Aankhein or Eyes, Eyes, Eyes

Our eyes were carved from our tears.

We wrestled with our turbulences

& became our own laments.

Sara Shagufta's significance as one of Urdu's most remarkable poets is often eclipsed by controversies surrounding her life as a working-class woman searching for love and liberation within sexist poetic milieus and the repressive patriarchal laws of US-funded militarized Islamist rule in 1980s Pakistan.

In this innovative translation of Shagufta's posthumous collection, Aankhein, Javeria Hasnain enters into contemporary dialogue with the poet's words, reminding us of how her uncanny metonyms and estranged metaphors unsettled conventions of respectable Urdu poetry. With startling leaps of association, and stark imagery, these moving poems delve into the sensual and erotic realm of the female body, invoking "eyes," "colours," and "dirt" to grieve the loss of a child, mourn a failed motherhood, and dismantle the patriarchal and societal forces that seek to eliminate womanhood.

The spare and courageous language of this collection asks readers the most vital and contemporary of questions: What does it mean to be a witness to one's own oppression?