Afzal Ahmed Syed, a legendary poet and translator, needs no introduction. For starters, he is among the finest contemporary Urdu poets whose works have created a new and powerful strain in modern Urdu poetry. Because of his global poetic vision and a modern sensibility which he infuses in his work with powerful diction he is acknowledged as master of both classical and modern Urdu poetic expression. He is also considered as a leading proponent of linguistic experimentation. His poetic sensibilities were shaped by two traumatic events he witnessed in his early years; the violent separation ofEast Pakistanand its emergence asBangladeshin 1971; and, later, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1976 while he was a student at theAmericanUniversityofBeirut. Syed recalls those events in his poetry but not in a personalized manner. He detaches himself from the brutality and looks at it from a safe distance.

Syed has good command over numerous languages of the world and he has translated lot of works of literature by contemporary British, Colombian, Iraqi, Israeli, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, and US poets, playwrights and novelists. Syed is the one of the first Urdu translators of Gabriel García Márquez. His translation of Chronicle of a Death Foretold is considered a classic of the Urdu language. He was also one of the first translators of Jean Genet, whose play, The Maids, he translated from the French. In an exclusive interview with Sunday Plus he talks about his life as a poet and translator. Following are the excerpts of his interview:

Q: When did you start writing and when was your first work published?

A: I started writing in early 70s (quite late). My first work was published in 1973. Until 1976, I had written a few ghazals and rhymed poems. However, my early work is not of any significance. I was just an amateur. As a poet my real appearance was made through the first issue of Aaj, edited by Ajmal Kamal, in 1981. My first collection: Chhini Hui Tarikh appeared in 1984.

Q: What attracted you to the translation of literary books?

A: In 1983, I came across the selected works of post WW II Polish poets. They had something in common with me: Tadeus Rosewicz, Aleksander Wat, Zbigniew Herbert, Wislawa Szymborska. Some other poets: Miroslav Holub (Czech), Marin Sorescu (Romanian), and Osip Mandelstam (Russian) are also close to my heart. I have translated some poems of these poets. I also translated some poems of Odysseus Elytis (Greece), Orhan Veli (Turkey), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), Shankh Ghose (Benglai), and my friend Nilanjan Hajra (Bengali).

There are many more translations of poets from different parts of the globe in the list of my translations.

My prose translations include: The Maids by Jean Genet and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Our Persian literary heritage has been grossly neglected. I have made it a point to introduce works of our Persian masters in Urdu. My Urdu translation of the complete Persian divan of Mir Taqi Mir was published this April from Oxford University Press. It is the first time that Mir’s Persian work appears in a book form. A translation of selected verses of Bedil is in print. Translations of selected verses of Mir Nasir Ali Sarhindi, Kaleem Kashani, Waqif Batalwi, Ghani Kashmiri and Jalal Asir (a Sabak-e-Hindi poet ofIran) have been published.

Q: How many languages do you know and how did you get mastery over them?

A: I have tried to learn many languages, but I would consider myself master of only Urdu and English. Urdu is my mother tongue; English I learned at school. Persian was one of my optional subjects for three years till Matriculation. By reading the Persian poetry of Ghalib and Iqbal I developed some proficiency in reading it, especially in reading Persian poetry. Since I lived in Dhaka, I learned to speak Bengali quite fluently, but I regret that I did not develop the reading and writing skills in Bengali. I took French language classes at Alliance FrancaiseKarachi for four years and Italian classes at the Italian consulate for one year. I also went to a Chinese language centre inKarachi for two basic courses in Chinese. I still harbour the wish to learn Arabic.

Q: What do you see in any piece of literature when you select it for translation?

A: The translatability of a text gets my attention. There are many works I am inspired to translate, but I know well that their translation would not be a piece of literature.

Q: Translating poetry is more difficult than translating a novel or a play. Which genre do you feel is more difficult to translate?

A: Translating a poem is not at all difficult for me, if I like the poem. Most of the poets whose works I like do not indulge in complicated language. Translating prose is another kind of exercise. It takes time and a lot of brain storming. Plays are even more difficult to translate because translating dialogues is a real test for any translator.

Q: Which is more important according to you in writing – the writing style or the creativity and the theme?

A: Creativity and theme are the common denominators in all literary works, but what makes a poet/writer significant is the choice of words.

Q: Does it ever happen that you translate something and then you do not like it yourself?

A: Luckily it happened only once. I tried to translate one of Szymborska’s poems about a flood, but whatever was rendered in Urdu was just passable. I tore it off.

Q: Which writer you enjoyed most while translating his work?

A: Gabriel Garcia Marquiz. He is an amazing writer. While translating Chronicles of a Death Foretold, I liked the details. He depicted the life of a small town so vividly. All characters are significant and remain in one’s memory for ever. The novel also questions the notion of honour. His storytelling is bewitching, there were scores of chances that the protagonist would have not been killed, but still he did not escape his death.

Q: Do you like classical poetry or modern poetry?

A: I like the both.

Q: Who are your favourite writers and poets from classical and modern literature?

A: I have a whole galaxy of favourite writers and poets: it is difficult to name a few from the classics.

Among the contemporary prose writers, I like: Halldor Laxness, Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Jorge Luis Borges, Jorge Amado, Gabriel Garcia Marquiz, Mario Vergas Llosa, Ismail Kadare, Susheku Endo, Umberto Eco, A.B. Yehoshua, Andre Brink, Orhan Pamuk, Giono Riotti, Yan Lianke, Musharraf Ali Farooqi and Nadeem Aslam.

