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Sohail;
(I like that name
better, one of my dear uncles that I remember fondly had that name)
Glad you liked the
translation. Mila (Ludmilla), who was one of my
Nana's good friends and spent a lot of time with him during his travels in
the Soviet Union, has called my translation more a 'rendering' than a
literal translation, which I agree with. However, my father has correctly
pointed out that a literal translation can often be a little 'dry' and
uninteresting and I believe I have managed to retain the spirit of her
writing. Thanks for your compliments. It's true,
my grasp of English, written and spoken is stronger than Urdu/Punjabi
thanks to Alys, my grandmother. However, I am
working to strengthen my command of Urdu and Persian, thus the paper that I
read (rather nervously) at our gathering.
Your book is
fascinating! and I am totally envious, both of
your literary output as well as the breadth of your knowledge. However, I
need to remind myself that we all have our own journey to undertake and
cannot follow, literally, in the footsteps of others. I finished the
chapter on Che Guevara yesterday and of course,
he is always a fascinating figure. Unlike most books, I am reading this one
avidly (I like to read but finding time between a busy practice and three
young children is hard). I mentioned your book to my father this weekend
and he is familiar with Daar-ul-Shaoor, the
publisher. He said they recently published an Urdu translation of Das Kapital.
I like the fact that
you have condensed and simplified some very inspiring and complicated lives
into 'bite sized pieces' and provided an introduction that can be used for
further study. I just started reading Syed Azeem's essay this morning (I'm jumping around a bit)
and that's great fun too.
I am attaching a
translation/rendering of a chapter from Ali Abbas
Jalapuri's 'Aam Fikri Mughaltay' about
Sufism. I completed the manuscript a few months ago and sent it to my dad
for publication. He is working on publishing one of his psychology books
but has assured me that a publisher can be found for my translation just as
soon as he can find some time.
More later. Can I
e-mail Azeem through Family of the Heart?
Wassallaam,
Ali
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