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Three-in-one
Nihaal-e-Dil Par Sahaab Jesey (Raindrops on Parched Land) is actually a three-in-one book which is rare in Urdu poetry anthologies.
Along with her original Urdu composition there is an excellent English translation by such eminent writers and poets as Baidar Bakht, Hameed Khan, Karamatullah Khan Ghori and Syed Izhar Rizvi. They all proved to be the most prolific, and the most gifted, translators of Urdu poetry into English.
It is said that poetry is not translatable. If it is translated it is not poetry. However, contrary to the critics' argument that poetry "loses" in translation or poetry is "untranslatable", there are others with the opposite standpoint that it can be preserved, illustrated and illuminated if a good job is done, because poetry is in large part found again and re-painted by the translator.
Of course, many of the original poetical touches of color cannot be transposed and they must be arranged; yet these new arrangements may be even more luminous than the original.
The talented translators of Parvin Shere’s poetry have done an excellent job in conveying the meaning and message of the poet.
Illustrated poetry
Nihaal-e-Dil Par Sahaab Jesey (Raindrops on Parched Land) is perhaps the only Urdu poetry book of its kind that has been illustrated by the poetess herself. It’s a fine mix of words, lines and colors. 
The analogy of poetry to painting is at least as old as Greek poet Simonides who thought that painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech. Fortunately, she is gifted with both. Leonardo da Vinci says: “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” This is true to the poetry and paintings of Parvin Shere.
Parvin is as good with words as she is with colors and handles the demands of both the fields competently. "This is a rare and enviable combination," says Prof Gopi Chand Narang, an eminent critic and scholar. As Himayat Ali Shair pointed out: “Colors in her paintings have words and the words in her poems have colors.”
The pieces Silent City, The Sun and the Moon and Search For You depict imageries of graves and lengthened shadows. To borrow Peerzada Salman, the not-so-loud colors that she employs to propagate her ideas do the job well for her. But the one piece that justifies the theme of motherhood with delicate force is her pencil work entitled Again. It clearly shows her fondness for lines that delineate the human body, an infant, an adult, a mother.
It may be pointed out that Parvin Shere formally developed her talent of paintings at the University of Manitoba, Canada, Fine Arts Program. Her oil painting titled "Journey" was selected by the Manitoba Society of Artists, Canada in its 78th juried provincial competition. The exhibition was held from May 29-June 27, 2010. Parvin's art work titled "another day" in ...oil was previously selected jointly by Calgary and Manitoba society of artists.
Besides Canada, Parvin's visual art has been exhibited in the United States of America, England, France, Germany, China and India. She has received several awards for her paintings and was one of five nominees honored during the prestigious "WOMAN OF DISTINCTION AWARDS" for her contribution to ART, CULTURE and HERITAGE in Winnipeg, Canada. She migrated to Canada in 1966.
Patna-born, Winnipeg-based Parvin Shere received the prestigious award Ahmad Adaya Urdu International Award for "Best Book" with a cash prize of $5,000 after 'Raindrops on Parched Land' (Nihal-e-Dil Par Sahab Jaise) was declared the best book in 2010. The award was given by Urdu Markaz International, Los Angeles, at a special ceremony held on October 31 in Los Angeles, California.
Perhaps Ahmad Faraz’s tribute to Parvin Shere best reflects her multi-talent personality: “Parvin Shere’s verses have expression and blossoms of creativity. She possesses the heart of a poetess, the eyes of a painter, and the hands of an instrumentalist. She can be a godess of the Greek mythology.
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