In his book, Performing Without A Stage: the Art of Literary Translation, Robert Wechsler, a US-based publisher of Czech literature in translation and founder of the publishing house Catbird Press, discusses various aspects of translation. He starts from the basic question of possibilities and limitations of translating any piece of literature and moves on to discussing techniques and significance. He compares the art of translation with acting or performance by any artist and writes: “Literary translation is an art. What makes it so odd an art is that physically a translator does exactly the same thing as a writer. If an actor did the same thing as a playwright, a dancer did the same thing as a composer, or a singer did the same thing as a songwriter, no one would think much of what they do either. The translator’s problem is that he is a performer without a stage, a performer who, when all his work is done, has something that looks just like the original, just like a play or a song or a composition, nothing but ink on a page.”

Regarding the problems with the art of translation, Wechsler goes on to say: “The translator’s art is the more problematic one. And it is also the more responsible one, because while every musician knows that his performance is simply one of many, often one of thousands, by that musician and by others, the translator knows that his performance may be the only one, at least the only one of his generation, and that he will not have the opportunity either to improve on it or to try a different approach.”

American poet Robert Frost was not fond of translation and famously said that “poetry is what gets lost in translation.” Mexican Nobel laureate Octavio Paz had a slightly different view when he said, “Poetry is ‘impossible’ to translate because you have to reproduce the materiality of the signs, its physical properties. Here is where translation as an art begins.”

A translation of Bertolt Brecht’s poetry seasons universal thoughts with local flavour

The complication multiplies if the original work is not in a language the translator knows, but he is translating from another translation. This happens mostly with world literature written in languages other than English. Pakistani translators who translated Russian and South American literature faced this issue. Similar is the case with the German writer Bertolt Brecht, famed for his contribution to drama with his ‘epic theatre’ that was known for its elements of gestus (a combination of physical gestures and attitude) and dialectical theatre. However, Mushtaq Soofi takes it upon himself to translate Brecht’s poems into Punjabi. Soofi, himself being a Punjabi poet of repute and scholar with a command over the English language as well, could be someone who would aptly meet the challenge of translating Brecht into Punjabi.

While reading Soofi’s Bertolt Brecht (1898-1953): German Shayar Te Khedkaar, one does not feel as though one is reading a poet of a foreign land and language. This can be termed a success of the translator in familiarising the German poet to a Punjabi readership. It is the bold themes, and the poems on cities and places of Europe and the US with different locales, that shake the reader out of being lost to the realisation that one is reading a foreign poet.

Brecht’s love poems have a striking boldness that is often missing in Punjabi poetry. In Jawan Zanani Baray Kadh [Discovery About a Young Woman], he writes: “Chup chaap mein uss di chhaati nup laee/ Tey jadoon oh hairaan hoee/ Keh mein, jehrra rateen bistray wich

uss da prohna saan/ Jaan laee kyun tayar

nahi saan/ Tud mein sidh oss dian akhan

wich jhaat pai/ Tey jawab ditta/ Mein bus ik hore raat rehni aey”

[Silently I took her breast/ And when she wondered/ Why I, who’d been her guest that night in bed/ Was not prepared to leave as we had said/ I looked straight into her eyes and answered/ It’s only one more night that I will be staying].

Another such poem is Masoom Ujrray Tehdar Lenin Da Geet [Song of the Ruined Innocent Folding Lenin] where the poet deals with the theme of free love as a girl seeks sexual liberation against the advice of the mother.

Brecht’s life was anything but plain sailing despite his early success as a man of letters. His years of exile with the start of the Second World War, especially, gave a political dimension to his poetry although he was already in support of using art as a medium for political awareness, as is evident from his epic theatre. These poems are personal as well as political, which often intermingle in art; after all, they say the personal is political.

In Des Nikalay Di Muddat Uttay Wichaar [Thoughts on the Term of Exile], he writes;

“Zara uss kil nu tak/ Jehrra tu kandh wich thokya aey/ Keh khyal aey/ Tu kaddoon taeen parat jasain?”

[Look at the nail you knocked into the wall/ When do you think you will go back?].

Brecht had to undergo the trauma of exile that started with the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, and fearing persecution, he moved to Scandinavia and then to the US. Some of his poems have described the ordeal that he and his family had to go through. In the poem, ‘Finland 1940’, he writes: “Assi Finland wich mahajar aan/ Meri balrri shameen gila kardi

ghar murrdi aey/ Keh koi baal uss naal nahi khed’da/ Oh German aey/ Tay ghundyaan di qaum wichoon aai aey”

[We are now refugees in Finland/

My little daughter returns home in the evening complaining that no child/ Will play with her. She is German/ And comes from a nation of gangsters].

Brecht opposed World War I as a young man, enrolling in medical services to avoid becoming war fodder. Though the political poems seem alien to a Punjabi reader, some have relevance for Pakistani society, such as 'Jang Namay Wichoon Nazmaan' [From a German War Primer], where the poet addresses an army general to confront his rhetoric of war. He depicts the helplessness of the common man who has to work in an arms factory to make both ends meet.

Except for these and those with references to the West, most of Brecht’s poems deal with common human emotions, the general ordeals of men and women and their day-to-day lives that may resonate with Punjabi readers. Because the translations are from English and not directly from the original German, critics may term Soofi’s efforts ‘twice away from reality.’ However, Soofi addresses this issue himself in the book’s foreword, saying that the English translation was by translators who not only knew German and English, but were themselves poets of repute. He also writes that the Punjabi translation was done in 1981, but was published for the first time in 1997. This is the second edition of the book, published by the Pakistan Punjabi Adabi Board in 2017.

In his book Wechsler writes: “[The translator] is generally considered a poor and unimportant one. His work is scarcely mentioned in reviews, and almost never critiqued. His art is rarely taught inside or outside universities, his interpretations are rarely given credence in academia, and his thoughts and life story are not considered worthy of publication. He performs not with hopes of fame, fortune, or applause, but rather out of love, out of a sense of sharing what he loves and loving what he does.”

However, one hopes Soofi will receive due credit for translating Brecht’s poetry into Punjabi. While most Punjabis would read English literature, there are still enough folks who would like to read Brecht in a local flavour.

The reviewer is a member of staff

Bertolt Brecht
(1898-1953): German
Shayar Te Khedkar
By Mushtaq Soofi
Published by Pakistan
Punjabi Adabi Board
286pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, September 24th, 2017