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April 7, 2002
CHILDREN'S BOOK REVIEW: Harry Potter in Urdu
AN extremely poor woman struggling to make ends meet started her career as a writer in a small cafe, writing on used pieces of paper and drinking a cup of tea for hours for fear of being asked to leave the place by the waiters. That she was about to make a bit of history, would have been most certainly, the last thing that would have crossed her mind at that moment. History, J.K. Rowling did make, alongwith a lot of money with Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. The rest is, as everyone knows by now, common knowledge.
So it wasn’t a surprise that publishing companies around the world started translating the Potter books. And thus it wasn’t a surprise either when Oxford University Press came out with a translated version of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone in Urdu, titled Harry Potter aur paaras pathar.
When one translates an original book into another language the essence of the story is lessened somewhat, however good and exact the translation. But if the story is interesting enough it will still compel the reader to read the book. It was but natural that reading Harry Potter in Urdu, lost its charm to an extent, but even then the story was interesting enough to make for continued reading late into the night.
Having fortified myself by reading both the books, the English original and the Urdu translation, and seeing the film as well, I can easily say that the film and the Urdu version have been copied to the T, with a slight variation in the ending of the film. The writer certainly knows how to weave a yarn which is so original that the readers are attracted to it effortlessly. One can imagine how, when older people find it interesting, the younger generation for whom it has been written would be thrilled to bits. With the world raving over the Harry Potter series, it was but natural that a film based on the first novel by J.K. Rowling, should whet the appetite.
The setting of the story is like any normal British background albeit about witches and wizards with a totally different lifestyle of school children in a boarding school. Rowling has an amazing sense of imagination, spinning a tale with such confidence and realism that its sheer absurdness seems to make it appear a natural happening. The translation is exactly what it is in the original text as I have mentioned, but the unusual words appear much easier in English than in Urdu as it becomes difficult to pronounce, and hence understand them. Intriguingly, the Urdu version appears more scary and magical than the original — perhaps that is my perception.
Harry Potter aur paaras pathar is a story about a boy whose parents died when he was very young and is brought up by his aunt and uncle who detest him just as much as they had detested his parents for being different. Harry has no idea that he is different, too, his aunt having failed deliberately to tell him that he is a wizard. His shabby treatment by them is obvious all the more as they have a son who is the same age as Harry and is spoilt to distraction by the doting parents. At the age of eleven he discovers who he really is and a new life begins when he joins the Hogwarts school of wizardry and witchcraft and discovers he has special powers.
From here begins a tale of unusual happenings in an atmosphere that is very similar to any normal boarding school but with a supernatural background. Harry goes through gruelling school hours of studying spells and witchcraft and also discovers that it was the evil wizard Woldeport who had killed his parents, but was unable to kill him and lost his powers in the process.
Harry comes to know about his parents through the people in the school and it is heart-wrenching for the reader to see his reactions. He also learns to fly a broom and play quidditch, a game similar to rugby but played on brooms in the air, and gets into scrapes with the teachers like any other school boy. In the end he comes face to face with Woldeport who is in search of the philosopher’s stone that will give him permanent life and also his lost power — and again the chance to kill Harry because of his special powers.
Ghosts, moving stairs, forbidden entrances and forests, talking pictures etc. seem to capture the imagination of the reader. Harry Potter aur paaras pathar is definitely a treat for the young Urdu readers and is recommended to those who have seen the movie as well.
Harry Potter aur paaras pathar
Urdu translation of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone by J.K. Rowling
Translated by Darakhshanda Asghar Khokhar
Oxford University Press, 5 Bangalore Town, Sharae Faisal, P.O. Box 13033, Karachi-75350 Tel: 021-4529025
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net
ISBN 0-19-579708-6 259pp. Rs250
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