Urdu, one of the major languages of South Asia cutting across political boundaries, has a wide and varied literature, and its poetry especially is known and loved even by many who do not speak it as their mother-tongue.

This anthology presents a selection of Urdu verse in English translation chosen from the work of poets who lived between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. The poems, loosely grouped under a number of thematic headings, provide a fair representation of the subjects which have attracted Urdu poets, and their different styles, over a period of four centuries.

Devanagari (as the Indian script most widely used) transliteration on facing pages gives convenient access to the flavour of the original poems. An Introduction provides an elegant and lively account of the origin, nature and milieu of Urdu, and the principal periods of its literature, together with the genres of Urdu poetry and a note on versification.

There is an Appendix with short bibliographical notes on the poets and a brief explanation of Urdu proper names which can prove confusing to those unacquainted with the cultural background. For lovers of Urdu poetry and others seeking an acquaintance with its rich heritage, this is the ideal recipe.