Art of Balanced Exaggeration in Conversation – 2

Click here to read in Gujarati
Here, I divert my narration and connect you with the earlier mention of Lalujee. His verse in English could, no doubt, create fun; but, he could not give proper justice to the original text of a very effective verse in Hindi. Such problem may happen to even a prominent translator also as any literary work written initially in respective language loses its original charm in translation to other language if not carried out successfully. One more thing is that the translation of the poetry is more difficult rather than prose. It is said, “Poetry is an art of soul.”

Sometimes, a translator may not feel the feelings of the poet he would have felt during the creation and as a result, he has simply to rely upon the equivalent words of the original Text. In such cases, the translated poem appears like the patchwork. To create a master piece translation, one has to experience over- all impression and concept of the poem and to go to summarized text to submit natural expressions of the feelings of the poet. I would like to mention Zaverchand Meghani for his successful translations of some poems from English or we may say as if they were his own creations. Those English poems are “Somebody’s Darling”, “On the bank of river Rhine” and “Fair flowers in the valley”.**

Now, I am pleased to submit below the English version of Mirza  Ghalib’s Couplets already presented in my first Part of this Article. In sense of humor, I tell you not to compare this translation with Laluprasad’s one. I  have worked with this little job through various means by applying my own intuition and harnessing my possible abilities. On hand meanings given into brackets, an English version of the verse in discussion by Rajender Krishn and many more related sources have helped me in my attempt with comparative studies to finalize my translation of only these two Couplets. There is difference of opinion to understand or translate the fourth line of the first Couplet, but I have made up my mind to go with my own interpretation of ‘self respect’ of the poet. Please proceed on to enjoy.

It’s the heart, not a stone or a brick,
Why shouldn’t it feel the pain?
I’ll cry myself many times,
How dare anybody harass me?  (1)

Neither it’s a temple, nor a mosque,
Nor any shrine’s thresh-hold or a door,
I am sitting on a public path,
Why should anybody tell me to rise? (2)

By the way, I would suggest to my Readers to visit Ghalib’s Corner of the above entire Ghazal (original Urdu text) presented in English and Hindi scripts. Supporting meanings of the Urdu words will help you to enjoy this one of the best Ghazals of Ghalib Saab.

Two more sources are also here as

(1) Asghar Vasanwala’s exclusive site on Mirza Ghalib
(2) Smriti’s collection of Ghalib’s Ghazals

Now, it is the time to give you my stock of promises given to both Mr. Benerjee and you people, the members of my blog family. ‘One more surprise’ assured to Mr. Bannerjee while seeing him off is interwoven in my following conversation.

“Mr. Valibhai, now it is the time to depart from you. Do you remember your promise of giving me ‘one more surprise’?”

“Exactly!”

“Straightway or with enticement?”

“Straightway, but with brief background! Now, listen to me.”

With glittering eyes of curiosity, Mr.Benerjee  was smiling in his moustaches. I was rather sentimental in my voice. I was feeling something that cannot be termed with guilt;  but some slight pricking was there in my heart  for my innocent vocal exaggeration in  talk with Mr. Benerjee, a man, an every inch a gentleman. I collected some boldness and started saying, “Mr. Benerjee, first of all, let me thank you for giving us an opportunity of being your host. As you know, hospitality is the inseparable part of our Indian culture and also a pious deed as per our own religion. To take good care of a guest is just like serving the God. Your enthusiasm for hearing some Urdu verses from me compelled me that I should not disappoint you. Truly speaking, I am quite unknown to Urdu language and its literature. It is the grace of the Almighty Creator that with my memory of only two Couplets of Mirza Ghalib, but with the style of its presentation that you already know, I could impress you as if I am a scholar of Urdu Ghazals. But it’s not so. No doubt, I am interested in Ghazals, but only Gujarati Ghazals. I am extremely sorry for my exaggeration of my little knowledge in our conversation.”

“What do you say, Mr. Valibhai? I can’t believe, but if it is really so, it is the great-great-great surprise to me! I exactly remember that your promise had followed just after I had embraced you and it proves your innocence. This surprise has overcome the former surprise that you had given me to hear the She’rz of my favorite Shaayar and his such She’rz which will be remembered for thousands and thousands of the years to come.”

Mr. Benerjee once again embraced me with tears of joy in his eyes. He said, “The longevity of human life, presently, is maximum 100 years. If I say your both the surprises, former and the latter, will be remembered by me for thousand years; it will be an exaggeration. But, I would like to say that your surprises and you-yourself will be remembered by me throughout my life.”

While departing, I told him a proverb, “Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.”

“But, you haven’t added! You have wiped off after painting!” said he.

My dear Readers, my promise for ‘one more surprise’ to you also is fulfilled here. I would like to give you a quotation of Tryon Edwards on ‘Exaggeration’ as bonus. It is as “Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.” I should not clarify myself but ask you, “What form of this Article spread in two parts, will you classify whether it is an essay, a story, the poetry, an Article or a play?” I am awaiting for your answers in Comment Box; not only plain answers; but with your views, ideas, comments and whatever you like to write also!

See you off now, but see you once again!

If the God wishes, it’s promise of

– Valibhai Musa
Dtd.: September 24, 2008

** કોઈનો લાડકવાયો, સૂના સમદરની પાળે, વનરામાં ગલ રાતાં ફૂલડાં

 

Life on earth, possible but not safe!

