|
|
July 18, 2004
Review: The pain of homelessness
IN 1947 Palestine was partitioned into the Arab and the Jewish zones by the United Nations. When the Arab-Israeli war started, Israel drove 780,000 Palestinians from their homeland. Millions fled with their families to take refuge in other countries. Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), a Palestinian writer born in Acre, Palestine, was one of them. He faced the harsh reality of displacement, first migrating to Lebanon and then to Syria, where he and is family settled as Palestinian refugees.
Kanafani’s Dhoop Mein Log by him is a unique depiction of the uprooting of millions of Palestinians from their homeland. The story revolves around three men belonging to different generations who suffer from an identity conflict and disillusionment. Looking for a better future and a home to settle down, they undertake a journey through a blazing desert trying to get to Kuwait. They keep emerging and submerging, trying to call for help that they want to exist, live in peace and to be home. But reality had misery in store for them. They do not knock and do not cry, they remain still and confined in the hellish water tank and calmly die without a sigh.
Ghassan Kanafani has written an intense story that quite meritoriously dispels feelings of despondency and the misery of displacement. The book stirs the reader to share the feelings of Palestinians living abroad as they dream of having a free homeland, and the misery of exile. Many Palestinians live in refugee camps in other countries, as if in a transit lounge waiting for the next flight to some other destination.
The three characters Abu Qais, Assad and Marwan portray the misery of three generations in Palestine and their deaths are the silent protest against the aggression of Israel. Ghassan Kanafani has portrayed them well and his rapport with his characters and their feelings is heartfelt. For he himself has been a victim of forced migration. Ghassan Kanafani’s novel captures the poignancy of displacement and uprooting.
Another Urdu translation by Shahid Hameed is that of Moroccan short stories written by Mohammad Mrabet. Bada Aaina consists of a collection of his best stories. Mrabet’s stories are like fairy tales written in a simple narrative with a flow which remind the reader of the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights. Ghassan Kanafani and Mohammad Mrabet, both Arab writers, had lived in different conditions, one in a French colony and the other in forced migration.
Translation involves the transferring of the theme of a book from one language to another while capturing the spirit and ambience as well. Literature reflects or unfolds the situation and also the feelings of the characters. An authentic translation requires the understanding of a culture, expressions, language and jargons. Translation from one language to another has more impact than the translation of a translated work, which doesn’t have the stamp of originality. Some translators personalize their work and fail to transcribe the original essence of the work.
The translations by Shahid Hameed are adroitly done as the original themes and feelings are quite commendably portrayed. In his translations — of the novel and the short stories both originally written in Arabic — he has done justice to the writers, though proof reading mistakes abound. Both the writers are well known and their works have already been translated into several languages.
Dhoop Mein Log (Men in the Sun)
By Ghassan Kanafani
ISBN 969-8636-24-2
Barra Aina Aur Dosri Kahanian
By Mohammad Mrabet
Translated into Urdu by
Shahid Hameed
ISBN 969-8636-36-6119pp. Rs60 each
Scheherzade, B-155, Block 5, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi
Email: scheherzade@ahmedgraf.com
|
|
|
