Hindi poetry is rich and profound by any standard. Its history can be traced back to almost a thousand years. This anthology, a unique attempt at presenting great Hindi poetry to the largest number of poetry lovers all over the world. Translated into English these poems will also give an opportunity to those readers who may not have had the opportunity of reading Hindi poetry in original.

These poems have been translated by the eminent poet and translator Kuldip Salil who has already translated the whole range of Urdu poetry into English and the best known Englsih poems in Hindi in 16 volumes. His latest translations include Nobel laureate Bob Dylan’s songs and poems into Hindi. This anthology has been ably edited by Om Sapra, who is a poet and essay writer and also has more than forty years’ experience in Editing.

Om Sapra has edited a large number of books both in Hindi & English and has been assisting in editing a bilingual monthly journal for about 40 years. In march, 2017, he received prestigious "2nd Asiad Literature Festival Award-2017".

Basic inspirations of poetry everywhere are same through, poetry of every language has some unique features. This is true of Hindi poetry too. The best of Hindi poetry can match the best in any language. However, this poetry in spite of being profound and variegated has not travelled much beyond Hindi circles; it has not been read as widely as it deserves to be read and appreciated. This anthology of selected Hindi poems, translated into English is an attempt to fill this gap and make Hindi poetry accessible to non-Hindi readers in India and abroad. Starting with Kabir and going on to the present-day poets this collection brings together some 65 old and new poets. Some important names still remain unrepresented whom we hope to include in the second volume.

We are very grateful to Prof. Kuldip Salil for so well translating and giving us this anthology. Our thanks are also due to Shri Om Sapra for editing and making this collection press-ready. Prof. Kuldip Salil has published nine collections of his poetry. He specialises in translating Hindi and Urdu poetry into English and vice-versa. He has translated the whole gamut of Urdu poetry- Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz, firaq, Majaz, Ahmed Faraz and many others into English. He has also translated best-known English poems into Hindi verse. His latest work is the translation of Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan’s "Songs and Poems" into Hindi. Shri O. P. Sapra is an editor of more than forty years’ standing. He has edited a large number of books and has been editing a monthly journal for forty six years. He is also a poet and an essayist. He is currently working as a Spl. Metropolitan Magistrate in Delhi.

We hope that this anthology would be welcomed by the poetry lovers everywhere.

Compiling an anthology of Hindi Poetry in English translation has been my long-cherished desire. This desire became stronger still after I translated a whole gamut of Urdu poetry—Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz, Firaq, Ahmed Faraz, Sahir and others in separate volumes, and a "Treasury of Urdu Poetry’ containing thirty four poets. These books have received very encouraging response from readers and eminent critics like Khuswant Singh, who read every book and wrote : These renderings by Kuldip Salil read better than any I have read by Urdu scholars, be they Indian, Pakistani and Firangi.

[have been into reading, writing and teaching poetry for fifty five years now. My first book of Hindi poems was published in 1979, and was adjudged as one of the best that year by the noted poet and critic Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena who was then editing ‘Sarika’. Around that time I spent ten years exclusively reading Hindi poetry and fiction.

The suggestion for publishing this anthology now came from my friend and guide Prof. I. N. Choudhury, a leading critic and thinker in the country. In fact on his suggestion I had many years ago translated Shamsher Bahadur Singh’s Sahitya Academy award winning poetic collection ‘Chuka bhi nahin hoon mein’. Before that I had translated the best-known English poems into Hindi verse. Later I published my own English poems.

By now [have written some twenty five books which include nine volumes of my own poetry in Hindi, Urdu and English and fifteen volumes of translation.

In preparing the manuscript and reading proofs I have received invaluable help from my friend Shri O. P. Sapra, my daughter Ritu and grand daughter Devanshi. I am very grateful to them. While I have taken prior consent from many poets, included in the anthology, I could not approach some others. I sincerely hope that the latter would forgive me for my presumptuousness. I apologise in advance.

| am quite aware that while I tried to make this anthology as representative as possible. a number of good poets have remained un-represented. I hope to include them in the next volume.

I am sure that this anthology will help in popularizing Hindi poetry and open a window to the non-Hindi reading lovers of poetry in particular.

**Contents and Sample Pages**