Renowned Urdu poet and former Indian Forest Service officer Syed Ahmed Esar passed away on Wednesday in Bengaluru. He was 98. Esar dedicated his life to translating the works of canonical Persian poets into Urdu. Among his significant contributions are the translation of Rumi’s Masnawi and Iqbal’s 7-volume Payam-e-Mashriq (Message from the East).
Esar resided in an ancient house in Sher Khan Galli, near Avenue Road in Bengaluru, since 1948.
As a child, he would read the poetry of medieval Persian poets like Omar Khayyam, Shams Tabrez, Saadi, and Rumi. While in middle school, Esar was introduced to the work of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, and immediately developed a great admiration for his work.
While working with the Forest Department, he translated his first Persian verse into Urdu- the 70th quatrain from the Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam.
He finished the translation of 772 quatrains of Omar Khayyam and later began translating the works of Saadi and Hafez.
His first translation of Iqbal’s work, titled Payam-e-Mashriq (A Message from the East), was published in 1997 while the remaining volumes were published subsequently. These include Asrar-e-Khudi, Rubooz-e-Bekhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Javednama (Book of Javed), Zuboor-e-Ajm (Persian Psalms), PasChih Bayad Kard (What Should Then be Done?), and Armaghan-i-Hijaz (The Gift from the Hijaz).
The Karnataka government presented him with the Rajyotsava Award in 2016, which is the second-highest civilian honour in the State. He is also a recipient of the Hafeez Merathi Award by Idara Adab-e-Islami Karnataka and Goa zone. He has been honoured several times by the Karnataka Urdu Academy and a few of his books have received awards from the Urdu academies of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
