions to Hindi literature.[12][13][14] In 1993, Chaman Lal counted Zaidi among the third of the four generations of poets who were at that time actively composing in Hindi.[15] Zaidi's poetic anthology Saman ki talash (2008) received much critical acclaim.[16][17] Commenting on this book, Manglesh Dabral, noted poet and an old friend of Zaidi,[18] wrote, "The rise of communal fascism in our politics and the communalization of the society is the main poetic concern of Asad Zaidi as a citizen. There are many unique poems on this decline of the society in this collection. For this, Asad sometimes comments on the politics of Hindi, sometimes evokes the memory of the fading classical-philosophical voice of a great singer like Amir Khan, and the language in which he does this is a new movement between Hindi-Urdu, an example of a new unity and a concerted effort to enrich our poetic language."[16] In 2018, Aftab Hussain wrote of Zaidi in The News as 'a powerful exception' to the general absence of Muslims in the Hindi literature that came after the Partition of India in 1947.[5] In 2022, Tarun Bhartiya wrote of Zaidi in Outlook magazine: "Asad Zaidi’s poetic voice has remained at an angular relationship to the Hindi (Hindu, Hindustan) literary world. Having written some of the landmark and prophetic Hindi poems of the last half a century, Zaidi continues to be a difficult poetic phenomenon for Hindi."[19]

Besides in his own books, Zaidi's poems appear in edited anthologies including Sharma (2019)[3] and Stewart (2020).[20]

Other works

At Delhi, Zaidi runs the Three Essays Collective, an independent publishing house.[6][21] There, he is also the editor of Jalsa, an annual literary anthology of new writings and translations in Hindi.[22] Zaidi is proficient in Hindi, Urdu, and English. He has translated many works of European, Latin American, and Chinese poets from English into Hindi and Urdu.[23] He has also translated works of Urdu poetry into Hindi, and of Hindi poetry into English.[24][25] Besides, Zaidi is known as a literary critic.[26][27]

Selected bibliography

As author
  • Behne aur Anya Kavitaein (1980, in Hindi)
  • Kavita ka Jeevan (1988, in Hindi)
  • Saman ki Talash: Kavitaein 1989-2007 (2008, in Hindi)
  • Sare Shaam: Asad Zaidi ke Teen Kavita Sangreh (2014, in Hindi - a volume assimilating the three books above)

As editor
  • Raghuveer Sahay (Vishnu Nagar and Asad Zaidi (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
  • Apni Zabaan: Sampradayikta Virodhi Kavitaon ka Sangreh (Vishnu Nagar and Asad Zaidi (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
  • Aaj ka Paath: Samkaaleen Hindi Kahani ka Ek Chayan (Asad Zaidi and Vishnu Nagar (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
  • Yah Aisa Samay Hai: Samkaaleen Hindi Kavita ka Ek Chayan (Asad Zaidi and Vishnu Nagar (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
  • Das Baras: Hindi Kavita Ayodhya ke Baad (Asad Zaidi (ed.), 2003, in Hindi)

References
  1. "असद ज़ैदी की प्रसिद्ध कृतियॉं : Pothi.org". pothi.org. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  2. Dhar, Pranjal (2020). "Contemporary Hindi Poetry in India". www.goethe.de.
  3. Khosla, Navjot (2020). "Maps of the Impossible: Six Contemporary Hindi Poets – Readings and Translations by Rajesh Sharma:: Autumn Art, 2019, Hardcover, ₹ 400, Paperback, ₹ 325". Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry. 7 (1): 156–159. ISSN 2349-8064.
  4. Rao, D. S. (2004). Five Decades: The National Academy of Letters, India : a Short History of Sahitya Akademi. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-2060-7.
  5. Hussain, Aftab. "Romance of Urdu in India | Literati | thenews.com.pk". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  6. "Asad Zaidi, Author at RAIOT". RAIOT. Archived from the original on 2023-07-21. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  7. "The city that chose to forget". The Indian Express. 2015-01-14. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  8. Shubra (2014). "An interview with Sohail Hashmi, Documentary Filmmaker" (PDF). JNU News: Bimonthly Journal of Jawaharlal Nehru University (5): 18.
  9. Social Scientist. New Delhi: Indian School of Social Sciences. 1984. p. 72.
  10. Naqvi, Jawed (2011-12-01). "Don't blame the Hindus". dawn.com. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  11. "Samanvay Indian Languages Festival". www.ilfsamanvay.org. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  12. "Recipients of Sanskriti Awards (1979-2011) - Literature" (PDF).
  13. "The Sanskriti Awards for 1981". India Today. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  14. "The Sanskriti Awards for 1981". googlebooks/books/edition/India_Today. 1981.
  15. Lal, Chaman (1993). "Trends in Contemporary Hindi Poetry : An Overview". Indian Literature. 36 (1 (153)): 141–145. ISSN 0019-5804.
  16. "Asad Zaidi's poems that created a stir in the world of Hindi literature". hindustannewshub.com. June 17, 2023.
  17. "असद ज़ैदी की वो कविताएं जिन्होंने हिंदी साहित्य की दुनिया में हलचल मचा दी". News18 हिंदी (in Hindi). 2023-06-17. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  18. "Hindi poet-journalist Manglesh Dabral dies". The Indian Express. 2020-12-10. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  19. Bhartiya, Tarun (June 4, 2022). "Discursive Ruminations: Three Poems By Asad Zaidi". Outlook.
  20. Stewart, Frank (2020-01-31). Displaced Lives: Fiction, Poetry, Memoirs, and Plays from Four Continents. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-8641-7.
  21. "Asad Zaidi". www.catchnews.com. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  22. "Jalsa – Three Essays Collective". Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  23. Dharmarajan, Geeta; Sharma, Meenakshi (1998). Katha Prize Stories: Volume 7. Katha. ISBN 978-81-85586-74-8.
  24. "hasrat mohani". Rekhta. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  25. Mukim, Mantra. "How Kedarnath Singh, Vinod Kumar Shukla and Mangalesh Dabral defy established movements in Hindi poetry". The Caravan. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  26. Trivedi, Harish (2012). "Manto, God, Premchand and Some Other Storytellers" (PDF). Social Scientist. 40 (11/12): 72.
  27. "Meet the author - Uday Prakash" (PDF). sahitya-akademi.gov.in. August 8, 2007.
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