Rumi in Hindi

In a pioneering effort, Dr. Balram Shukla has ably selected and translated one hundred ghazals of the mystic Persian poet

May 23, 2019 11:12 am | Updated 11:12 am IST

Until two generations ago, it was not uncommon to find scholars of Arabic and Persian among north Indian intelligentsia and many of them were Hindus. The divisive linguistic politics that began to acquire shape in the 19th century and became full blown in the 20th century was yet to erase a composite intellectual and literary past completely.

However, the inexorable processes of politics and history could not stem the tide and today Persian and its rich literary traditions have more or less disappeared from the intellectual life of the educated north Indian. Urdu too met with a near similar fate but attempts are being made to open the gates of its beautiful gardens to non-Urdu knowing public.

Although Persian and its literary form ghazal have had a predominant influence over Urdu poetry, it has somehow escaped the attention of those who are interested in reviving the composite intellectual and literary culture of the past by popularising Urdu and its literature.

Since the 13th Century, Jalaluddin Rumi (1207 A.D-1273 A.D.) and his Persian poetry have been admired from Balkan to India and the great Urdu poet Allama Iqbal took pride in describing himself as Murid-e-Hind (Indian disciple) of Pir-e-Rumi (Guru Rumi). It is an interesting fact that like our own Vidyapati (1352 A.D.-1448 A.D.), who is claimed by the enthusiasts of Maithili, Bengali and Odia languages, Rumi too is claimed by both the Persian and Turkish literatures.

A recently released book makes a pioneering effort to fill this gap as it offers one hundred selected ghazals of Rumi, perhaps the greatest mystic poet of Persian. Titled “Nishabd Noopur” (Silent Anklet), the book has been published by Rajkamal Prakashan under a collaborative project jointly undertaken by the Iran Cultural House in India and Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha.

The book is a model of how translations of poetic works should be presented so that the readers may become familiar not only with the beauty of the poetry but also the richness of the literary traditions of that language, history of translations, meaning of words and basic principles of its grammar.

Dr. Balram Shukla, who teaches Sanskrit at the Delhi University and has made a name for himself as a Sanskrit poet, has ably selected and translated one hundred ghazals of Rumi. He has also added a scholarly introduction, glossary and other aids for the reader.

In his highly informative foreword, Dr. Ali Dahgahi, Iranian Cultural Counsellor, has given a panoramic survey of the history of translations of Rumi’s works in the western world and in India. He informs us that translator Balram Shukla also writes poetry in Persian and his book of Persian poetry titled “Ishq-o-Atash” has been published in Iran. He has been engaged in research to find out more about the interconnections between Persian literature and Indian languages.

Influence looms large

Rumi’s “Masnavi” has been translated over the centuries into many Urdu and other Indian languages and many commentaries have been written on it in India in Persian and Urdu. As Ali Dahgahi points out, his influence did not remain confined to only Muslim scholars but references to his poetry can be found in the sayings of Hindu mystic saint Baba Dal Dayal, who was very close to Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, and other saint poets.

There are many points of resemblance between the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib and Rumi’s works. Dr Wagish Shukla, a scholar of Sanskrit and Persian who taught Mathematics at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and also helped the translator in his work, has written a highly useful introduction underlining the cultural and linguistic interconnections between Arabic, Persian and Indian languages.

For example, the Persian word but (idol) is derived from Buddha and the Arabic word sanam too originally means an idol. He also explains the symbolism of Persian (and also Urdu) poetry where liquor is ubiquitous. It refers to the liquor of spiritual knowledge that sends the mystic into a state of ecstasy while love is also love for the divine. Like liquor, which is prohibited in Islam, certain other words too take on a totally different meaning and kufr comes to mean the subtle, righteous conduct in accordance with Islam.

The translator has eschewed the temptation of rendering the ghazals in verse and has translated them into very readable Hindi prose, thus remaining as close to the meaning and sense of the original as possible.

While original Persian ghazals have been transliterated into Devnagari script on the left hand page and their translation has been given on the page facing it, the book contains a section that offers all the one hundred ghazals in its original Persian script. The translator has also explained finer points of prosody concerning a particular ghazal in footnotes on the same page.

It is said that Rumi, whose life changed after he met another mystic Shams Tabrezi, had an Indian connection too as Shams Tabrezi’s father was rumoured to have been originally a Hindu who had embraced Islam.

In his masnavis, Rumi has made use of five stories from “Panchatantra” to substantiate his spiritual message. One hopes that as MGIHU vice-chancellor Girishwar Mishra says in his preface, the university will continue to provide world literature to Hindi readers.

The writer is a senior literary critic

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