1. AS FREE AS THE VERSE

______________

 

TWIST OF FATES

Author: Afzal Shauq

Translated by: Alley Boling

Hard cover

Published by: Faizur Islam printers, Islamabad, Pakistan

Price: Rs 300 / 230/- Afghani /19.95 US $

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 Karachi at the office of the weekly Roshan Pakistan, which resulted in our lasting intimacy. It was a monthly meeting of Jaras Pukhto Adabi Tolana, moderated by Tahir Afridi, a focal point in Karachi for Pashto literati from the NWFP and Balochistan, and conducted by Rahman Buneri. Then I knew Afzal Shauq as a good poet, but later on I discovered that he is, in fact, a brilliant writer of travel accounts, having published two travelogues by the names of 'Mazal pa waoro bande' (Travel on the snow) and 'Da lmar da kili pa lor' (Towards the village where the sun shines).

 

'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 Punjab and has settled in Chaklala, his mind is obsessed by the natural aroma of his rough country, with its poverty, ignorance and backwardness, and their consequent miseries; where towns looks like graveyards and where hearts are frozen and humanity is void. In a state of utter frustration the poet says

 

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” Islamabad / December 3rd 2006) and ( Published in “Dawn”Islamabad , “Books & Author”/ November 5th  2006)