SRINAGAR: Legendary Kashmiri poet, critic and scholar, Professor Abdul Rehman Rahi, aged 98, passed away on Monday, January 9

Rehman Rahi was awarded the Jnanpith Award for the year 2004. He is the first Kashmiri writer to be awarded Jnanpith, the country's highest literary award for his poetic collection 'Siyah Rood Jaeren Manz' (In Black Drizzle). He conferred Sahitya Akademi Award in 1961 for his poetry collection 'Nawroz-e-Saba' and Padma Shri in 2000.

Rahi began his career as a Pubklic woreks Departemnt clerk in 1948. He was later associated with Khidmat newspaper as a sub-editor. In 1952 he did his masters in Persian and a decade later another master’s in English. For most of his career, he taught at the University of Kashmir.

As an acclaimed translator, he did an excellent translation of Baba Farid's Sufi poetry to Kashmiri from original Punjabi. Camus and Sartre had some visible effects on his poetries while Dina Nath Naadim's influence on his poetry is also visible especially in earlier works.

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