thing in translation and all that a translator can hope for is that it does not lose too much Where Kamal gets away credibly is when he adapts Faiz s ideas and moulds his images to produce original verses There is in this lesson for all would be translators too respectful an adherence to the original can negate the very purpose of the undertaking Yet one cannot for obvious reasons tender advice against rendition of remarkable verse into another language Given human limitations countless profound passionate and fiery poems—the works for example of Neruda Mayakovsky Yevtushenko Jose Marti Nazim Hikmet and Mahmoud Darwish—are accessible to millions only through transia tions Nevertheless one needs to be wary when rendering something into a language totally alien to the original It may be perfectly reasonable to translate Pablo Neruda s Quiero hacer contigo/flo que la primavera hace con los cerezos as I wantl/to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees but to represent Faiz s wo waqt merT fan bahot dur nahJN/ffab dard se ruk jSeNgT sab z7st kTraheN with One day—my love—/ fn the not too distant future /My useless fife Will come to an end is inadequate and perhaps even unintentionally disrespectful Despite ail such reservations Faiz in English deserves a place on the bookshelves of all admirers of the monumental poet Apart from at! its other qualities and or shor tcomings the (one poem translated by Faiz himself makes the book eminently collectable Besides its painful albeit coincidental association with Faiz s demise enhances its value as a memento As for Daud Kama! he may do well to restrict himself to a safer department—composition of original verse some of which is quite distinguished—and heed the content if not the form of Faiz s youthful lament na fane kis lie ummJdwar baltHa huNI/ek aisi rah pe j6 terTrahguzar bHTnahfN Karachi Reprnted from The Herad (Karacn ) Jan 19B5 p n 0 Mahir All Annual of Urdu Studies #5 14?