DE Web Desk
SRINAGAR, Jan 9: Renowned poet and Kashmir’s first Jnanpith awardee Professor Rehman Rahi died here on Monday. He was 98.
”Rahi breathed his last in the early hours today at his residence in Nowshera area of the city,” an official said.
Born on 6 May 1925, Rahi wrote several collections of poems and translated works of some of the celebrated poets in other languages to Kashmiri.
While Rahi received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of poems ‘Nawroz-i-Saba’ in 1961, he received the highest literary award of the country — Jnanipith award — in 2007 for his collection ‘Siyah Rood Jaeren Manz’ (In Black Drizzle). He was also conferred the Padma Shri award in 2000 for his works.
Rahi translated works of Baba Farid into Kashmiri while Dina Nath Naadim’s influence was apparent in his early works.