Twinning Cities by Afshan Sajjad
30th June 2015Poet Afshan Sajjad on twining cities and poems. Afshan took part our Lahore-Glasgow City to City project where leading lights of Lahore’s poetry and music scene along with contemporaries from Glasgow were united on stage for a unique evening of readings and music.
Afshan Sajjad translating
Glasgow is Lahore’s twin city. There is so much in common: the hospitality and warmth, the love for art and music. However, it is certainly not an identical twin in terms of weather. We travelled from 42° Celsius in Lahore to 13° Celsius in Glasgow during the month of May to participate in the second phase of Glasgow-Lahore Poetry Translation Project. Glasgow’s summer is like Lahore’s winter, and since Lahore’s winter is short-lived, the cold weather in Glasgow was like a breath of fresh air for us.
What a wonderful experience it was to see all the familiar faces of the poets we met in Lahore once again, and to work with new members of our group from Scotland and Pakistan.
Translating other poets’ thoughts or explaining one’s own poetry is a unique experience especially when one finds so many similarities in the thought process of poets from distant lands. Although there was very limited time for us to discuss, explore, analyze each other’s poetry, and then produce poetical translation of fellow poets’ work into our own language, the deadlines given to us played a wonderful role in bringing out the best in us. The presentations at Mitchell Theater Glasgow and South Bank Center London were proof enough of that.
I found Jim Carruth’s poem ‘Mother Harvest’ close to my heart and it reminded me of my own mother and her ‘harvest-like’ characteristics. Mothers and their love is universal. My poem ‘In memory of my Mother’ was translated by Gerry Cambridge who could easily relate to it. Gerry’s poetry centered on love, light, life, universe. While translating his poem ‘Hearing Astronomers Speak ‘- I was able to travel to another world which was different yet similar. I also enjoyed working on Vicky Husband’s short poem ‘ On being observed’ – a combination of sadness and satire. Katherine’s abstract verses were challenging to bring into my favorite type of Urdu nazm, called Paband Nazm, which is never out of rhyme and rhythm.
You can read Afshan’s poem Beauty of Lahore translated by Jim Carruth on The Missing Slate.
Afshan Sajjad is an educator and poet. She is currently the Head of the Urdu Department at Lahore American School, where she has been teaching High School students for the past nine years. She has widely published her poetry in Urdu magazines, and is the author of an Urdu poetry book by the name of ‘Jo Dil Pe Guzarti hai.’ She has also served as a judge of poetry recitation competitions, participated in various Mushaayeras and has written Urdu songs as well as scripts for some plays in school. She holds a masters degree in Urdu from Punjab University, Lahore.