Among the modern poets I like all of them whom I translated. I also like Ahmed Shamlu, Halina Poswiatowska, Adam Zagajewski, Tomas Transtromer, Tomaz Salamun, Sarwat Hussain, Zeeshan Sahil,Tanveer Anjum, Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, Azra Abbas and Saeeduddin.

Q: Does writing poetry or any piece of literature give you relief from your mental agony?

A: I experience a sort of perpetual and deep-set mental agony. I am used to it and think it is a privilege. Creative writing certainly affects that equilibrium. Usually after writing a poem I get disturbed. Maybe this is the reason why I write very sporadically. Just to quote an incident, after finishing my poem Hamain Bohat Saare Phool Chahiyain, I was quite upset for a few days.

Q: Do you think your poetry is political?

A: It is. Not blatantly, but in an indirect and incisive way.

Q: What in your opinion completes your poems?

A: When I feel that the idea that initiated the thought of the poem has been captured in its true essence.

Q: What happened in Dhaka which you saw and in what way it affected your work?

A: A few months after I was born my family moved toDhaka and I was there till the age of 27 years. I was brought up and educated there. The city grew with me. After December1971, being a non-Bengali, like all other non-Bengalis, I was viewed as a collaborator of the forces that tried to keepBangladesh under their domination. Persecution was imminent, which meant death by torture, starvation, homelessness, and every possible hardship and misery.

1 was not a poet before 1971. I started writing in 1971. The birth ofBangladeshmade me a poet. I witnessed another war’s destruction inLebanonduring 1975-76 while I was studying at theAmericanUniversityofBeirut.

Q: You are a very good translator; what do you think about your own work translated in other languages by some other persons.

A: All my work has been translated into English by my novelist friend Musharraf Ali Farooqi. His translations are superb. There are many translations in Hindi by Shamim Hanafi and Monoj Patel. I cannot read Hindi, but presume that the translations must be good because Urdu and Hindi are very close. Nilanjan Hajra has published a selection of my poems in Bengali. He is a good poet himself, so I am not worried about the quality of translation.

Q: Every writer is a critic. What do you say about your work as a critic (translation work and poetry)?

A: I am the most merciless critic of my work. I just kill any poem if I think it is not perfect. The process of evaluation starts in my mind, I do not write any line on paper unless it is filtered through that process. The same applies for translations.

Q: What are you reading these days?

A: I am reading poetry: works of Liliana Ursu (Romania), Dilruba Ahmed (Bangladesh) , Saadi Yussef (Iraq) and Raul Zurita (Chile).

Q: What is the one book/author you feel everyone must read?

A: I will repeat the reply which I gave in an earlier interview: Ismail Kadare. Kardare writes with a Kafkaesque pessimism. He is unique in his ability to relate the particular to the universal and the personal to the political, and his writings challenge political authoritarianism and cosmic determinism. His experience of the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha inAlbania gives him great insight into tyranny, and he connects this to different epochs and places like the Pharaoh’sEgypt and Ottomans’Turkey. His is a tragic sensibility that focuses on the ruthlessness of the powerful and the forever doomed dissent of the powerless.

Q: What is the one book you started reading but could not finish?

A: Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! by Kenzaburo Oe.

Q: What is your favourite childhood book or story?

A: Shehzadi Husn Bano. I still remember how happy I was the day when I received the packet by post containing this and other story books.

Q: You love paintings. Do you also paint anything?

A: 1 love paintings, but I do not paint myself. I am fortunate to have seen the paintings and sculptures of many great masters in the original. One of the best days in my life was the day Tanveer Anjum and I visited Florence. There, among other pieces of art, we saw David by Michelangelo. I am a frequent visitor to art galleries inKarachi. Among the contemporary Pakistani painters, I like Salim Mansur the best.

Q: Which countries do you love to visit and why?

A: I have visited a number of countries in Europe ( England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Turkey); North America ( USA and Canada); Africa (Egypt), Middle East (UAE, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan); South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia), and Far East (China).

I would love to visitLebanonand stay inBeirutat least for one year.  The first year (1974-75) of my stay inBeirutwas fabulous. That year I had finally managed to leaveDhakaand reachedKarachi. It was inBeirutthat I realised that I could write meaningful poetry. In the university I was recognized as a good student of Entomology. I had many friends belonging to many Middle Eastern countries: Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, Afghanis, Armenians. Another motive is to recollect my days inBeirutand write my memoirs.

The other country I wish to visit again isTurkey(I have already visited it twice, last visit was in Nov. 2012).Istanbulis an enigmatic city, one of the oldest in the world, connecting two continents, centre of two great civilizations. I see it as full of poetry. I am sure, I will return fromIstanbulwith a bagful of new poems.

Q: Any writer whom you adore and want to meet?

A: I am most fortunate that all Urdu poets whom I admire are/were very close to me.

I would love to meet Adam Zagajewski , Tomas Transtromer and Tomaz Salumun (I have met him once when I attended his poetry reading).

Q: Tell us something about your writing rituals.

A: No ritual at all. I do not sit at any writing desk. Do not use computer. Many poems I wrote while travelling. Noise or presence of other people seldom distracts me.

I have only one peculiar habit: I write on single sheet of unlined paper and cannot write in any bound notebook or register.

Q: How do you face criticism on your work?

A: So far the criticism is favourable. But I know I will withstand adverse criticism, if any and prove my critics wrong.

Q: What are you translating these days?

A: At present I am translating complete work of Ghani Kashmiri and finalizing my translation of Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s novel Between Clay and Dust.

Q: What are you writing these days?

A: My memoirs (1947-1974) from the time I was inDhaka.