On January 12, the last day of this year’s Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF) held in Allen Park, adman-turned-filmmaker Sumantra Ghosal was joined on stage by writer and communications specialist Supriya Newar for a presentation of the former’s recent translations of six poems by Javed Akhtar, selected from the two poetry volumes ‘Tarkash’, first published in the ’90s, and ‘Lava’, published in 2016
Photos: Soumyajit Dey
Ghosal, who called himself an “accidental translator”, chose to work on the poems ‘Mera Aangan, Mera Ped’, ‘Woh Kamra Yaad Aata Hai’, ‘Dushwari’, ‘Nigal Gaye Sab Ki Sab Samundar’, ‘Waqt’ and ‘Naya Hukm-nama’, each of which showcased a particular dimension to Akhtar’s oeuvre. The poems span across the affective landscapes of love, resistance, nostalgia, memory, and satire, swinging between philosophical considerations and tongue-in-cheek polemics
Ghosal’s sensitive reading of Akhtar bolstered his translations. Before reading out his translation of ‘Dushwari’, whose memorable last lines “mujhe hai yaad vo sab/ jo kabhi hua hi nahin” Ghosal rendered as “my memories are astir with things that never happened, that never were”, he remarked: “There is a modern, matter-of-factness bordering on cynicism when Javed ‘sahab’ writes about love. Makes you think: if this love, what is love?” For each of the poems, Akhtar’s original was played on screen before Ghosal addressed the translation
The conversation between Ghosal and Newar shed light on the technicalities of the ghazal form — delving into elements such as the ‘radif’, ‘kafiyah’ and ‘matla’ — and the (im)possibilities of capturing its cadences and tonalities in English. Ghosal shared that Akhtar had once told him: “Never, never translate ghazals. It simply does not lend itself to English poetry.” “So, naturally, I had to,” he laughed
When Newar asked Ghosal about his process for translating the specific rhythms of Akhtar’s ghazals and nazms, Ghosal admitted that he often failed, though his “intention was to make it sound poetic”. He went on to read out a poem he had written about the anxieties, rewards and elusive pleasures of translating, and observed, in a lighter vein, that the activity for him was akin to “solving crossword puzzles”. Among the intent listeners at Allen Park were Aparna Sen and Kalyan Ray
