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The Ramazan Libation
by Alamgir Hashmi
Introduced by John Kinsella
Part of our Arc International Poets series
This distinctive and memorable volume of selected poems by Alamgir Hashmi draws on seven original books of his poetry published since 1976, and represents the most comprehensive selection of his work to appear in the UK to date.
Lyrical, compassionate and personal on the one hand, ironical, political and wryly humorous on the other, these poems take us to America and Europe as well as through the rich, vibrant countryside and cities of Pakistan.
Love poems, and poems about family and domestic life are juxtaposed with acerbic comment on oppressive regimes, in Pakistan and elsewhere, and shining though everything is an understated wisdom and erudition, and a vivid evocation of the natural world.
The late Ted Hughes described Hashmi's poems as a delight — sinuous and assured, serious with a light touch, full of character, surprise, authenticity
.
The Ramazan Libation looks both to the East and the West and in so doing, establishes its unique position in English-language poetry, unusual, beautiful and enduring.
...a wide variety of subjects and a lively approach, which often creates surprises.
...humorous, wise, ironic, highly sophisticated yet with a surface lucidity. The poems can pose seductively as narratives.... discursive, imagistic, presenting a layered complexity, rather than a movement through time.
Hashmi is now widely recognised as Pakistan's premier English-language poet and a major literary voice from Asia.
Paperback
132 pages
ISBN 1 900072 10 6
Published October 2003
