Two obits on consecutive days, a sadness. This one, for the great Pakistani poet Faraz, via the New York Times. You can watch more Ahmed Faraz videos on YouTube.

Ahmed Faraz, Outspoken Urdu Poet, Dies at 77

By HARESH PANDYA

The revolutionary Pakistani poet Ahmed Faraz, whose name is synonymous in South Asia with modern Urdu poetry, died Aug. 25 in Islamabad. He was 77.

The cause was kidney failure, said his son Shibli Faraz.

He was earlier reported to have died while being treated in a Chicago hospital after a fall in Baltimore, but he returned to his homeland, where he died.

Popular among both the cognoscenti and the general public, he was one of the few poets from the subcontinent whose verses were read as well as sung. He was in great demand at the mushaira, social gatherings — usually after dusk — at which Urdu poets recite their poems.

Often compared to legends of the past like Mohammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mr. Faraz was as popular in India as he was in his own country.

He enjoyed a near cult status in the pantheon of revolutionary poets. In India and other countries outside Pakistan, he was best known for his ghazals — poems expressing the writer’s feelings, especially about love — which were popularized by leading singers like Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hasan, Runa Laila and Jagjit Singh.

Read on, here.

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