the global journal of literary studies i volume ii, … · the global journal of literary studies i...

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I Volume II, Issue I I February 2016 ISSN : 2395 4817


The Global Journal of Literary Studies I February 2016 I Vol. II, Issue I I ISSN : 2395 4817

Indian Sensibility through English Translation: A Study of Javed Akhtar’s Quiver- Translation of Tarkash

Dr. Swati S. Kapadia

Associate Professor Bhavan’s Sheth R. A. College of Arts & Commerce

Ahmedabad. Gujarat, INDIA.

Abstract

After a debate of years together, it was agreed upon by the scholars and critics that the term ‘Indian English

Literature’ should include -

1. works originally written in English by the Indian writers and

2. works originally written in regional Indian languages, translated in English, by the writers themselves.

However, it did not take long for them to realize that the canon of Indian writing in English would remain

incomplete without considering the amassed sea of translations from regional Indian languages into English by

scholars and not by the writers themselves. Such translations not only occupy a significantly large space in the

canon; they also contribute immensely to the enrichment of Indian writing in English as well as extend the

horizons of appeal and readership of Indian literature written in regional languages by putting it before a larger

number of readers in the world at large. At home, these translations strengthen the case for the long-craved

identity of Indian writing in English as Indian literature.

With this assertion, the present paper attempts to study translation of Javed Akhtar’s volume of poems – Turkash

– titled as Quiver in English, translated by David Mathews. It attempts to bring out the traces of Indian tradition

as well as present day Indian urban life with problems of living in a street of Mumbai, lying beneath the universal

themes like love, disillusionment and social injustice and a philosophy of life.

Keywords : Translation, Indianness, Urbanisation


The canon of Indian English writings is not only strengthened in terms of its output, variety and range,

but is also enriched significantly by translations from regional languages. These translations have put

rich Indian literature of regional languages before the world, thereby, have affirmed the identity of the

canon. With this assertion, the present paper attempts to study Quiver- translation of Javed Akhtar’s

Tarkash. Apart from assessing its typical Indian temperament and subjects, imagery and landscapes, the

paper also discusses whether regional flavour and Indian sensibility are justified in the translation or not,

especially, when the translator is neither the poet himself nor his Indian counterpart but a westerner.

Javed Akhtar, a popular lyricist and script writer of Bollywood, is a serious Urdu poet of a high order.

His poetry, which looks for and often comes up with new meanings of life and brings out the poet’s

philosophy of life, bears the mark of being Indian in its imagery, nostalgia, projection of life in an

Indian metro like Bombay, etc. Though an experimental poet, that’s what the critics often call him,

Akhtar belongs to the tradition of Urdu poets in India, writing the ghazals of love and nostalgia on one

hand and progressive modern poems on social injustice, miseries of urban life, etc. on the other.

Akhtar’s film – scripts and lyrics have won him a great success and a universal recognition. Like any of

his films, his life is no less than a romantic story of outstanding success. Introducing himself, in the

Preface to Quiver, he says:

When people write about themselves, the very first thing they mention is the city they belong

to. “Which city do I call my own?” I was born in Gwaliar, reared in Lucknow, grew up in

Aligarh, played truant in Bhopal and turned wise in Bombay. (1)

He comes from a literary background. His father, Jaan Nisar Akhtar was a renowned progressive Urdu

poet. His mother was a lecturer in Hamidia College, Bhopal. After graduating from Bhopal, like many

Urdu poets, he made his way to Bombay where the Hindi film industry provided him opportunity to

show his talent. At first, he struggled a lot against all odds of survival in a metro city – poverty, lodging,

hunger, work, etc. At last, to quote his words, “in November 1969 I got some work which in film

parlance is called a ‘break’” (9)

Success then came to him like Aladdin’s magic lamp. He scripted some of the most popular hit films of

Bollywood like Deewar, Sholey, Zanjeer and Trishul in 70s and 80s jointly with his partner Salim Khan.

Later, he pursued his career individually and wrote scripts for films like Sagar, Mr. India and Betab.

Apart from being a Bollywood lyricist and a script writer, Akhtar is an Urdu poet of a high order. He has

published many collections of poems and ghazals out of which Tarkash, published in 1995 has been

translated in English by David Mathews. The translation, titled as Quiver first appeared in 2001. Its


seventh reprint has been brought out in 2011. . It is a collection of 49 poems out of which 23 are ghazals

– a form peculiar to tradition of Urdu poetry. The translation was very well received by critics and

reviewers. Khushwant Singh wrote in Outlook: Javed Akhtar “is lucky to have found a translator in

David Mathews. He has done a splendid job.” *qtd. On Dust page of Quiver) Ali Husain Mir and Raza

Mir write:

In 1996 Urdu poetry received an unexpected gift in the shape of Javed Akhatar’s collection of poems

titled Turkash (Quiver) It had been a long time since a new book of poetry had generated such an

enthusiasm. Eager as we were all, for a fresh volume we devoured this well produced volume… and

marveled at the poet. (174)

Translating a literary work, especially poetry is a challenging task. The challenge is greater when poetry

of a regional Indian language is translated in a foreign language which does not bear the marks of

culture of the regional language. Thus, before assessing the linguistic aspect of the translation, it is

necessary to analyse Javed Akhtar’s poetry- its subjects, themes, imagery, etc.

