When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded MPT in 1965 they had two principal ambitions: to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain into a wider circulation in English and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. They published poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world. For more than 40 years MPT has continued and widened that founding intent.
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When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded MPT in 1965 they had two principal ambitions: to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain into a wider circulation in English and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. They published poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world. For more than 40 years MPT has continued and widened that founding intent.
Kafi : Sanwal Gurmani, translated from Saraiki by Mediah Ahmed
Modern Poetry in Translation
2 minutes 27 seconds
1 month ago
Kafi : Sanwal Gurmani, translated from Saraiki by Mediah Ahmed
Kafi: Sanwal Gurmani, translated from Saraiki by Mediah Ahmed, introduced and read by Mediah Ahmed, and the original poet Sanwal Gurmani
Published in MPT Rhythms of the Land: Focus on the Poetry of Nature
This Kafi by Sanwal Gurmani pulses with the rhythms of love, land, and longing. Set against the backdrop of nature—the forest, the deer, the red earth—it weaves the emotional terrain of human connection into the physical landscape. The forest’s anxiety for its fawn mirrors our own vulnerabilities, while the path of love becomes a metaphorical journey across the land. The naghaaraa of love, traditionally used in communal celebrations and declarations, is reimagined here as an instrument of peace—resolving wars through rhythm and resonance. In a world increasingly marked by conflict, this poem calls us back to tenderness, rootedness, and reconciliation—the true rhythms of the land and heart alike.
Modern Poetry in Translation
When Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort founded MPT in 1965 they had two principal ambitions: to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain into a wider circulation in English and to benefit writers and the reading public in Britain and America by confronting them with good work from abroad. They published poetry that dealt truthfully with the real contemporary world. For more than 40 years MPT has continued and widened that founding intent.
