February 23, 2002

Readable English translations of classical Urdu works are rare at best. The two books from different genres — poetry and prose — under review here fall into this category. Luckily, they seem to be part of a conscious effort by the publisher to promote quality translations of Urdu classics and, as such, belong on the bookshelves of any serious private and public libraries.

Years ago — and now the Canadian-resident scholar — Gopi Chand Narang had published from Delhi a very interesting paper on the use of Karbala as a literary metaphor in the Urdu language. The book was titled Karbala bataur-i-she’iri ista’ara in which he had traced the evolution and impact of the Karbala-inspired lexicon on Urdu literature.

A literary feat by itself, the book brought together in one place all the examples of expressions that would not have existed in the Urdu language had the Karbala tragedy not taken place — or at least that was the crux of the scholar’s thesis. Since then, the book under review is only the next serious project of true literary merit on the subject that has been undertaken with the sincerity it deserves.

The Urdu readers, critics and students of the language and literature are amply aware of the groundbreaking contribution made to the development of the language by marsiya in general and those of Mir Anis in particular. The book therefore needs no introduction; however, a few words about the strength of the translation in question are in order here.

By admission of the translator David Matthews — who did not do a very enviable job of translating Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s legendary Umrao Jan Ada — the original Urdu rhyme scheme of the musaddas-marsiya, which runs AA AA BB, has been substituted in this translation-in-verse with the more congenial English rhyme running AB AB CC. It is undoubtedly this very important improvization that has resulted in the masterful rendering of the finished translation.

Take, for instance, the following lines, which sound like they were originally written in English instead of having been translated from another language:

Their dry lips sang the praise of God; and light

Shone on their faces; fear was put aside.

No grief or panic clouded o’er their sight;

They joked and laughed and shared their skills with pride. Their charming accents gladdened every ear;

Each word they uttered was a joy to hear. The other book is one of the celebrated, though lesser known works in prose by Ibn-i-Insha. It is lesser known for two reasons: One, the very name of the writer brings poetry and not prose to mind; and two, regrettable as it may be, we as a people do not have a great sense of humour.

This particular work is more than a tongue-in-cheek take on the quality of the Urdu textbooks that were being printed in the country even back in 1971. This means that crediting General Zia with all the obscurantism inserted into the textbooks may only be another case of giving him more credit than is really due him. Others before him have been guilty of the same crime — remember, we did have an eastern wing and its Bengali majority wasn’t the only thing we grudged it. The establishment in what was then West Pakistan was just as nosey as we have since known it to be, with the school textbooks being its pet instrument of indoctrination.

Ibn-i-Insha in his overtly pervert take on the school textbooks, which were and are still titled Urdu ki pehli kitab and so forth, brought out this particular book and called it Urdu ki aakhri kitab. Not only that, to expose the farcical interference of the state in the public education sector, he even had the audacity to submit the draft for approval to the West Pakistan Textbook Board. The result was a less than amused letter signed by the chairman of the board who wrote back saying: “In our opinion it is a dangerous attempt to distract our students from the other 566 books already available... the Textbook Board has great pleasure in proscribing this book.”

No sense of humour.
Just to illustrate what kind of lessons Ibn-i-Insha put forth in the book, consider the following somewhat benign passage titled Pakistan:

To the north of West Pakistan is Punjab; to the south, Sindh; to the east, India; to the west, the North Western Frontier Province and Balochistan. Exactly where Pakistan exists or whether it exists at all is still a matter of research. Nowadays, on all four sides of East Pakistan is only East Pakistan.

One reckons he got away with it because in those days the establishment was too preoccupied with silencing of dissent from East Pakistan.

This is not to discount the fact that the book hasn’t lost either its currency or appeal. There have since been 30 editions of the original in Urdu in as many years and the latest one still came with a banner on the front saying Proscribed by the Textbook Board. Reading the two books one after the other, it is clear that David Matthews’ forte really lies in translating poetry rather than prose. That the former is generally believed to be a tougher job is belied by the quality of translation he as managed to achieve with tacking poetry.

Welcome as both the translations are for their general quality in printing, the publisher should have guarded against some minor and typographical errors, the most grievous one being the spelling of Mir Babbar Ali Anis in the first book, which spells his first name as ‘Babar’.

The battle of Karbala (Musafat-i-shab)
Bilingual edition of a marsiya by Mir Anis
Translated into English verse with an introduction by David Matthews
Alhamra Publishing
ISBN 969-516-044-1
248pp. Rs195

Urdu: the final book
By Ibn-i-Insha
Translated by David Matthews
ISBN 969-516-051-4
192pp. Rs95
Alhamra Publishing, Saudi Pak Tower, Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad
Tel: 051-2823862. 
Email: contact@alhamra.com 
Website: www.alhamra.com

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