IndiaStar Book Review:

Selected New Punjabi Literature in English Translation
edited by Irfan Malik

Salamander Magazine, Fall 1996: special feature
48 Ackers Avenue, Brookline, MA 02146

 

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Reviewed by C.J.S.Wallia
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As the guest editor of a special feature of Salamander magazine's
current issue, Irfan Malik, a Pakistani writer presents English translations
of poems and stories by eight contemporary Punjabi writers.

Two of the writers are from New Delhi: Amrita Pritam and Ajit Cour.
The other six are from Pakistan: Najam Hussain Syed, Munir Niazi,
Zubair Ahmad, Abid Ameeq, Mushtaq Sufi, and Irfan Malik.

Amrita Pritam is the leading figure of contemporary Punjabi literature.
She is the author of numerous books of poetry, short stories, and novels.
Among her best-known work is Skeleton, a novel in Punjabi about the partition
of India and translated into English by Khushwant Singh. Here she is represented
by two short poems. Her "Conspiracy of Silence" is a gem.

"Conspiracy of Silence" by Amrita Pritam

Night is dozing.
Someone has broken
into a human ribcage:
the worst theft is of our dreams

the footprints of the thieves
are scattered on city streets
and every country's roads

but no eye sees their trace
or becomes alarmed

only sometimes, someone's
poem like a chained dog barks.

Ajit Cour is also a well-established writer of contemporary
Punjabi literature. Her short story "First Exile"
is a first person account of a middle-class family's contrasting
treatment of female and male children: the daughter
is treated shabbily while the son receives princely attention.
This gender-bias is a recurring theme of Ajit Cour's writings.

Introducing the Punjabi writers, Irfan Malik notes that
"the newly formed Muslim state of Pakistan had as its slogan,
'one nation, one religion, one language.' Urdu became the
official language, and people were discouraged from writing
or speaking their native languages....In Pakistan, it took nearly
three decades for writers to return to Punjabi as a language
for literary expression." Not that no Pakistani writer paid homage to
Punjabi during those early years; for example, Sadat Hasan Manto,
throughout his life, preferred to converse in Punjabi, disdaining
literary Urdu as the language of "safed jhut" (white lies). His own
short stories were written in the colloquial Urdu of the Punjab, which he
described as tutti-phutti (broken) language.

Historically, from the twelfth century onwards, Muslim
contributions to the development of Punjabi literature have
been monumental: Baba Farid, Bulhe Shah, Waris Shah,
Mohammed Shah (court poet of Maharaja Ranjit Singh),
and many others.

Pakistani poets' recent re-establishing of Punjabi as a literary language
is a return to native roots. And what native roots!
The Punjab is the land that in its Sanskrit classics was called Sapta Sindhu,
the land that after the dessication of the mighty Sarasvati river
became Panca- apa. This is the land of rishis like Vasishta,
Visvamitra and others who composed the Rig Veda in 3750 B.C.E;
of the epic poets Vyasa and Valmiki; of Panini and Patanjali.
No other land has as ancient a literary history.

In the return to their mother tongue in Pakistani Punjab, many
poets played leading roles. Among them are Najam Hussain Syed,
author of seven books of poetry, and Munir Niazi, the first major
poet of Urdu who later began to write in Punjabi.
Malik presents one of Niazi's poems.

"With Closed Eyes, Facing the Sun" by Munir Niazi

In an ocean of sharp pink
up shines the moon
a black cobra
swimming through the waves

the palace is splendid
though invisible
all the rooms are empty
not a soul is living there

still the old fear remains:
who knows when
a thief will come in
to spill a sea of blood.

The translations of all of the selections were done collaboratively
by Irfan Malik, Jennifer Barber, Peter Brown, and Reetika Vazirani.
Malik also contributed an excellent short story "A Night in Lahore"
as well as several poems. Although Malik's selection under-represents
Indian Punjabi writers, his achievement in editing this special feature
on Punjabi literature is praiseworthy.