- TWIST OF FATES
______________
Prof. Dr. Qabil Khan
The book under review, TWIST OF FATES, is Alley Boling’s English translation of Afzal shauq’s Pashto Poetry. This book contains 333 short poems with a word of hope by the translator for the meeting of east and west through the bridges or art. In her brief preface to the book she wonderfully sums up the message or the suggestion of this poetry when she says quote
“My greatest hope for the readers is that they will open their eyes and realize …. We may be from different lands … we may speak different languages … we may have different religious beliefs …we may have cultural differences … but when you get to what is basic in all human beings; we are all the same. We all smile, laugh, cry, want, love, hunger, thirst, bleed and die . “
While the translation harps on the theme of our common humanity, the poet has been driven in places to also point out common barbarity and brutality; when the greatest Dushman of man, when we also burn, mutilate, kill and destroy and devastation. In poem # 18 titled “ Announcement ”, the poet proclaims with poignant irony:
Eyes of the dead
lashes veiled
tongues now silent
severed into …..
people handing
from branches broken …
house doors now shut
the city closed
yet they are saying
liberty proclaimed ….
Hasham Babar has compared these short poems to “ the bullets of pistol, having an unforgettable effects”. However, these poems appear more like small capsules for all kind of social, political and moral maladies. Like unwelcome medicine they, or some of them, may taste bitter for the time being, but they have the sure therapeutic effect. In all fairness these poems can be compared to small does of a life saving drugs for the cancer of the ailing humanity. Afzal Shauq may not be an al- chemist ( or kimyadan) but he can be compared to a modern day Hakim, a doctor, a specialist practitioner par excellence, with his fingers on the pulse of the ailing, insane humanity and the ultimate remedy that he proposes is more in the nature of dreams, tranquility and love, and not surgery, operation and amputation. His poetry also holds a mirror to humanity in order to see the reflection of its neurosis and become conscious of the sense of guilt and the damage that it has done to itself. And then through the charms ( or Janthar Manthar) of his poetry the poet carefully cures the ailing humanity of all the psychopathic diseases. His ultimate solution appears to be the poem # 191 “ The White Flag ” Quote…
Fading myself
Into different colors
Fond of beautiful faces
Seeking fulfillment
While gathering
All of these colours …
These beauties of life
To find my inner peace
Now wishing
For a white flag
For peace and prosperity
To wave against the darkness.
Afzal Shauq is more of a modernist in his treatment than a poet with progressive predilections. In fact can be compared to the 20th century imagist poets like Ezra Pound and his followers, including T.S. Elliot, who believe in and rely on concrete images to convey what they want to say. Some of these images may acquire symbolic significance. Similarly the poetry of Afzal Shauq is full of stark, memorable images. Some of his more recurring images can be catalogued her as : love, dreams, fire and ashes, death and destructions, war and peace, idols and false gods, blindness and brutality, sweat and blood, sin and retribution, night and nightmares, greed and cupidity, arms dealers and the merchant of death, helplessness and the loss of ideals and honour and so forth.
My only reservation …. or rather grouse … or about the volume under view is that it does not also carry the original Pashto version. It is always exciting and much more revealing to read a translation along with the original, particularly when it spans over such short poems that we have here. Such reading provides a double vision: the exact point of view of the original poet, his choice of form, metre, diction, and the ultimate rendering of the translator, whether faithful, liberal or creative and artistic. I have myself done a great deal of Pashto – English translations. I know the difficulties , the pitfalls , and the apparent impossibilities of particularly Pashto – English verse translation. At times one is almost driven to believe that poetry is simply untranslatable; so much is necessarily lost in the process that the whole endeavor appears to be point less. This is not my conclusion alone, but great modern linguists like Windowson and Leach would even forbid the paraphrase of poetry as that also but mutilates the essential spirit of it. Examples are, however, there of memorable poetry translation . A classical example is, however, that of Fitzgerald’s translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam. But through this translation Fitzgerald can be said to have achieved the distinction of creating his own Rubaiyats in English which, in all fairness is original poetry. A translator by nature either exceeds the mark or misses it. But whatever the quality of a translator, it always a welcome activity. It is all the more welcome for Pashto poetry which has negligible international exposure. Just a handful of what came to be called the Orientalists have paid some attention to it in their endeavor to understand the Pakhtoon and his language. Even they were attracted more to the folklore and some of the sixteenth century classical poetry which sounds more like Persian and Arabic than Pashto. Since negligible modern Pashto poetry has been translated into English, this Twist of Fates stands as a valuable collection and translation of Pashto poetry in English. Lets hope and pray that this volume receives international recognition that it deserves. And lets hope Alley Boling keeps her Pashto – English infatuation . I am sure, time will reward her for this.
While reading these short poems one is constantly reminded of the Japanese Hykus, those subtle three – line poems resembling Chinese art with three – petal flower, symbolizing beauty, loneliness, zest for life and the pleasure of being simply alive and there, unmindful of the past and future.
PROF. DR. QABIL KHAN
Dr Qabil Khan
UMT
(Presented in Book Ceremony of ‘Twist of Fates’ on 21st Sep:2006) also (Published in “Balochistan Times”
**************
