The Original and the Translated: A Comparative Study of English Translations of Mahjoor’s Poems by T.N.Kaul and Trilokinath Raina Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English by Furrukh Faizan Mir Under the supervision of Professor Mohammad Aslam Department of English University of Kashmir, Srinagar 2012 Certificate This dissertation titled The Original and the Translated: A Comparative Study of English Translations of Mahjoor’s Poems by T.N.Kaul and Trilokinath Raina submitted by Furrukh Faizan Mir in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Master of Philosophy in English, is an independent and original piece of research work carried out under my supervision. This research work has not been submitted, in part or in full, to any University/Institute for any degree. The candidate has fulfilled all the statutory requirements for the submission of this dissertation. Professor Mohammad Aslam Supervisor Acknowledgment I would like to express my gratitude to my guide, Prof. Mohammad Aslam, for his inspiration and step by step scholarly guidance throughout the course of the present study. Without his erudite assistance, the study would not have been accomplished at all. I would like to thank Prof Lily Want, Head of the Department of English, for her continuous encouragement in my efforts as a humble researcher and her suggestions concerning the subject of my research. I gratefully acknowledge the help I received from my friends—Mohsin, Mudasir, Fara Deeba, Abid, Aijaz, Irfan, Umra, Insha, Shazia and Sadiya—while looking for books relevant to my research. Last but not the least, I would like to thank the non-teaching and library staff of the Department of English for their cooperation. Furrukh Faizan Mir Contents Page No. Introduction i-vi Chapter I Translation Theory and Practice: An Overview 1-31 Chapter II Kashmiri Poetry and Mahjoor 32-73 Chapter III The Original and the Translated: A Comparative 74-159 Study Conclusion 160-164 Bibliography Introduction Introduction Mahjoor is one of the most prominent pioneers of modern Kashmiri poetry. He remains a household name in the whole of Kashmir and is known as „The Poet of Kashmir‟. Born in a religiously respected Muslim family—known as Peerzada family— on August 11, 1887 at Mitrigaam, a picturesque district of the valley of Kashmir, he was named as Ghulam Ahmad Peerzada. The boy received his earlier education from his father Peer Abdullah Shah, a Persian and Arabic scholar and a village Maulvi (preacher) by profession. Later on, he was sent to a maktab (religious school) in the neighbouring township of Tral where his association with Abdul Ghani Aashaq, an able Kashmiri poet and scholar, kindled his imagination and produced in him a burning passion for writing poetry. While his orthodox father wanted him to follow his priestly profession, the boy had different interests. Abhorring the possibility of mantle of peer falling on his young shoulders, he thought of an escapade from the valley. One day, in the winter of 1905, he quickly slipped away and reached Amritsar, a city in the Punjab. Those days Amritsar would hum with literary activities. Being an intelligent young man and a fine calligrapher, Mahjoor easily found an employment as a copyist in a local newspaper while spending his spare time in Urdu and Persian versification. It was during i Introduction these days that he got a golden opportunity of meeting some well- known Urdu poets of the day, like Maulana Bismil and Alama Shibli. It was here that he adopted „Mahjoor‟ as his poetic pseudonym. The turning point in Mahjoor‟s career came in the first decade of the 20th century when he was invited to a poetic symposium where he recited one of his Urdu poems which was not received well by the audience. The bitterness that he felt that moment made him realize that Urdu or Persian was not the right medium for his poetic expression. Consequently, he bade good-bye to Urdu and Persian and, instead, turned to his mother tongue, Kashmiri. Shortly after his return from the Punjab, Mahjoor got a job as a patwari in the revenue department. In his capacity as a patwari, he got the opportunity to spend many a year in various parts of the state including the frontier regions of Leh and Kargil. As a result of his stay at various places in the valley, he came in close contact with the common Kashmiri people, learning their woes and wishes, and also appreciated the beauty of Kashmiri folk poetry and folklore, and the richness and sweetness of the Kashmiri language. According to Kashmiri Shairi Aur Zaban (1984), it was in 1923 that Mahjoor for the first time felt the urge to write in ii Introduction Kashmiri. However, it was in 1926 that he heard a melodious song of Habba Khatoon sung by a group of Kashmiri peasant women