Autobiography
Ada Jafarey
جو رہی سو بے خبری رہی
First published in 1995
Current 4th edition published in 2024.
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A World of Her Own
Ada Jafarey
A translation of her Urdu autobiography
جو رہی سو بے خبری رہی
By Aamir Jafarey, with Asra Jafarey
Available from the publisher Sangi Publications
Call or WhatsApp: 0334-5958597
Translators Note
With proficiency in neither English nor Urdu, and with absolutely no literary grounding, I realize that I am the least likely person to be able to do justice to the endeavor of translating the autobiographical work of a poet regarded as the First Lady of Urdu Poetry. As it is, translations that remain faithful to the original work are a challenge, even for those who are most skilled in the craft. Capturing cultural nuances, and unpacking layers of meaning woven in Urdu terms is, in my opinion, an impossibility. The best one can hope to do is extract the gist of what the original embodied. This task became even more challenging in this particular autobiography, which technically is prose, but written with a visceral lyricism. The poetry included in this translation is no more than a poor rendition of the original verses, which perhaps convey some of the intended meaning, but lack the spell that only Urdu can cast.
But I am not apologetic. This is a labor of love, representing an effort of a son to enable the story of his Amma (mother) to reach her grandchildren and great grandchildren, and so many others who have drifted far away from the treasures of Urdu. Hence, I refer to the author as Amma and not Ada Jafarey.
The process of translation, which has taken more than 12 years, started while Amma was still with us, but unfortunately could not be completed within her lifetime. There were many interruptions, long and short, but it has been an honor to bring it to fruition. The translation has been done, one sentence to the next, one paragraph at a time in numerous sittings. I have worked on this not only in the family room that used to be Amma and Abba’s room previously, but also in buses, trains and airplanes, at cafes and in parks, while vacationing or on work related trips across USA, Europe and Africa.
Personally, it has been a tremendously rewarding process since even though I have spent all my life with Amma, there was so much more to discover in these pages- to think about and reflect- to get to know her all over again. The effort involved in reading for the purpose of translating takes one to a different depth of understanding, which I hope has been faithfully captured in these pages. Her autobiography is not just a story of her life, it is a historical treatise of her times, and those who shaped it. During the process of translation, I would often turn to Maha, my wife, with a particular passage from the book that struck a chord. Very often, she would provide greater context to the narrative, having listened to many of the stories from Amma directly.
I have reached out to others when I got stuck at a particularly complex word or passage. Technology came along as a big help over the years, and several useful online resources like the Rekhta.org dictionary made this work somewhat easier.
There were several areas in the Urdu text for which I needed help from others. I am grateful to Rubina Naqvi for helping render in English the essence of Persian couplets which Amma quoted in her book, and proofreading the Urdu text included in this book. She also helped unpack several complex passages where I found myself overwhelmed. I reached out to my friends Mohammad Arshad and Iftikhar Khan for their help in translating certain Punjabi phraseology and verses, for which I am thankful.
Both Apa (my sister, Sabiha Iqbal) and Bhaijan (my brother, Azmi Jafarey) have helped me whenever I asked. Bhaijan was very patient in helping with the many translations of Amma’s poetry included in her autobiography. Apa was particularly severe with her review of the first complete draft, finding many editing glitches. Bhabi (my sister-in-law, Shua Jafarey) also pulled no punches with her comments. Both these unbiased reviews helped me move to the next obvious step, finding help in editing.
Gulrukhsar Mujahid very diligently did the first round of editing for me, which was immensely helpful. I asked my colleague Anika Khan if she would proof read the manuscript, but she did much more. I am indebted to her for investing more than 6 months in painstakingly going through each word, making me relook at passages and parts of the poems, and adding readability and fluency to the text. Her input was critically important.
I invited Apa, a painter in her own right, to explore Amma’s poetry through the lens of an artist and provide a cover. She came up with a fabulous series of paintings which not only added a new dimension to her portfolio, but also further personalized this entire process.
My initial focus while starting this translation was to make the story of her Dadi Amma (grandmother) comprehensible and interesting for my daughter Asra, all of 10 years old at that time. As the years passed, Asra became my collaborator, her input grew from curious questioning, to critical observations. She has been going through each paragraph, each poem, critiquing, disagreeing, arguing, and finally approving. In areas of dispute, she has been the hardest to convince, especially now as an English Literature major. Much like her Dadi Amma, Asra knows words better than her father.
This exercise for me has already been worth the effort since Asra practically has an insider’s view of what defined her Dadi Amma, Ada Jafarey. However, the final measure of success of our effort will be if this book provides a glimpse of Amma’s life not only to her grandchildren Sabah, Yusuf, Faaez, Sameer, Aazim, and great grandchildren Sabine, Rizwan, Lana and Aliya (and those yet to arrive), but also to countless others who have roots in the subcontinent, but who have been pulled away by circumstances from the treasures of Urdu literature.
Here, begins again, A World of Her Own.
Aamir Jafarey
With
Asra Jafarey
Published by Sangi publications, 2023.