Daud Kamal

Daud Kamal 4 January 1935 - 5 December 1987(Urdu: داؤد کمال)) was a Professor of English Literature at University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He was educated at Cambridge University, UK. Kamal started writing poetry in his twenties and became one of the important early English language poets of Pakistan. He received three medals for his poetry from the Triton College and his poems were recorded for the Library of Congress, Washington DC. USA. ‘Remote Beginnings’ and ‘A Selection of Verse’ (ISBN 0-19-577812-X), are his anthologies. He also did translations of the classic Urdu poet Ghalib in English.

Early life

Born at Abbottabad into an academic family. His father Mohammad Ali, S. Pk, was the Vice Chancellor of the Peshawar University. He got his early education at Burn Hall School in Srinagar and later from the branch of the school in Abbottabad, Pakistan; graduated with distinction from the University of Peshawar; obtained his tripos from the University of Cambridge. Starting off as a lecturer after his return from Cambridge in the late 1960s, Daud Kamal was appointed a Professor of the Department of English, University of Peshawar, later becoming Chairman in 1980 and continuing to serve in this position till his death on December 5, 1987, leaving behind a wife, two daughters and a son.

Poetry

Daud Kamal published his free verse translation 'Ghalib: Reverberations' in 1970 hailed by many as the best rendering of the master in English. His first collection 'Compass of love and other poems' appeared in 1973. This was followed by 'Recognitions' (1979), 'Selections of Faiz in English' (1984) and 'A Remote Beginning' 1985. Kamal's rendering of Faiz was published in another posthumous edition from India in 1988.

Other collections

Kamal's work has been posthumously collected and published in the following titles: 'Rivermist' (1992), 'Before the Carnations Wither' (1995) and 'A Selection of Verse' (1997).

See also

• List of Pakistani writers
• Pakistani poetry
• Alamgir Hashmi
• Omer Tarin