Javed Akhtar’s poetry, universal in appeal, is mainly Indian in tone, spirit and subject matter. It is

concerned with existential issues and philosophical broodings. It raises universal questions like

Why are we here? For whom? How far?

Complicated – that’s what we are. (105)

The poet comments on the nature of life.

They say history repeats itself today.

But then the best parts always seem to go astray. (113)

Commenting on Akhtar’s poetry, an eminent Urdu writer Quartulain Haidar says:

Javed Akhtar is an eloquent, thoughtful, post – modern poet. Freshness, depth,

intellectualism and a search for new meanings in life are the characteristics of his

verse….Turkash is filled with the arrows of life’s sadness and of the grief of the age. (21-22)

Commenting on the poems in Tarkash, Ali Husain Mir and Raza Mir write in their book Anthems of

Resistance:

Each poem in Tarkash was a wondrous joy and an exquisite pain. The book was startlingly

familiar in the way it brought back memories of the era of the progressive poets yet radically


different in the new contemporary sensibility it claimed for itself. The relentless engagement

with social conditions was evident in every poem but the ringing promise of the

revolutionary had been replaced by the wistful demeanour of the realist. (175)

However, the implications of the Indian identity of Akhtar’s poetry cannot be overlooked.

NOSTALGIA:

Poems in Quiver are nostalgic. The poet, disappointed and disgusted with the present, tends to look back

to his childhood. He often contrasts it with his present. Childhood in Akhtar’s poems is described most

of the times as a lost ideal reality, as an unattainable world of happiness. To quote David Mathews:

Reminiscences of childhood and early life which Javed Akhtar spent in the secure and

comfortable house of his maternal grandparents in Lucknow are strong and are found in

many poems throughout the book. (23)

In the very first poem ‘My Courtyard, My Tree’ the poet affectionately recalls the yard ‘in which / All

my games fitted so well’ and the tree ‘in front of that yard’ ‘Which was much taller than I’ (33) In ‘I

Remember That Room’ (39) the poet remembers with longing ‘That room, kind beyond all bounds, /

Which used to lock me up in its soft sleep’ whenever, ‘scorched by the burning sun of life’, getting tired

‘of my own lies and the lies of others’ he went into it The intense longing for the room can be seen in

the concluding lines:

The house where I live now

Is very, very fine.

But often I sit here in silence and remember

How that room would talk to me. (43)

In a ghazal he compares his life as an adult with his past, perhaps childhood life and romanticizes past.

This is the day when streets are eager for the fray,

But once the streets would gaily shout, “come out to play”

This is the house with everything on every side,

That was the house where my grandmother lived and died. (207)


However, in a number of poems Akhtar remembers the loneliness and depravity for being an ‘orphan’

child also.

In my childhood I was lonely every day;

The alley of my heart is where I used to play.

….

How wonderful and strange the fairgrounds of my life

In all the shops desires in full were on display. (63)

Akhtar is especially nostalgic about mother. He refers to mother very emotionally in many poems. As he

himself has stated, he was very attached to his mother whom he lost at a very young age. He always

refers to mother as loving and caring. In ‘I Remember that Room’ he compares the comfort and cosiness

offered by his room to a mother’s caring for and fondling her child.

That room, kind beyond all bounds,

Which used to tuck me up in its soft sleep

As a mother

Might hide her child in the folds of her dress

Scolding with love: (39)

In his well-known poem ‘Hunger’ the poet remembers his mother as under:

And what strange things my mother said,

As everyday with her own hand

She used to feed me when she spoke…

‘One mouthful for the elephant;

Another mouthful for the horse;

One more mouthful for the bear.’ (57)

In a ghazal the poet also writes about boys who do not have their mother:

They see their mother in their sweetheart’s frame,

Without the mother boys all act the same. (109)


POETRY OF INVOLVEMENT:

Akhtar’s poetry falls into the typical Indian tradition of involvement rather than detachment. He

emotionally involves himself into the subject he describes. In a long poem ‘Banjara’ he describes

himself as a wanderer of ‘the cities of time’ travelling from one city of time to another, putting his ‘bag

of memories’ on his shoulders,

To explain to my tiny moments,

To console my innocent moments,

To tell my story once again,…. (73)

Even when he brings out miseries of life or failure in love, he is emotionally involved in his expressions.

Miseries of urban life:

Like many of his contemporary writers in English and other languages, Akhtar too, concerns himself

with miseries of urban life and problems of living in a city. Like Ezekiel, Jussawala, etc. he too, is a poet

of the Bombay city which has given him taste of, struggle and success, extreme poverty and immense

prosperity. In Hunger’ he beautifully and movingly portrays the suffering of a man (himself), living in a

city, almost dying of hunger.

