LAHORE: The Punjab Jiangsu Cultural Centre, a component of the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) is printing a book of Chinese translation of the poetry of Punjabi Sufi poets.

“The book is the continuation of the age-old friendship between China and Pakistan on the cultural and literary fronts. Earlier, many Pakistani TV plays had been televised and they were dubbed in Chinese language. Besides, there were many other cultural programmes,” said Pilac Director General Dr Sughra Sadaf while throwing light on the publication project.

Ms Sadaf said the Punjabi Sufi poets had spread the message of peace and love for the humanity through their poetry and the book in Chinese would make it possible for the people of China to read the pearls of wisdom by these poets. Jiangsu cultural platform had been making efforts to promote Chinese language since 2016 through various programmes.

Jiangsu Cultural Centre director Khaqan Haider Ghazi said the objective of publishing the book was not only to spread the soft image of the country at the international level but to also share with a larger audience the message of Sufi poets. Mr Ghazi said the book would be carry selected poetry of Baba Farid, Shah Hussain, Guru Nanak, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.

Mr Ghazi said the book would carry the original Punjabi text, which would also be in Roman text, and its Chinese translation done by Chinese language experts. The book would be published within a month and it would be launched in a grand ceremony.

He said Punjab was the largest and culturally rich province of Pakistan and Jiangsu province was one of the prominent areas due to its rich social, cultural and economic conditions.

In order to enhance brotherly relationship between the two provinces, the Punjab government had established Punjab Jiangsu Cultural Centre in 2006, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018