Amin Kamil

Amin Kamil (1924 - ) is a major voice in Kashmiri poetry and one of the chief exponents of modern ghazal in the language. His influence is widely accepted by his contempraries and later generations. He is also known as a story teller, a critic and a scholar of a high calibre.

Kamil was born at Kaprin, a village in South Kashmir He graduated in Arts from the Punjab University and took his degree in Law from the Aligarh Muslim University. He joined the Bar in 1947 and continued to practice Law till 1949, when he was appointed a Lecturer in Sri Pratap College, Srinagar. He was closely associated with the writers' movement of that time and under its influence switched over from Urdu to Kashmirias his medium of expression. He joined the State Cultural Academy when it was set up in 1958 and was appointed the Convener for Kashmiri language. He later became Editor for Kashmiri and edited the two journals of the Cultural Academy – Sheerazaand Son Adab with distinction for many years. He retired from the service of the Cultural Academy in 1979.

Kamil is a master of the Kashmiri Ghazal and has been instrumental in fashioning it into an entity distinct from its Urdu and Persian counterparts. His poetry is marked by freshness of sensibility, maturity of expression and striking technical innovation which together give him a diction uniquely his own.

Kamil has also given us some memorable poems in the Nazm form. Kamil edited the independent journal Neab for some time. As a critic he has acquired wide recognition. He also helped create the modified alphabet presently used for Kashmiri language. Kamil has also contributed to the field of translation. His translation of Tagore's Dak Ghar, as also the poetry of the Urdu poet lqbal have been significant additions to the corpus of translated literature available in Kashmiri

Kamil employs subtle humor with devastating effect in his poetry. Through it he mirrors contemporary life and makes a social comment on his milieu. It, however, is satire or humor that does not bruise, but heals. Kamil is metaphysicaland introspective as well and in some ways represents the continuity of the quintessence of his own literary tradition minus its ponderousness. He has the quality of being simple as well as profound at the same time. This he does in purely Kashmiri tenor. In spite of his erudition he has never fallen prey to the transplantation of an alien metaphor, borrowing of a foreign concept or trend in literature.