16 October 2004	Saturday	01 Ramazan 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 15: The French Cultural Centre, in collaboration with the Embassy of France, organized the launching ceremony of the Urdu version of French novel L'Amant here on Wednesday.

The ceremony was organized as part of yearly celebration of Lire en Fete which is held in France in October to provide a platform to people to participate in the creation, distribution and promotion of books, reading and writing French and foreign literature.

L'Amant, meaning The Lover, is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Marguerite Duras. The book has won France's most famous literary award Gan court. L'Amant has been translated into 40 languages, and its Urdu version Aashiq has been jointly translated by Shafeeq Naz and Bilqees Naz. The novel had a print run of about three million copies. Its world-wide success was followed by a film made by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy Joel Raffier read out a paragraph from the French version, while an exciting extract from its Urdu version was presented by Munazza Hadi. Director of the French Cultural Centre in Peshawar Nazir Ahmad conducted the proceedings.

Provincial Minister for Population Welfare Kashif Azam was the chief guest on the occasion. The audience comprised students of French language, teachers and people from different walks of life.

Sara Khan introduced Marguerite Duras, the author and spoke about her achievements. Duras, who died in Paris on March 3, 1996, authored more than 70 novels. Ms Khan said that most of the novels written by Marguerite Duras had been made into films. These novels, she said, dealt with love, despair and sexual passion.

Names of some of the famous novels authored by Duras and their English titles are: Un barrage contre le Pacifique, 1950 (The Sea Wall, 1952), Le Marin de Gibraltar, 1952 (The Sailor from Gibraltar, 1966), Du soir en ete, 1960 (On a summer night, 1965), and last but not the least, Detruire, dit-elle, 1969 (Destroy, She Said, 1970).

L' Amant, 1985 (The Lover, 1985), an international bestseller, was the first work of fiction by Marguerite Duras. It was followed by L'Amant de la Chine du Nord, 1991,(The North Chinese Lover, 1991).

During an informal talk with Mr Joel Raffier informed him that in the past there used to be a native French teacher at the centre in Peshawar. They asked him that keeping in view the great interest for French language in Peshawar the French embassy should arrange a native teacher for the Alliance Francaise in Peshawar, so that the cultural interaction between the people of the two countries could be further cemented.