Nobel laureate Amartya Sen released Quiver, Dr David Matthew’s English translation of Javed Akhtar’s acclaimed collection of poems, Tarkash, in Delhi...

The hero of the evening was neither mega star Amitabh Bachchan, nor Nobel Prize winner Prof Amartya Sen. No, not even Javed Akhtar, but Dr David Matthews, the little-known translator of Akhtar’s highly acclaimed collection of poems Tarkash into English. But the poetry of Javed Akhtar, presence of Amartya Sen and recitals by Amitabh Bachchan made the book release function at a five star hotel in New Delhi, an evening to remember.

Amartya Sen released the book Quiver (the English translation of Tarkash) and presented its first copy to Amitabh Bachchan, in the presence of a gathering of intellectuals, authors, film personalities, socialites and politicians.

Dr David Matthew surprised everyone when he spoke in chaste Urdu and narrated how he was in love with Javed’s poems and wanted them translated into English. “Javed Akhtar saheb was apprehensive when I first approached him with the idea. He was not sure whether I would be able to do justice to his work. Though the translation has been a difficult task for me, the fact remains that total justice to the original is not possible,” he said. Matthews who knows about 22 different languages added that he thoroughly enjoyed his work and hoped that readers would enjoy it too.

Prof Gopichand Narang, the well known Urdu author and vice-president of Sahitya Academy, talked about many unknown aspects of Javed’s personal life and struggles of his early days. He spoke about his mother Sofia and her brother Mazaz, the famous Shayar (poet) of Lucknow. Narang said Javed’s mother fondly called him ‘Jadoo’ (magic) and how Javed’s jadoo still works in the popular lyrics of the Mumbai film industry.

Amitabh Bachchan, despite his indifferent health, attended the function only because of his “long association with Javed Akhtar.” He appreciated David Matthew’s translation of Tarkash, saying, “It must have been a dauting task.” Clad in a dark suit with a bright yellow neck tie, Bachchan said he felt quite out of place in the presence of several literary giants, adding his only claim to fame was he was his father’s son.

Bachchan said Javed had written some of the greatest scripts of his films. “That is a known fact but what was not known was that he was also a prolific writer of poems. He used to recite those poems before my father and I had the privilege of listening to them much before the world came to know about them.” He said it was he who instigated Javed into publishing his works but distanced himself from having promoted Akhtar to get the translations done.

Amartya Sen, when asked to speak about the book, said, “Apart from admiring the book, I also admire the skill with which Matthews has done the translation. It’s a terrific job.” He said Rabindranath Tagore’s works suffered badly because of shoddy translation, some of them even became unrecognisable when translated. “But Matthews has been successful in bringing out the feelings of love, affection and even hunger of Tarkash,” he said.

Sen admired the poem Bhookh (Hunger) which according to him had captured the spirit of the subject brilliantly. Showing his sense of humour and wit, Amartya Sen said that he could not understand why Javed chose him to release the book. “Perhaps he wished to know the reactions of a common man like me to his work. It is good for Javed to know that the common man likes his work too.”

Javed Akhtar said he was overwhelmed by the effusive praise his book had generated. He also said that in poetry, words are not known for their literary or logical meanings but for their emotional meanings. “That’s the reason why translation of poems, especially the ghazals is very tough. But I must say Dr Matthews has done very well,” he said. Javed hoped that more Urdu literature would soon be translated into other languages.

He pointed out that poets had never been irrelerant and they had stood against fundamentalism, communalism, repression, injustic and suffering. “In these tough times, the poet is the only one who speaks the truth and has the courage to call a spade a spade,” he said.

Shabana Azmi who must have had a lot to say during the book release, was ‘speechless’ owing to a throat infection. Her scheduled recital of some of the poems by her husband had also to be called off owing to her illness.

The highlight of the evening was the recital of some poems of Tarkash by Javed and the recital of their English translations by Amitabh Bachchan. The first poem to be recited was Bhookh (Hunger). Bachchan with his spectacles on, starting reading the lines, his deep voice reverberating in the hall of Delhi’s Maurya Sheraton. Pin drop silence followed, though soon, Bachchan had the audience clamouring for more.

The celebrities who attended the evening included Shabana Azmi, Manmohan Singh, Sharmila Tagore, AB Bardhan, Sitaram Yechuri, Farhan Akhtar, Amol Allana and Sadia Dehelvi.

— Amitabh Parasher