LAHORE: The participants in a seminar on the theme of ‘Direct Translation from Russian Literature’ were of the view that considering translation an inferior art is misleading and unjust.

The Government College University’s (GCU) Sondhi Translation Society organised the seminar to pay tribute to the translations of Dr Najamul Sehr Butt, who is the first Pakistani to receive Russia’s highest civil award “Medal of Pushkin” in November.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah chaired the seminar which was also addressed by Quddus Mirza, an art critic, and Farrukh Sohail Goindi, an eminent writer and publisher.

The speakers stressed that it was highly unfair to relegate translated work to a less significant level; indeed, it was more challenging than the actual creation on account of its intellectual and creative dimensions. They highlighted the different aspects of Dr Najam’s translations from Russian literature to Urdu including the biography of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his opening remarks, GCU Debating Society adviser Siddique Awan said, “the translation is an amalgamation of divergent cultures, languages and intellectual ethos which creates a new world of meaning and interpretation.”

He said these translations didn’t only introduce them to other cultures but also played a vital role in Urdu literature.

Talking about Dr Najam’s translation of “The Master o Margarita”, Stockholm University, Sweden Prof Emeritus Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed said it was a classic which every student of political science must read.

“If we relate this great classic to our conditions it would not be difficult to appreciate that similar, if not identical, conditions prevail in Pakistan,” he said.

Like Soviet Union, Prof Ahmed said, Pakistan was also more threatened from inside by moral bankruptcy of politicians and bureaucrats rather than threats from external forces.

In his key note address, Dr Najamul Sehr Butt said Russian literature was very wide and deep but most of works he had translated somehow related to the Pakistani society. He said he found Russian culture close to Asia’s than Western Europe’s. “The Russia satire in particular is close to our Punjabi style,” he added.

Prof Hassan Shah expressed the hope that the GCU would establish the Sondhi Translation Center in the near future as more space would be available to the university after the completion of its under-construction new campus at Kala Shah Kaku.

He said Dr Najam had been his junior at a university in Russia and his literary works and achievements were a source of pride for all Pakistanis.

GCU Dean Faculty of Languages Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Shahid and Urdu Department’s Prof Dr Saadat Saeed said that translation was not merely word for word transformation of original text to another language rather it was a creation of new literature. “It happened many times that translations had received more appreciation and awards than the original work,” they added.

Saadul Hassan, a former student of the GCU, also presented excerpts from his research thesis “Colonial Bias in the Translation of Heer Warish Shah” at the seminar.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017