My longing comes to my lips!
From the Blog PkColumnist.com: My longing comes to my lips! - Ladies and Gentlemen, here is a challenge for you. Read the following lines and tell me what they stand for. You have five seconds to figure it out and there is a prize for guessing. My longing comes to my lips as supplication of mine, O God May like the candle life of mine May the world's darkness disappear by my life May every place light up with the sparkling light of mine May my homeland through me attain elegance As the garden through flowers May the life be like that of a moth, O God May I love the lamp of knowledge, O Lord May supportive of poor my life may be May loving the old and suffering my life may be O God protect us from the evil way Show me the path leading to good way I am pretty sure that some of you are reading the lines again, some of you are wondering if the incorrect English is only typos, while most of you are simply scratching your noses and squinting your eyes trying to win the prize for guessing. None of you has guessed it so far, because the five seconds have already passed and no buzzers have sounded. So let me put you at ease and tell you that what you have just read is nothing more than a patriotic attempt at translating Iqbal into English. And to spare you some more nose-scratching and eye-squinting, let me also tell you that this classic attempt is none other than the famous children's poem, Lab peh aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri. My longing comes to my lips, indeed! Read the above lines again, especially the bit about the homeland attaining elegance (watan ki zeenat), and see if some sort of longing comes to your lips. Well, it does to mine and, just to warn you, it is not necessarily pleasant. I don't know who has made this translation, and I am not judging. In my opinion it might be crude or tacky, written in incorrect English, lacking in meter, deficient in connotation, and even totally unnecessary in purpose, but there are no rules against translating simple poetry into strange English, and hence I am not judging. What I'd judge, however, would be somebody telling me that this monstrosity should replace the original in my mind and heart, and that I should regularly recite it every day until I have totally erased the original from my life. And the purpose of bringing this up in this space is that I am afraid this might exactly be happening in our part of the world right now. Eyewitnesses report that in many government schools across Lahore, students are being made to recite this translated prayer during morning assemblies, instead of the original poem written in simple Urdu. Nobody in school management is willing to produce written evidence of this being an official order, yet the fact that this is happening as a policy calls for some more digging. According to a video clip shown to me by a colleague, a bunch of schoolgirls in blue uniforms and white sashes were reciting this "supplication of theirs," standing together in a school courtyard. They were reading it like an oath from a book of things not to do, and looked just about as cheerful as a bunch of comrades waiting for a revolution to happen. Some investigation revealed that the video was from the morning assembly in a school located in Shahdara, and a few minutes into the video made it clear that the story didn't end there. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is another challenge for you. Read the following lines and tell me what they stand for. You have two seconds this time, and an even bigger prize for guessing. Blessed be the sacred land, happy be the bounteous realm Symbol of high resolve, land of Pakistan Blessed be the citadel of faith The order of this sacred land Ok, before you actually guess it and cost me the even bigger prize, let me just tell you that these are the first few lines of our national anthem translated into English. So, once our Punjabi-speaking children are done with singing Iqbal in English, they clear their throats, straighten their backs and sing their "Blessed be the sacred land" at the top of their lungs. Whatever happened to the good-old Pak sarzameen shaad baad is a mystery I will definitely try to solve once I am done being indignant beyond belief at this revelation. I am not a linguistic purist, nor do I have anything against English translations. Hence, in all honesty I might say that the latter translation is not as crude and tacky as the previous one. But as an Iqbal-reciting, anthem-singing Pakistani I must proclaim that this whole charade insults my sense of identity and is quite unnecessary in purpose. In fact, so unnecessary that I, as a citizen of this country, would like to have an explanation as to why is there a need to force our children, who are perfectly proficient in Urdu, to memorise these versions of our national heritage in a language that for many of them is not even a second language, but a foreign one. There is a famous joke doing sms rounds on our mobile phones. It is in Punjabi, titled "Perils of being Pakistani," and here's how it goes. "Learn Punjabi for home, Urdu for school, English for the exam and Arabic for the Hereafter. Hai O Rabba!" Or should I say, Hello, O Lord!? . Read Full Post
Shaukat Khanum is not helping much
From the Blog Change-Dignity-Prosperity: Shaukat Khanum is not helping much - Seems like writing for and mainly against Imran Khan is in vogue in Pak blogging world. Here is my contribution! 40 yr old Salma, a local villager, was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. She received treatment from SKMT H and had full recovery. As I met her, I explained to her that cancer is not . Read Full Post
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