The twin loci of my attempts at translating poetry are Gulzar and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. I have very little Urdu, and a bit of Hindi that has grown rusty from disuse. Yet, I persist in producing half baked translations (if you have the patience, these translations are here; and this is an note in which I tried to explain how I went about translating a Fai'z ghazal) with the main hope that a little of the sensibility of these two poets will travel, as I have traveled, from those Eastern languages into this Western language, the only one in which I can fashion sentences I am not ashamed to claim parentage of, and also the one I call home. This is task is further complicated by the fact that there have been many precursors, some illustrious such as Agha Shahid Ali, who have done this before, especially in the case of Faiz's poetry. Yes,, Prof. Harold Bloom, your anxiety of influence strikes again.

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Naomi Lazard, who is among one the earliest translators of Faiz, in this article* writes about her memories of interacting with Faiz, and also working with him on her translations. She correctly notes the enormous popularity enjoyed by Faiz in the Subcontinent, and to illustrate narrates the following anecdote:

"When we were leaving Honolulu, I asked for his address. He told me I didn't really need it. A letter would reach him if I simply sent it to Faiz, Pakistan. The reason? He helped found the postal workers' union. They were his people. They would know where to find him."

Ms. Lazard, after noting that it is difficult to describe the process of translation that is much like describe the process of writing poetry, goes on discuss, via examples, of her process of translating Faiz. I envy the luck and advantage she had of working directly with Faiz's literal renderings into English, as well the opportunity to interrogate Faiz on his choices of words, phrases, metaphors etc. Now what would I give for that!

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Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his opus "The Gulag Archipelago" - a must read in my opinion for its ability to shift the readers consciousness - writes satirically about Moscow's hypocritical condemnation of the prosecution of left-leaning writers abroad while simultaneously hearing writers and other members of the intelligentsia into the most degrading of prison camps. He notes, correctly, that compared to the Gulag, prisons elsewhere in the world would surely be like paradise.

Faiz, like the Chilean Pablo Neruda, the Turk Nazim Hikmet, the Greek Yannis Ritsos among others, was one of these writers who was a dedicated Communist. Consequently, like many writers in this ground he was also imprisoned for various periods of time; the longest being four continuous years. The readers, who are familiar with Faiz's poetry, have no doubt encountered the brooding images of the prison and the gallows, the shadows of prison on memory and on love, etc. These connections might be further illuminated by reading some of the letters* Faiz wrote from prison to his wife, Alys, and her letters back to him.

In these letters, Faiz and Alys, apart from discussing the difficult financial and emotional situation the prison put them in, in a minor fashion, also talk about their daughters, learning French (Alys, jokingly, reprimands Faiz for wanting to quickly master French by writing, "I am glad your French progresses, but don't rush too far ahead. I must maintain superiority in at least one sphere - even if it be French (and the biological status of having babies)" ), the weather, memories of their ten years of marriage, gossip of friends and family etc. Of course Faiz also has some very interesting things to say on the psychological effects of prison on him. So go read them.

*H/T to N.V of Within/Without for the pointer to The Annual of Urdu Studies