In the midday heat I walk

With aimless steps

Along a street,

Along a narrow kind of street;

People come and people go,

Passing by me.

Nut how vague

As if they have no face at all.

The noisy shops,

The rough coarse words….

All I hear

And all I see,


Greets me like some distant dream. ….

Now I feel that I might faint,

And sweat engulfs my body.

I have no strength left.

Three days today

Three days today. (55)

At another place he writes:

‘My house has been surrounded with high buildings,

I have been robbed of my share of the sun today.’ (45)

These and many other lines bring out life in an Indian metro.

It is true; urbanisation is a universal theme of modern poetry. Right from Eliot poets, from time to time,

have dealt with problems of existence in city. There are especially two poems in the collection which are

typically Indian. These poems can be written by an Indian poet only. The poems are-‘Before the Riot’

and ‘After the Riot’. The first one brings out the anxiety, fear and uncertainty clutching the city before

the riot. – “The city is like a frightened child, / Afraid even of its own shadow.” (97) The latter poem

records the silence, destruction and desolateness spread in the city after the riot. – “The silence speaks to

the world around:

Listen, smashed up shop,

Smouldering house,

Broken barrow,

You are not the only ones;

There are others as well;

Who have been destroyed.

For them we shall mourn.

But let us first weep for those,

Who came to loot (103)


In many other poems the poet refers to community bars and partition.

Now come with me and let us share it as well,

Dhaka, Rawalpindi, Delhi – their bright moons. (79)

Despite all negatives and pain, riots and community and caste bars, projected as part of the Indian ethos,

like a true Indian, the poet bears a desire for harmony and integrity – this Indian faith affirms the

sensitive Indian heart revealing itself in poetry.

One day, life will be honoured by mankind,

This one desire, I nurture in my mind. (99)

Alienation and Deprivation:

Alienation and deprivation, common themes of modern poetry and Urdu ghazals, are major themes in

Akhtar’s poems as well.

All of us are just one step away from happiness,

In every house we always seem to lack one room. (77)

Imagery in the following lines from a ghazal also show the feeling of loneliness and deprivation of the

poet.

A withered branch, a lonely bird, a pale moon,

And in the desert of the eyes, a watery moon.

How long it is, how many days, since I had kissed

That forehead…. (79)

Imagery:

Even while philosophizing or discussing problems of existence or universalizing the local or the

personal, Akhtar’s imagery is strikingly Indian. Desperate in starvation, in the streets of Bombay, the

poet looks at the full moon and describes it with an image related to his longing for food. The moon

reminds him of a round chapatti served up on the dish of sky.

In Indian love poetry the description of female beauty has a long tradition. In his poems describing

female beauty Akhtar catches the familiar Indian images.


Glowing body, painted lips, magic eyes, curly hair;

Shining marble, scarlet cloud, red horizon and frightened - deer (157)

THE TRANSLATION:

The English translation, as the examples given above suggest, is able to voice the Indian identity of the

Urdu poems. Ghazal is a form, typical to Urdu and other regional languages of India. It generally

follows A,A B,A C,A rhyme scheme which cannot be adapted in English translation. Commenting on

his translation of Akhtar’s poems Mathews writes:

In translating Javed Akhtar’s verse into English, I have tried to be as faithful as possible to the text and

hope to have captured some of the spirit of the original. No version put into another language, the poetic

traditions of which are very different, can do both adequately…..The ghazal, with its complicated metres

and rigid rhyme scheme, presents the greatest challenge of all. (29)

Considering that most of the Urdu poetry is rhythmical and rhymed, the translator has adopted rhyming

couplets which form a part of the English poetic tradition as well.

I sum up my discussion with the note that Javed Akhtar’s poetry, with all its existentialism and

philosophy of life, with its play of directness and symbolism, its adherence to and deviation from the

Urdu tradition is unmistakably Indian. The Indian-ness is projected in subjects, imagery, genre, tone,

etc. The English translation quite successfully captures this Indian-ness.

Works Cited:

Akhtar, Javed. “About Myself” Trans. Amit Khanna in Quiver: Poems and Ghazals. Trans. By David Mathews.

New Delhi:Harper Collins Publishers India, 2001. Print.

Mir, Ali Husain & Mir, Raza. A Celebration of Progressive Urdu Poetry: Anthems of Resistance. New Delhi:

IndiaInk Roli Books, 2006. Print.

Haidar, Quartulain. Qtd. In “Introduction” Javed Akhtar’s Quiver: Poems and Ghazals. Trans. From Urdu by

David Mathews. New Delhi:Harper Collins Publishers India, 2001. Print.

Mathews, David. “Introduction”. Javed Akhtar’s Quiver: Poems and Ghazals. Trans. From Urdu by David

Mathews. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers India, 2001. Print.

Poems are quoted from ----- Akhtar, Javed. Quiver: Poems and Ghazals. Trans. By David Mathews. New Delhi:

Harper Collins Publishers India, 2001. Print.

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