Music of words

BORN in Lahore, Shiv K. Kumar, a leading Indian-English writer, has published six volumes of poems, four novels, a play, a collection of short stories and several works of literary criticism. In 1978, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (London) for his literary achievement - a distinction he shares with R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth and Anita Desai. In 1987, he received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of poems Trapfalls in the Sky (Macmillan), which has been translated into Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Urdu. He has also been recently awarded the Padma Bhushan for Literature and Education.

ALI ASGHAR recently engaged Shiv K. Kumar in conversation at the latter's residence in Hyderabad.

Prof. Kumar, you are known as a leading Indian writer in English. What prompted you to undertake the translation of an outstanding Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz?

Several reasons. I was born in Lahore where Faiz lived and wrote for the most part of his life. So, in a way, I was also born to the Urdu language which has been my second love. I may have written poetry and fiction in English, but for my own soul's sustenance, I have always turned to such Urdu poets as Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, Firaq Gorakhpuri - and now Faiz Ahmed Faiz. When Faiz visited Hyderabad some years ago, I was invited to preside over his poetry reading. That was when I decided to translate him.

I assume this was your first attempt at translating an Urdu poet. Did you encounter any problems in translating a poet whose thought processes are often involuted and whose imagery defies rendition into English?

Yes, indeed. Faiz, who was himself a translator, was conscious of the problems that confront anyone who undertakes to translate verse. I often felt it difficult to render some of his images and metaphors. But since I was operating on the same wave-length as this poet, I somehow managed to steer my way through.

Isn't music an element in poetry that is difficult to capture in translation?

I DO AGREE WITH YOU. BUT IN MY CASE, IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION, I FELT AS THOUGH I WAS SINGING A DUET WITH FAIZ, LIKE A TABLA PLAYER ACCOMPANYING A GHAZAL SINGER. IT IS WELL KNOWN HOW FAIZ'S POETRY HAS LENT ITSELF READILY TO SEVERAL GHAZAL SINGERS.

Do you think that Faiz, a Pakistani poet, limited his commitment to his native country only?

Certainly not. Faiz was a liberal humanist whose love for all communities, nations and religions knew no barriers. This may explain why he was loved and admired not only in Pakistan and India but also in Lebanon, London and Chicago. In a sense, he was a citizen of the world. He felt outraged wherever political tyranny tried to suppress the human mind. No wonder, he was disillusioned even after Pakistan had won its independence because the basic social and political problems still remained.

You say you are a lover of Urdu Poetry, but you write in English. Does your English poetry, in any manner, reflect the rich heritage of Urdu poetry?

Yes, several critics and readers of my poetry have also made this observation. I think if my poetry sometimes appears to be emotionally intense, and the imagery visually eastern, it may be due to the influence of Mir, Ghalib and Faiz.

You may have noticed that some of our modern Urdu poets like Firaq Gorakhpuri, Parveen Shakir and Faiz Ahmed Faiz were well versed in English literature. For instance, if Faiz started his career as a lecturer in English, Firaq remained on the Faculty of English at Allahabad University all his life.

That is indeed a very interesting coincidence. But this may also explain why the work of these poets is highly profound and complex. Because, like most Western poets, irony with these Urdu poets is a mode of perception. All of them have avoided lapsing into excessive sentimentalism.

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