collecting fire wood from a nearby forest. Mahjoor felt so enchanted by the song that he decided to compose a parallel song expressing feminine feelings and sentiments. This gave birth to one of his most famous lyrics, pose mate janaanoo. It was this lyric which established him as a notable Kashmiri poet. Azad (1984), quoting Davinder Sethyarthy (a disciple of Tagore), says that “the lyric in point impelled the great Bengali poet, Rabindernath Tagore, to praise Mahjoor and to opine that Kashmir was really a cradle for poetry”. The lyric was followed by a chain of melodiously bewitching songs like baghi nishat ke gulo, tamana chaani deedarukh, sozi-dil boz wan hareyey, kyah malaale rot janaanan, etc., which earned him the love of the common Kashmiris and also the esteem of the learned ones. The period from 1931-1945 may be described as the most productive period of Mahjoor‟s poetic career. After his retirement from government service in 1945, he spent the rest of his days at his native village. Mahjoor was the first Kashmiri poet to earn a special scholarship from the government of J&K on the 8th of April 1952. Only a day after he received the first installment of the scholarship, he breathed his last on account of brain hemorrhage iii Introduction and was buried at his ancestral graveyard at Mitrigaam. In order to offer his tribute to the poet, the then Deputy Prime Minister of the State of J&K, Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammed visited Mitrigaam personally and suggested that the poet‟s body should be exhumed and buried afresh at a place called Athwajan, (a place commonly believed to be the birth place of Habba Khatoon) in Srinagar, near the river bank of Jhelum. This took place on 11 April 1952. The funeral procession of the poet started from one of the most sacred shrines in Kashmir, Khawnakhai Maula, and was laid to rest with full state honour. Scholars like M.Y. Taing (1992) and T. N. Kaul (1988) have compiled a complete list of Mahjoor‟s works, both published and unpublished. Out of these, the present study is confined only to the following two most important collections of his poems: 1) Kalaam-i-Mahjoor: A published work of Mahjoor in Kashmiri which consists of twelve booklets including seventy three love songs and lyrics. 2) Payaam-i-Mahjoor: A published work of Mahjoor in Kashmiri comprising six booklets covering patriotic songs and poems of social and political nature. In order to make a comparative study of a few poems selected from the above mentioned two collections and their iv Introduction English translations, selection has been made of two translators, namely, T.N. Kaul and Trilokinath Raina. The two translators invite attention, firstly, on account of the quantity of their translations of Mahjoor‟s poetry because nobody else has attempted to translate into English as many poems of Mahjoor as they have. Secondly, both of them being Kashmiris by birth and having spent a major period of their lives in Kashmir, they can be expected to appreciate to an extent the niceties of the Kashmiri language. What is more, both have remained professionally associated with the English language. Trilokinath Raina worked as a Professor of English at the National Defense Academy, Khadakvasla. His translations from Kashmiri have been published from time to time in The Visvabharati Quarterly, Poetry India and Poetry Eastwest. As for Kaul, he has for a considerable time worked on the editorial staff of the two leading dailies of India namely, The Times of India and The Hindustan Times and has also to his credit several articles on Kashmiri literature and a number of English translations of Kashmiri essays. Apart from a brief introduction and a concluding sequel wherein attempt will be made to sum-up the important findings of the study, the present study comprises three main chapters, each touching upon one or the other notable aspect of the subject. v Introduction In Chapter I entitled “Translation Theory and Practice: An Overview” an attempt will be made to define translation and briefly trace its history and discuss the difficulties of translation encountered generally and particularly when dealing with poetry. In Chapter II entitled “Kashmiri Poetry and Mahjoor” an attempt will be made to place Mahjoor in the history of Kashmiri poetry and underline the poet‟s contribution as a harbinger of a sort of renaissance in Kashmiri poetry. The chapter will also include a brief description of the various translations of Mahjoor attempted in different languages. The translations attempted by Kaul and Raina, being the most voluminous attempts of translating Mahjoor into English and also being the central subject of our study, due note will be taken of the two translators‟ purpose in selecting Mahjoor for their renderings.