Faiz Ahmed Faiz is one of the most celebrated writers and poets of Urdu language. Born in 1911, Faiz came from a family of academics and not only contributed greatly to the literature, at the time, but to politics as well. He met his wife Alys when he was teaching poetry at the Government College University, while Alys, a British national, was a student there.
The two got married in Srinagar and ended up having two daughters, namely Salima and Moneeza Hashmi.
The poet was very much in love with his wife Alys. And it was bound to show up in his work. In fact, we stumbled upon this wonderful post by Brown Verses, that talks about a poem that Faiz wrote for Alys’ birthday, while he was in prison, for the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case.
The poem is called Tumhare Husn Ke Naam, and Faiz wrote it because unfortunately, he couldn’t buy her a present at the time. In an old video, their daughter Salima Hashmi recalled the incident, and shared that Faiz had fondly explained meaning of every line in the poem to Alys and asked her to sell it to buy herself a birthday present.
The poem was ultimately published in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry collection Dast-e-Saba, in 1954. It consists of some of the other verses he wrote while he was in prison.
You can watch the clip of his daughter Salima Hashmi speaking about this endearing incident in a post by Brown Verses.
How beautiful is this!