- AS FREE AS THE VERSE
______________
TWIST OF FATES
Author: Afzal Shauq
Translated by: Alley Boling
Hard cover
Published by: Faizur Islam printers,
Price: Rs 300 / 230/- Afghani /19.95
Pages: 418
By: Sher Zaman Taizi
There was gambling for fate on the day of creation;
Some lost, Rahman, and some won good luck
-- Rahman Baba
I once had a chance to meet Afzal Shauq in
'Twist of Fates' is a translation of 333 poems of Afzal Shauq into English, by the American Alley Boling. Most of Shauq's verses are short and in free verse. The poet catches fleeting ideas and puts them in cages of words. For that, he has to put the idea instinctively in any form that he has mastered and in his own style, otherwise the idea would vanish. Aptitude for a particular form is quite natural and personal, almost an inborn attribute of the poet. Afzal Shauq has developed an aptitude for free verse and has acquired the art of articulation in this form.
The particular emphasis Shauq gives to an idea or sentiment is typically accomplished by his conscious deviation from the strict literal sense of a word, or from the more commonly used form of word order or sentence construction. This 'conscious deviation', which led to the growth of figures of speech, is normally hurt in translation due to the cultural gap and differences in characteristics of languages.
Alley Boling deserves to be commended for making this herculean effort of translation. She is also an inborn artist, like Afzal Shauq. An analogous aspect of the life of the author and that of the translator is that both are highlanders. Although Shauq has now shifted to the plains of the
Had I known
At my birth
Or been asked
By God...
I would have refused
Being born human.
Because he has seen that
Since human's
Left the forest
To live in cities
Calling it civilization,
More vicious and deadly
They have become.
The spiritless life carries the burden of existence with all the agonies of life, but it shrugs off the end in the hope for a new dawn. When beauty pricks his mind, it resumes 'the struggle -- eternal struggle'.
My heart...
With a will of its own
Makes its way
To the heart
Of every beautiful girl
I happen to meet.
Although, the Shauq's heart is shauq in (fond) of beauty, 'age counts' and he imagines the creases of time, saying:
Girls still look at me
And though they smile...
Their eyes speak
A multitude of words.
Once offering me hearts
No longer, I see
My age revealed
By the creases of time.
I feel my insides
Breaking into pieces.
The hope of the dream...
Vanishes in a cold sigh.
Afzal Shauq, a sensitive poet with an imaginative mind, feels the sorrows of the human being and expresses aptly his feelings in a direct and impressive way. In 'Hope for peace' he says
The one
So cruel
Tolerance lost.
Yet I stay
Holding on
Each storm
So destructive.
Yet I know
With the rain
Lands once parched
Become prosperous.
But, some questions come up in reading the book. One is the number of poems translated-- 333. Does it indicate some sort of omen or it is a mere coincidence? The second is the Alley Boling's interest in translating poetry from Pushto. Does she know Pushto and Pushtuns? Or has the author has taken time to read and explain to her the meaning and sense of his poems?The third is a suggestion: the source of each poem should have been quoted at its end, so that a reader would not face difficulty in accessing the original.
DR. SHER ZAMAN TAIZAI
(Published in “The News International”