Translated from the Urdu edition by Baidar Bakht & Leslie Lavigne with extensive collaborating by the poet. No discussion of modern Urdu poetry is complete without the name of Perveen Shaker's ranks not only among the top Urdu poets, both male and female, but is also one of three female poets who could be regarded as pioneers in defying tradition by expressing the "female experience" in Urdu poetry. The other two female poets are Kishwar Naheed and Fahmeeda Riyaz.The aesthetics of Urdu poetry, drawing from the traditions of both Arabic and Persian poetry, is extremely well developed. While expressing thoughts that may be foreign to classical Urdu poetry, Shaker remained true to its well-established principles, often experimenting with difficult meters and obscure rhymes in the tradition of the old masters.There is a distinction between the poetry of Perveen Shakir and that of poets in the true feminist tradition. The expression of her female experience is not always similar to those of the feminists. For example, the heroine of one of her poems is a successful working woman who admits without shame that sometime the "fragile creeper inside her wants to cling to the trunk of a very strong tree". Clearly, hard-core feminists cannot be very sympathetic to such an admission.There are few poets on the Indian subcontinent who, like her, have the privilege of being regarded highly by both critics and the public. Her collections of poems are sold out almost as soon as they are published. The first of her collections, published in 1976, has been through some twenty editions in both Pakistan and India. Four collections of her poems have been published so far. Articles on her poetry and reviews on her books by leading Urdu scholars clearly show that she was held in high esteem by them as well.For her contribution to Urdu literature, Perveen Shakir had been given the highest literary award by the Government of Pakistan, the Pride of Performance. She has a large collection of other awards and honours from both Pakistan and India. Perveen Shakir held two Master degrees from Karachi University, one in English Literature and the other in English Linguistic. For nine years, she taught English as a second language to undergraduates in a state college. She was a senior civil servant in Pakistan, a position she earned by placing first in the final examination of the prestigious Civil Services Academy. On leave with full diplomatic status, she had been teaching South Asian literature as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Perveen Shakir was born on November 24, 1952. On December 26, 1994, she died in a car accident in Islamabad. Death has deprived Urdu literature of an outstanding poet who has yet to reach the peak of her creativity. Excerpt - Here sleeps the girlWhose eyes bought dreams from sleep,And then the night of rendezvousShe spent with her loneliness.It was a strange waiting! Pawning the whole cityTo the shylock of fateJust for the convenienceOf on half-lit casement!But when the star,On whose strengthThe moon had been challenged,Was about to appear on her forehead,Aurora was already upTolling the kneil of tryst!