Professor Abdul Rehman Rahi, a poet extraordinaire, whose poetry left an everlasting impact on Kashmir literature died in Srinagar early this morning after a brief illness. He was 98.

The celebrated litterateur, who was conferred the highest literary award -Jnanpith-for introducing modernist ideas and views in literature belonged to a league of great poets who made immense contributions to the development of new thought processes in Kashmir poetry.

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He was awarded the Jnanpith Award for the year 2004. He got Sahitya Akademi Award in 1961 for his poetry collection ‘Nawroz-e-Saba’ and Padma Shri in 2000.

Senior journalist Sheikh Manzoor Ahmed who was Professor Abdul Rehman Rahi’s student said, “Prof Rahi, who was critic and scholar, was also known as a poet of silence because he remained aloof from politics.”

Prof Rahi was 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).

“The renowned Kashmiri poet, was spending a forlorn life after the death of his spouse a few years back and it left a deep impact on his health,” Sheikh Manzoor Ahmed said.

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