Poetry
Shakespeare's Sonnets ... in Punjabi
by ANSHU SETH
Many are familiar with the famous lines from William Shakespeare's play, ‘The Merchant of Venice':
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath ..."
However, few know about the Punjabi interpretation of it in the poem, ‘Rahes da rahes' wherein K.B.S. Sodhi, a former professor of English at Ludhiana's G.G.N. Khalsa College, has decoded Portia's words to Shylock to read:
"Rehmat kaddey na upjey kisey de dhauns heth, ambraa(n) vicho(n) barsey wangu baarish...."
Sodhi's book, ‘Sach De Moti', is a translation of 41 of the famous poems and sonnets by the Bard of Avon.
"The inspiration behind this unique translation was the immortal playwright himself as most of his works have a universal touch," he says.
Reproducing Shakespeare's works was an experience for Sodhi, who woke up at 3 every morning for four months. "The serenity of the wee hours made me more profound towards the works of Shakespeare and enabled me to do justice to every piece that I wrote," he shares.
"Students and others who are well versed in English are privileged to read and understand a playwright and poet of Shakespeare's calibre but I, in my capacity as a professor, wanted to make his works accessible for the Punjabi literates," said Sodhi.
In the preface of the book, principal Tarsem Bahia, ex-fellow, Panjab University, Chandigarh, has termed Sodhi's work as a "superlative experimentation that in itself is an accolade to the Punjabi language".
The references of Shakespearean phrases including "Frailty, thy name is woman", "Cowards die many times before their deaths" and "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods", which for centuries have remained unsurpassed, also find a mention in this book.
TIMELESS WISDOM
While referring to his friend, the Earl of Southampton, in Sonnet 77, Shakespeare says:
"Look what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit to these waste blanks and thou shalt find ..."
Sodhi interprets this as:
'tainu vekh prerat howan likhan layi
aap muhare phuran nazan deeyan satran ...'
And the famous line, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players ..." taken from the play, As You Like It, has been rendered in Punjabi as:
"Duniya ik stage maanas kalakaar, vakh vakh roop vikhaavey jeevan kaal vich."
[Courtesy: Tribune]
April 5, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Harinder (Uttar Pradesh, India), April 05, 2011, 2:45 PM.
If we keep on translating books from foreign languages to Punjabi, the latter will experience unparalleled growth. Thank you for your wonderful work, sir. What's the next book you are working on?
2: Pritam Singh Grewal (Canada), April 06, 2011, 1:54 AM.
May I share my following attempt at rendering in Punjabi a few lines of William Wordsworth: "Once again/ Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,/ That on a wild secluded scene impress/ Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect/ The landscape with the quiet of the sky." - (from 'Tintern Abbey' by William Wordsworth). "Ikairaan pher/ Sunmukh haan maen ehnan tikhian tay buland chattanan day/ Jo junglee nirjan nazaray noon hor gehri ikant da perbhav day kay/ Dhartee day jalway da palla gagan dee chup noon pharhaondian nay."
3: Juergen Gutsch (Munich, Germany), May 24, 2011, 2:54 AM.
It is with the greatest interest that I read your article on the internet concerning Professor Sodhi's translation of, obviously, a lot of Shakespearean sonnets. This is because a colleague of mine and myself have published a book (William Shakespeare's Sonnets, for the First Time Globally Reprinted, a Quatercentenary Anthology 1609-2009) which prides on assembling and presenting (almost) all language cultures on the planet that have ventured into Shakespeare's Sonnets so far. Meanwhile the number of contributions amounts to some 80 languages/ countries. (A DVD goes along with the book that contains all the sonnets in native speaker recitations and hundreds of further 'medial transposi-tions' of the sonnets in illustrations, musical compositions, stage performances, films, etc.) There is an essay on each language and a small anthology of some 10 or 12 sonnets in the respective language, more than 700 altogether. Among these are two Indian languages, Bengali and Malayalam. We have always thought that this cannot be regarded as a really representative choice from so many languages on the Indian sub-continent. It is all the more interesting for us to hear about a Punjabi translation. We would very much appreciate any advice you could give us about how to address Professor Sodhi directly, so that we could ask him for a contribution to our collection, which will be followed by a second volume next year. Would you please be so kind as to arrange for a contact? As soon as you send us an answer we'll attach more information on the project. With our best regards, Prof. Dr. Manfred Pfister, Freie University, Berlin, Germany, and Juergen Gutsch, Munchen, Germany.