Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry is rife with references to his contemporaries (poets, authors, intellectuals) who share, in some respect or
the other, his experience of exile. In a ghazal (pg 73), Ali cites Mehmoud
Darvesh “From exile, Mahmoud Darvesh writes to the world”. In another
instance, he dedicates a ghazal entirely to Edward Said (“By Exiles”) and
finally, he translates many of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry.
Ali’s translation of Rang Hai Dil ka Mere gives a lot
of insight into his own poetic inclinations and interests. After comparing
about five different translations, I realized that Agha Shahid Ali gives
preference to a particular interpretation over others- one line that struck was
“shab-e-taar ka rang” that Francis Pritchett translated as “the color of
black night”, Shiv Kumar translated as “sable night”, Naomi Lazard as “lacquered
the night black” and Agha Shahid Ali, interestingly, translated as “the black
when you cover the earth with the coal of dead fires”. The choice of the words coal
of dead fires is an independent insertion into the poem which has a
transformative effect on both the mood and the meaning. The trope of coal and ashes
(dead fire) appears again and again in Ali’s poetry. The imagery is of death
and destruction as a consequence of war.
Ali’s translations
are tinged with his own politics. Of course that goes for all people involved
in translation projects, however I find that his particular selection of Faiz's poetry and their renditions throws light upon his own poetic agenda. Consider, for example, the poem "City of Lights"/ Roshniyon ka sheher. "desolation everywhere, /the poison of exile painted on the walls. /In the distance, /there are terrible sorrows, like tides"
Another poem he translated is titled "Evening"/shaam "the sky is a priest,/saffron marks on his forehead,/ ashes smeared on his body. Indeed, there is a particular motivation behind the selection of Faiz's poems, and their translations even more telling of the politics of translation
Another poem he translated is titled "Evening"/shaam "the sky is a priest,/saffron marks on his forehead,/ ashes smeared on his body. Indeed, there is a particular motivation behind the selection of Faiz's poems, and their translations even more telling of the politics of translation
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