Click here to read in Gujarati
Today my heart, paining with the burning issue of violence now-a-days spread over one or the other country of the world, stimulates me to write something still more over and above some of my previous articles in this regard. Wars and conflicts, both military and civilian, can never bring permanent solutions of the issues. The world has experienced the failure of experiments of violence and still we are not prepared to give a serious thought over the philosophy of non-violence successfully experimented by Mahatma Gandhi. The world is now weary of hate and violence. Far past and recent massacres made through Atomic Bombs and Bomb Blasts have destroyed the lives of such a number of people with whom, if they were alive, we could have started a new world on any planet of the universe.

Let me very frankly put a new equation as “World = Rulers + Ruled”. The Rulers are at top, the Ruled are at bottom. The Rulers are few and the Ruled are countless. Out of both the divisions, the oppressors are few, the oppressed are many. From top to bottom, those some very few are engaged in how to destroy the earth, its innocent population, its balanced environment, its natural resources, its social law and order, its peace and comforts, its primary needs for survival of all creatures, its ideology and spirituality and its many more physical and abstract concerns. A great number of the oppressed have to judge who use Atomic Bombs and alike destroying weapons as the Rulers and who use Bomb Blasts and similar practices damaging and disturbing civilian lives as the Ruled. A neutral observer will not generalize them in particular group of East or West and Caste or Religion. They will classify them as a single group of known as the enemies of humanity and rebellious against the God and His Divinity.

The Birthday (2nd October) of Mahatma Gandhi has been declared as International Non-violence Day by the UNO. But, what of that if the purpose of the day is not served! All the member nations of the UNO should at least introduce the study of Non-violence minimum at Primary Education level and see we can create a new generation throughout the world that can change the face of the world with a new concept of Non-violence. Revolutionary education to present growing up generation may bring good results flourished fully after 100 years if we start today. I recall an ancient system of erecting walls with bricks and stones around the capital cities of a particular kingdom to protect it from the attacks of the enemies. In that context, I remember a quote somewhere read as “Just to prevent the wars, walls should be built in the minds of the people.” The lessons of Non-violence will surely build the castles in the minds of the new generation and thus the future of the world will be very bright and the earth will be worth living for all.

I am not an expert of National and/or International Politics as well as not a scholar of World History. But, with my simple logic and understanding, I have come to a conclusion that due to some political mistakes, the powerful nations opted wars instead of some alternative solutions of the issues and as a result millions of human lives have been destroyed. Some political critics have openly blamed those powerful nations that they have imposed wars upon the world under the pretext of saving all from destructive weapons and that also with a good name of war for peace. But, the outcomes of those so called wars for peace are before our eyes and we have no any option but to believe in that all these misfortunes are the side products of those wars.

It is the irony of the fate of the world that the scientists try to know whether life is possible on other planets like Mars; but here on this Earth, we see that life is possible but not safe. Human is not safe in transportations, on roads, in hospitals, in their business premises, in religious places, in schools or colleges, in their farms or even at its home.

Just for some moments meanwhile, I’ll go to a personal matter of mine just to co-relate it with my following point of the Article. My Friend Dr. K. M. Patel’s daughter, Urmila is preparing for her Ph.D. in the subject of “Saul Bellow – an American Novelist”. I chatted on internet to feed some contents if useful to her. I chanced to collect a dialogue from Saul Bellow’s novel “Ravelsterin” (Frankly speaking, I have not read the full novel) which is very important for me to advocate humanity. The dialogue is as “There are times when I need to ride in the subway at rush hour or sit in a crowded movie house-that’s what I mean by a humanity bath. As cattle must have salt to lick, I sometimes crave physical contact.”

I pick up only two words ‘humanity bath’ from above text and join my Readers with me to imagine a ‘blood bath’ resulted from a bomb blast and victims would have been travelers of any transport or spectators of any movie in a theatre. Those enemies of humanity take away the lives of many in a second and on the other hand some Surgeons try to save a single life with some major operations for hours. A mother sacrifices her whole life to bring up her child and make him a young man and in no moments he becomes the victim of such man-made disasters. A doctor who studies up to the age of about 25 years and has been capable to save the lives of many patients and he loses his valuable life in a very cheap manner. Many blood donors worldwide donate their blood willingly to save the lives of unknown people and here the sacred blood of many innocents is spilt and wasted.

Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said, “We see that this song of hate has not benefited humanity.” I repeat my words placed in my previous Article “International Non-violence Day” and say that to walk on the way of Non-violence is rather difficult and perhaps the result may be disappointing. Gandhiji has explained this issue of doubt in his words as “My faith is as strong as ever. There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of Non-violence. Millions like me may fail to prove the truth in their lives; that would be their failure, never of the eternal law.”

While summing up, I would suggest to my Gujarati Readers to read a poem of Zaverchand Meghani titled as “Ghan re bole!” (ઘણ રે બોલે!). A sledge (big hammer) and an anvil (એરણ)are the instruments of a blacksmith. In personification flower of speech (સજીવારોપણ અલંકાર), the hammer and the anvil have been imagined as brother and sister respectively. Here, the brother speaks and the sister hears. The sledge declares its (his) wish before the anvil to make some creative equipments useful to mankind rather than destructive weapons used in wars. It is a wonderful poem that can be sung in tune of a singing prayer (ભજન).

Let us pray to God for prosperity and happiness of the world.

Regards,

– Valibhai Musa
Dtd.: Aug 15, 2008