Abdul Mateen Jami
Abdul Mateen Jami | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 27, 1950 Rasulpur, Sungra, Cuttack district, Odisha, India |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, fiction author, critic, translator |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Known for | Urdu poetry, literary criticism, translations from Odia, Bengali and Malayalam into Urdu |
Abdul Mateen Jami (; born 27 July 1950), alternatively spelled Abdul Matin Jami, is a distinguished Indian poet, fiction author, critic, and translator working primarily in Urdu, hailing from Odisha. His literary output includes numerous poetry collections, fictional works, critical essays, and translations from Odia, Bengali, and Malayalam into Urdu.
Early life
Jami was born on 27 July 1950 in Rasulpur, Sungra, located within the Cuttack district of Odisha, India. He embarked on his literary career in 1974.
Literary career
Beginning his poetic endeavors in 1976, Jami drew inspiration from his maternal uncle, Karamat Ali Karamat. His versatility spans a wide range of poetic forms such as ghazal, nazm, prose poetry, triolet, sonnet, gajra, doha, and ruba'iyat.
During the 1980s, Jami composed approximately one hundred ghazals that were featured in leading Urdu literary periodicals including Akhbar-e-Mashriq (Kolkata), Sada-e-Orissa, Adab-e-Nikhar (Mau Nath Bhanjan), Nai Naslen (Aligarh), Gul Kada (Sahaswan), Saaz-e-Sarmadi (Dehradun), and Chingari (Delhi). He played an active role in the literary community of Cuttack.
His prominent poetry anthologies are:
- Nishat-e-Aagahi (1996)
- Bisāt-e-Sukhan (2014), a collection of rubaiyat
- Monis-e-Sukhan (2016), also comprising rubaiyat
- Tarana-e-Javed (2016), a diwan dedicated to rubaiyat
Jami has penned more than 1,500 rubaiyat, exploring both classical metrical patterns and free-verse experimentation.
In the realm of fiction, he authored the short story compilation:
- Purane Kapdon Ka Saudagar (2017), which includes twenty stories alongside five translated pieces.
His narrative style encompasses both conventional and contemporary symbolic storytelling. Moreover, Jami's oeuvre extends to drama in verse form, journalistic writing, and literary criticism.
Literary criticism
Jami has contributed extensively to critical literature. His 2017 publication Nayi Tanqeedi Jihatain (New Critical Perspectives) offers an analytical study of nearly twenty poets and prose authors.
Together with Azizur Rahman, he co-wrote Urdu Adab Ka Koh-i-Noor: Karamat Ali Karamat (The Koh-i-Noor of Urdu Literature – Karamat Ali Karamat), released in 2022 by the Odisha Urdu Academy.
Translation
His translation work encompasses literary texts from Odia, Bengali, and Malayalam into Urdu. Among his Odia translations are stories by Padma Bhushan recipient Manoj Das and Jnanpith laureate Pratibha Ray. Additionally, he has rendered Bengali short stories into Urdu and translated a Malayalam short story by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai titled Do Suroopay.
Awards and recognition
Jami’s contributions to Urdu literature have been recognized through various honors such as the Hashmi Youth Development Association Award (1997), Najmi Academy Award and Swagatika Award (both awarded in 2000), as well as the Bihar Urdu Academy Award (2014). On 30 November 2022, he was bestowed with the Amjad Najmi Award (2021) by the Odisha Urdu Academy at Bhubaneswar.