My Acquaintance with the noted poet, Arjan Dev 'Majboor'
By A.N. Dhar
On my retirement from the
University of Kashmir,
I shifted to Jammu in early
1990 as a displaced Kashmiri. Majboor Sahib was a
much talked-about poet in Srinagar. Having read
just a few of his Kashmiri poems by then, I had
somehow felt an urge to see this man of
achievement in person. I recall with pleasure my
first meeting with him at the University of
Jammu on the 25th of October, 1998
when I casually stepped into a hall in one of the
buildings on the campus. It happened to be the
venue of a two-week workshop of Kashmiri writers
sponsored and organised by the Central Institute
of Indian Languages, Mysore. The participants were
involved in the production of some teaching
materials meant for our learners. A chance meeting
brought Arjan Dev Ji and me together. Thus began a
fruitful friendship between us, which I believe
has endured and will grow further, God willing. It
was at this memorable meeting that Majboor Sahib
gifted to me a copy of his book of poems titled
Padyi Samyik (foot-prints of time) that
earned him an award from the J&K Academy of Art,
Culture and Languages in the year 1994; this
volume was adjudged as the "best book in
Kashmiri".
Ever since our meeting, with the passage of years, we have got to
know each other well through our mutual contact at
literary seminars and socio-cultural functions
held periodically on various occasions at
Jammu. On the basis of what I have by now read of
this versatile writer-poet, critic and
translator, well-versed in several languages and
literatures-I can say with confidence: "here is a
man of achievement in the field of letters". A
productive and prolific writer, it is as a
Kashmiri poet that he stands pre-eminent.
As a creative writer, Arjan Dev Ji has not only excelled in
producing fine Kashmiri lyrics - both short and
long - but he has also done reasonably well as a
short-story writer in the Kashmiri language. What
is also noteworthy about him is his accomplishment
as a researcher and critic. He has also earned
distinction as a translator, having command over
several languages including Kashmiri, Hindi and
Urdu besides having a fairly good knowledge of the
two classical languages, Persian and Sanskrit.
Being conversant with different languages and
literatures, it seems he was cut out for attaining
proficiency in the area of comparative literature.
It is a field which involves a scholar's deep
interest in the theory and practice of literary
translation from one language into another-across
regions and countries. The translator has to be
both bilingual and bicultural having command over
the two languages involved and at the same time
being conversant with the related literatures.
Many of Arjan Dev's published papers and articles
bear testimony to his aptitude for cross-cultural
studies.
With the publication of the book titled Waves
in the year 1999, Arjan Dev 'Majboor' shot into
prominence across the country, especially in the
northern region. A younger scholar and talented
English writer from our community, Prof. Arvind
Gigoo, had felt attracted towards Majboor Sahib's
Kashmiri poems; it was as good friends and
neighbours living at Udhampur that the two
litterateurs got close to each other and
collaborated in a literary undertaking. Gigoo
Sahib's English translation of Arjan Dev's
Kashmiri lyrics in the first edition of the
Waves brought the translator into the
limelight and the original poet got an award from
the Poet's Foundation, Calcutta
in December, 1999. The book immediately caught the
attention of scholars and critics; the result was
an upsurge in the shape of a large number of
favourable review articles in English on the
translated poems from writers largely based in
Jammu, some living elsewhere in the country and
abroad. I myself hailed the book as a landmark: a
fine piece of translation. Encouraged by the warm
response from discerning readers, Majboor Sahib
planned a larger volume of his translated poems in
collaboration with the competent translator, Gigoo
Sahib who now chose to provide also his seminal
note on the theory and practice of literary
translation bearing on the work undertaken by him.
The enlarged edition has an excellent and
illuminative forward from the celebrated writer,
Professor TN Raina. I am happy to mention here
that in this foreword (to the enlarged volume of
the Waves brought out in the year 2000),
Prof. Raina has quoted lavishly from my published
review on the first volume. Later, a spate of
fresh reviews from enthusiastic writers prompted
Dr. RL Bhat, writer and social activist to collect
the whole critical material on the two editions of
the Waves and edit it properly. He brought
out an anthology of critical reviews (on Arjan
Dev's poems translated by Prof. Gigoo) under the
title Arjan Dev Majboor in January 2003.
From what Prof. TN Raina and Dr RL Bhat have said about Majboor
Sahib in their forewords the account they have
given of his growth and development as a
well-known personality, accomplished in the field
of letters, I have every reason to feel elated
over my decade-long literary association with the
veteran poet and scholar at
Jammu. I admire his fortitude, determination and
perservance in sustaining his versatile interests
as a writer. I am specially impressed by his
eagerness to see his creative writing in Kashmiri
projected globally through English translation. As
a budding scholar and writer in his early years he
had to face immense hardships, but he has managed
to come up the hard way-which has been the mark of
many ambitious men who rose to eminence. Even in
his eighties now, Arjan Dev leaves nothing undone
to see that he maintains the tempo of his writing
despite his physical handicap in wearing a collar
round his stiff neck. Author of a large number of
books and a man of significant achievement as a
writer, he is every inch a gentleman, exuding
affection, having all the humility of a genuine
scholar. In view of these qualities, he continues
to be a source of inspiration to his friends and
admirers. May he live long!
Source: Kashmir
Sentinel
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