Mazhar Tirmizi: Punjabi poetry, migration and performance

Poetry and displacement

Mazhar Tirmizi is a Punjabi poet and journalist whose writing has engaged with migration and the memory of Partition. A 2014 profile by Mahmood Awan describes his family’s move from the Jalandhar area to Chichawatni and places his early education and poetic development there. Awan also dates the poem Umran Langian Pabban Bhar to 1973 and its publication in Rut Lekha to the following year.[1]

Folk Punjab also links his poetry to displacement, but describes the family’s earlier place of origin differently. The specific locality should be checked against further records rather than treated as settled here.[2]

From poem to song

The poem reached listeners through a rendition by Asad Amanat Ali Khan. Folk Punjab lists the work among Tirmizi’s poems and connects it to the experience of families uprooted at Partition. Its movement from print to performance illustrates how a poem can have a life beyond a single publication.[2]

Books and public conversations

Dawn reported the launch of Tirmizi’s poetry book Adh at Lahore’s National College of Arts in 2015. Its account records speakers discussing his poetry and life, placing the book in a public literary conversation. A report in The News also documents a Punjabi literature seminar at which Tirmizi spoke alongside poet Amarjit Chandan. These records show events in particular years; they should not be read as a current schedule or complete list of his books. For readers exploring Punjabi writing across borders, they provide starting points for the relationship between poetry, institutions and audiences. At the Lahore launch, short-story writer Saeed Bhutta praised Tirmizi’s use of contemporary language; Dawn also recorded poet Afzal Saahir reading his work. These are participants’ assessments of the poetry at that event. Journalist Arif Waqar also spoke about knowing the poet during their college years.[3][4]