ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The Urdu translation of the famous novel ‘L’Etranger’ by the French writer, Albert Camus, was launched at a simple reception here on Monday evening at a function with former ambassador Saidullah Khan Dehlavi as chief guest.
This was the second Urdu translation of the works of a French writer. The first one was the story ‘Le Petit Prince’ by Antoine de Saint Exupery, which was published earlier this year and was widely appreciated by the people.
‘L’Etranger’ or ‘The Outsider’ in English is the novel written by Albert Camus in the backdrop of a life lived between the two World Wars. Depicting Paris of the spring of 1942, the book brought instant recognition to the writer.
Speaking about the book and the author, Mr Dehlavi said the book was set in Algeria where Camus was born and lived most of his life. At the age of 25 he came to France as a journalist.
Albert Camus was struck by tuberculosis and while living under the shadow of death he wrote his most characteristic works; the play ‘Caligula’, the philosophical essays of ‘Le Mythe de Sisphye (the Myth of Sisyphus) as well as ‘L’Etranger’, Mr Dehlavi said.
He said when Albert Camus was himself asked to summarize ‘L’Etranger’, he said: “In our society any man who does not cry at the funeral of his mother is likely to be condemned to death.”
In fact, Mr Dehlavi said, this was a factor during Meursault’s (the hero of ‘LEtranger’) trial which contributed to his being judged as having a criminal mind.
He said Camus’s mastery of the French language was striking which he used with complete classical purity of style.
“He uses it to build the hero’s character, at first with aflat, unemotional, understated tone, with subtle variations in the apparently matter of fact style, and then, in the final pages of the novel, we see a sudden shift to a dramatic tone,” Mr Dehlavi said.
He said Camus himself played a role in the resistance and continued in the post war years to fight for justice and freedom through his editorials in the newspaper ‘Combat’.
Albert Camus died in 1960 at a relatively young age of 47 in a road accident. He was accompanied by his friend and publisher Michel Gallimard and found in the wreck of his car was the incomplete manuscript of his last work ‘Premier Homme’ (The First Man), which was eventually published in 1994.
Earlier, the deputy head of the mission, Ms Francoise Maylie, speaking on behalf of Ambassador Pierre Charasse who is in Paris in connection with Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s visit to France, said any translation was in itself an adventure and raised many questions.
“How will people from different horizons and cultures receive and understand what is essentially a product of the French culture and mentality? Will the work translated be relevant to them. These are the natural worries of every author when a book is published,” Ms Maylie said.
“Since 1789 revolution France sees itself as bearing some sort of a universal message. In this perspective, the choice of Albert Camus was all too natural who represents, with Malraux, Sartre and even Sait Exupery, a generation of committed writers,” the French deputy head of the mission said.