Translatability of Urdu poetry into English

Abstract

This research investigates whether or not the poetry of Faiz translated by Victor Kiernan provides the evidence for the translatability of Urdu Poetry into English. Fidelity with the original poetry and translation of socio-cultural aspectsare also explored. The modus operandi of this research is based onqualitative paradigm for textual analysis and extra textual analysis. The theoretical foundations of the study are laid on the existing literature on literary translation (more specifically, poetry translation). The study holds the assumption that a literary translator has a constrained autonomy and many of the effects that are created in Urdu language by Faiz cannot be maintained in English language with the same force but quality of translations, their level of success and finally the notion of translatability can be systematically evaluated.Unit of data analysis consists of two ‘nazms’ and one ‘ghazal’ that are selected from Poems by Faiz translated by Victor Kiernan. To carry out the comparative and contrastive analysis, factors such as formal features, rhyme pattern, word/phrases, tone, content, sense and style have been studied. The analysis shows that Kiernan has successfully preserved the cultural elements along with the semantic and pragmatic features of a poem and produced a faithful word-for-word translation of Faiz’s poetry. The formal features are not fully preserved because of different structural gradation of both languages. Keeping in view the structural pattern and logic of imagination of both languages, this project has revealed that Urdu poetry is translatable into English.