Perveen Shakir Poetry

After the recitation of two of the most significative short stories of Manto, it is now the time to introduce two other important Pakistanis writers: Mazhar ul Islam and Perveen Shakir. Both these writers were born after the foundationof Pakistan and, then, their existential experience is, from this point of view, quite different from that one of Manto. In Manto’s short stories, in fact, the tragedy of human life and the violence of History against the individuals are described in crude and realistic terms of great emotional impact. Perveen Shakir was born on 24 November 1952 in Karachi from a middle class family originarly from Bihar. Since her youth she showed a deep love for poetry and a precocious talent. Her first poems have been written in 1964 under the suggestion of one of her school teachers: Irfana Aziz. Her talent became immediately manifest and has been recognized with several literally prices, the first of all has been received in 1970, when she was only 18 years old. Even when the first collection of poems has been published only 7 years later, in 1977, under the title Kushboo (Fragrance), the public has got the chance to appreciate her poems through the recitation in the mushairas and at the Radio. The mushairas are a very ancient cultural institution, started in India at the time of Moghul, and now widely developed and cultivated in Pakistan. The mushaira can be definite a literary circle where a poet, in front of a well chosen public of other artists very well versed and skilled in the art of poetry, recite his-her poems which are discussed, commented and approved verse after verse. Perveen Shakir, since she was very young, used to recite her poems in the mushairas of Karachi, receiving words of appreciations and encouragement from poets much more older than her.Perveen Shakir personality is well reflected in her poetry. Her strong and intense character became manifest since the adolescence. A friend describes the young poetess as follows: “During these days of adolescence, Perveen developed into a self contained person, different from her family surroundings, somehow standing out on her own. She had a pride and certain pose, never accepted any favours from friends, creating a certain aura around her”

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