Modern Poetry in Translation – next edition ‘Freed Speech’
The next issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (Third Series, Number 12, autumn 2009) will be called ‘Freed Speech’.
Last year saw the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of those rights is freedom of speech. In our next issue we want to celebrate speech that has been freed. Poetry and translation, working together, have often been the means and the best expression of that liberation. We want examples from past and present, from all over the world, from all manner of circumstances, of people being enabled to speak and of their voices being heard. Of course, we must show the repression and harming of those voices too. But chiefly we hope this issue will be celebratory.We want it to show the triumph of the will to speak, the freeing, the recovery and the enjoyment of tongues. And in this might be included texts which, for one reason or another lost or hidden, have now come to light
Submissions should be sent by 1 August 2009, please, in hard copy, with return postage, to The Editors, Modern Poetry in Translation, The Queen’s College, Oxford, OX1 4AW. Unless agreed in advance, submissions by email will not be accepted. Only very exceptionally will we consider work that has already been published elsewhere. Translators are themselves responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions. Since we do sometimes authorize further publication on one or two very reputable websites of work that has appeared in MPT, the permissions should cover that possibility.
Faiz Ghar, Lahore – A museum to house Faiz memorabilia and papers
At the recent launch in Lahore of ‘Hum Jeetay Jee Masroof Rahay’, Agha Nasir’s book on legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Adeel Hashmi, Faiz’s grandson, announced on behalf of the Faiz Foundation the establishment of Faiz Ghar in Lahore, a museum to house Faiz memorabilia and papers held by his family.
Funding permitting, the soft opening of a section is planned for Feb 09. The Ghar will be housed in a 2 kanal house in Model Town leased to the Faiz Foundation by an admirer of the poet’s for a token rent of One Rupee a month.
Apart from the Faiz section, the Ghar’s remaining rooms will be open house to artistes and painters to pursue and practise their craft.
Presided over by Begum Tahira Mazhar Ali and hosted by Shuaib Hashmi, the book launch had Asghar Nadeem Syed, Arifa Syeda, Ghalib Ahmed and Agha Nasir re-living their personal memories of Faiz.
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Amrita Pritam – Ode to Waris Shah
Amrita Pritam in 1948. Photograph courtesy of Amarjit Chandan Collection
Translation from the original in Punjabi by Khushwant Singh. Amrita Pritam: Selected Poems. Ed Khushwant Singh. (Bharatiya Jnanpith Publication, 1992)
TO WARIS SHAH
To Waris Shah I turn today!
Speak up from the graves midst which you lie!
In our book of love, turn the next leaf.
When one daughter of the Punjab did cry
You filled pages with songs of lamentation,
Today a hundred daughters cry
0 Waris to speak to you.
O friend of the sorrowing, rise and see your Punjab
Corpses are strewn on the pasture,
Blood runs in the Chenab.
Some hand hath mixed poison in our live rivers
The rivers in turn had irrigated the land.
From the rich land have sprouted venomous weeds
flow high the red has spread
How much the curse has bled!
The poisoned air blew into every wood
And turned the flute bamboo into snakes
They first stung the charmers who lost their antidotes
Then stung all that came their way
Their lips were bit, fangs everywhere.
The poison spread to all the lines
All of the Punjab turned blue.
Song was crushed in every throat;
Every spinning wheel’s thread was snapped;
Friends parted from one another;
The hum of spinning wheels fell silent.
All boats lost the moorings
And float rudderless on the stream
The swings on the peepuls’ branches
I lave crashed with the peepul tree.
Where the windpipe trilled songs of love
That flute has been lost
Ranjah and his brothers have lost their art.
Blood keeps falling upon the earth
Oozing out drop by drop from graves.
The queens of love
Weep in tombs.
It seems all people have become Qaidos,
Thieves of beauty and love
Where should I search out
Another Waris Shah.
Waris Shah
Open your grave;
Write a new page
In the book of love.
NOTES
Waris Shah (1706 -1798) was a Punjabi poet, best-known for his seminal work Heer Ranjha, based on the traditional folk tale of Heer and her lover Ranjha. Heer is considered one of the quintessential works of classical Punjabi literature.
Qaido – A maternal uncle of Heer in Heer Ranjha is the villain who betrays the lovers.
The Punjab – the region of the five rivers east of Indus: Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej.
Massive population exchanges occurred between the two newly-formed states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. Based on 1951 Census of displaced persons, 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition. About 11.2 million or 78% of the population transfer took place in the west, with Punjab accounting for most of it; 5.3 million Muslims moved from India to West Punjab in Pakistan, 3.4 million Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to East Punjab in India; elsewhere in the west 1.2 million moved in each direction to and from Sind.
The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000.
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