ISLAMABAD, Nov 20: Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry runs in the blood of his admirers and creates vibrations in the latent chords of the heart.

Speaking at a function held here to mark the poet’s 24th death anniversary on Thursday, Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) Chairman Fakhar Zaman said the poet used his pen to lift the thoughts to great heights and provide direction to the aimless people.

His lyricism was the story of his life as well as a chronicle of the tormented times and it had a universal appeal.

Mr Zaman said Faiz’s poetry has also been translated into the foreign languages. He was still alive because of his thoughts and poetry.

Those who opposed Faiz were now acknowledging him a great poet. His poetry grew more powerful in every dark hour.

Faiz rejected the notion of ‘art for art's sake.’ He has been described as a ‘committed’ poet who used his simple verse to probe not only beauty and love but also humanism and justice.

His imprisonment was evident in more than his two collections of poems written during his political detention. His translator Shiv K Kumar sees his imprisonment as a ‘metaphor that embodies his poetic vision’.

He said that Faiz was a nominee for the Nobel Prize and in 1963 was the first Asian poet to win the Lenin Peace Prize.

Earlier, presiding over a meeting, the PAL chairman directed early completion of the modern auditorium, over an area of 13234sq.ft, being built on the premises of the academy named after Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

A committee room, an art gallery and a literary museum will be constructed in phases in the auditorium that can accommodate 400 persons.The art gallery will be decorated by the literary celebrities of Pakistani literature. In the literary museum, the items belonging to the literary celebrities will be placed. The auditorium will also contain state-of-the-art audio, video facilities.