Noshi Gilani

Noshi Gilani Poems

Noshi Gilani Biography

Noshi Gilani (Urdu: نوشی گیلانی ) (born in 1964 in Bahawalpur, Pakistan) is an Urdu poet of international fame and a former academic from the Bahawalpur University, Punjab, Pakistan. She is one of the leading Urdu poets in Pakistan and has successfully published five collections of poetry. In 2008, her poetry was translated into English and her poems were read in the UK, with the Poetry Translation Centre's World Poets' Tour. She hosted a tribute to folk singer Pathanay Khan, sponsored by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). Personal Life Noshi Gilani settled in San Francisco USA in 1995 but after her marriage to Saeed Khan she decided to move to Australia. She married Saeed Khan, an Australian-based Urdu poet on 25 October 2008 and they currectly reside in Sydney Australia. It was reported by her mother Mrs. Sarwar Gilani Sahiba, a professor of Urdu and Persian languages and literature, died in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Works The candour and frankness of her highly-charged poems is unusual for a woman writing in Urdu and she has gained a committed international audience, performing regularly at large poetry gatherings in Pakistan, Australia, Canada and the US. Unknown outside the Pakistani community, the translations here mark her introduction to an English-speaking audience. She is a member of younger generation of female poets. Her experience of living in US shows a notable impact on her significant number of poems. Living through Diaspora has increased the complexity of her poems and reinforced her sense of female identity and introduced a new revolution against restraint creative writers in Pakistani society.)

The Best Poem Of Noshi Gilani

The Wind, Too, Can Change Direction

Do you know?
The wind, too, can change direction
The birds might leave their nests at dawn
And forget to find their way back
Sometimes in spring the tree branches out
Before autumn the leaves separate
Like the paths my life takes
Blown this way and that like dust
The strange smile taking shape on your lips
Says 'So, what's new?'
Of everything in the story, you are new
Do you know?
But how could you know this?
Your encampment of love and faith
Could blow away like dust
The wind, too, can change direction.

[Translated by Nukhbah Langah and Lavinia Greenlaw]

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