This book contains English translation of about 270 poems and quatrains derived from the 8 books of Urdu poetry that Faiz Ahmed Faiz published from 1941 to 1984, over a tumultuous period of 4 decades. For helping him and his poetry put in context, the book includes a 'Preface', how other writers viewed his poetry, including his own views on his poetry and how it sought social justice and freedom of speech and action, through his own incarcerations. This is another effort to bring to English reader’s poetry from a culturally philologically distant language and culture, and 'A Word on Translation' elaborates the issues involved. Recent Emergency in Pakistan (November 2007) also showed how relevant his poetry still was when protestors marched around, one of the slogans being, "Bol" ('Speak Up'), the title of a poem he published in 1941.
