Most of the readers, who are good at reading the literature written in their mother tongue or in a language they can read and comprehend well, feel it as an unnecessary step taken; and they often pose a question – “Why would someone translate a work of art from source language to any other language?” For such readers, the answer is here.
Translating literary or non-literary works from source language to target languages is being done since times immemorial, because the work, when translated,gets wider readership. Readers across the world get an opportunity to know the work and in that, the culture, the wisdom, and much more, which otherwise would not have been possible. Had scholars not translated literatures from source language to other languages, it would not have been possible for people (speaking and knowing indigenous languages only) to know great philosophers and writers like Aristotle, Plato, Pushkin, Tolystoy, Ohran Pamuk etc.
However,translation is not everybody’s cup of tea. Not the forte of common minds.“It’s an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labour and portion of common minds”,said Ignacy Krasicki.It’s not just reproducing the original text in a different language, but retaining the essence and the flavour of the original one. It’s not just the transfer of words from one language to another, but the transfer of meaning from one language to another.“A translator is repeatedly bogged down by the question,how should the translation be done – thought by thought, or word by word, and how can the idiom and metaphor be translated, without making it lose its culturally – specific punch,” says Dr Santosh Bakaya, an acclaimed poet and author.
Now, coming to the translation of Kashmiri poetry of Habba Khatoon translated by G R Malik (agreat scholar of English Literature and ex-Professor at Department of English,Kashmir University), a question arises: Can poetry, which denies translation, be translated? Poets, writers, critics and scholars have perenially commented on this issue. Let me quote Robert Frost. He says: “poetry is lost in translation.” What does it mean? Does it mean the translator murders the original text: its essence, its metaphor, its idiom? Does it means, the translator succeeds in translating the form, the body, not the soul? Or does it mean, the work loses its indigenous beauty?To answer these questions,two great writers come to our rescue. First, Salman Rushdie.In Imaginary Homelands: Essay and Criticism, he writes: “It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately to the notion that something can also be gained.” Second, Yevgeny, a Russian poet. He says, “translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.”
Well then, what has G R Malik done to Habba Khatoon’s poetry? Has he murdered Habba Khatoon’s poetry or has he succeeded in giving the work a life in the target language? Is his English rendering of Habba Khatoon beautiful, not faithful or not beautiful, but faithful? And how far has he succeeded in his venture?
A translator, before translating a work of art, must have a through eye and good command on both the languages: the source and the target. He can not take liberties, whatsoever, and mix up his own ideas with the author’s, so as to make it look beautiful and appealing. Rather he has to be faithful to the original text.
Yes,G R Malik Saeb, you are on track. You have done it beautifully. You have beenfaithful to the original text. You have not taken any liberty. You have transferred Habba Khatoon’s poetry into English as it is, as for instance:
a) Chaw mien dany posh
Enjoy my pomegranate bloom
b) Walu wis gachiwhi hunday
Lanen niyaayi kati anday
Come mate, let’s go to collect dandelion leaves
Fate’s imbroglios will ever refuse to end.
c) Kourzyenuyikhhenu zalo
Kour zyenu rozi paam
Su aasith gachi shalo
The birth of a daughter will enmesh you in a trap;
The birth of a daughter may prove to be a slander,
And you, though a lion, will become a jackal
Translating Habba Khatoon, the destined poet, the nightingale, the songbird of Kashmir,whose poetry predominantly reflects the love, unrequited love for his lover and the callous treatment that she received at her in- laws, is not every body’s toast. Understanding her poetry, one must definitely be equipped with the idiom and metaphor of the source language and must have command on the target language too. Alhumdulilah! G R Malikhas command on four languages and we cannot think better than this from the one, who does not have command on either. He has done it successfully. After reading the English version of Habba Khatoon, translated by him, it, at once, makes you wonder as to how much he has toiled – read and serfed- to make Habba Khatoon possible in English. Selected bibliography appended to the English version of Habba khatoon is an ample proof to the same.
However,I must say one thing, as G R Malik himself has confessed, that genuine poetry defies translation, but still he presents Habba Khatoon in English as it is in the original. Though at places, English version appears bogus, because he has remained faithful, has not added anything from his own imagination, yet it is a mile stone covered, an achievement accomplished.A
Qaisar Bashir a translator, author and poet, hails from Kashmir. He has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Kashmir University. Once Upon A Time, a translation of a Kashmiri novel Akh Dour by Bandsi Nirdoush, is his debut achievement. His poems have been published in various National and International Journals like The Criterion, Langlit, Muse India, Setumeg and at unispoetry.com. His forthcoming book The Cry Of Wounded Souls, a poetry collection, will be out soon.
