This work is a translation of Hijab Imtiaz Ali's work 'Adab-e-Zareen' (1936) that contains 47 pieces of short writings that, although Ali herself categorized as short stories, are more in the nature of prose-poems that dwell on metaphysical themes of life, death, and the nature of existence. The pieces in the work are interlinked through similar strands like an exaltation of nature, a strong sense of time, and a Muslim woman writer's delineations on the act of writing, the need for isolation and solace. The non-linear, fragmentary form of this work is very different from what Ali's contemporaries were writing, and suggests that she was at the forefront of Urdu modernist literature.

Edited and translated by: Sascha A. Akhtar