Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) will launch Hamarey Amriki Mehman tomorrow (Tuesday). This is a collection of 27 smile stories in Urdu from Turkish writer Aziz Nesin, translated in Urdu by Colonel Masud Akhtar Shaikh (retd), a prolific translator.
The book gets its name from the first story Hamarey Amriki Mehman, centring on a Turkish gentleman called Hasan. He had a chance meeting with Franks, an American visitor, and casually invited him and his wife to have a meal at home. Frank accepted, because 'he had never stepped inside a Turk's home.'
Hasan feels puffed-up after the American's acceptation and goes about informing the happy news to friends and to every one in his locality. Hasan is a man of frugal means. His neighbours tell him that Hasan would shame the Turkish people when the visitor found out that there was nothing of substance in his home. Hence, a proposal is made that when the American came, Hasan should bring the visitor along to the neighbours.' Hasan would not countenance this insulting proposition.
In the end his friends promise to lend Hasan essential status symbol gadgets like fridge, radio and washing machines, which begin to arrive just as Frank was getting inside Hasan's home. It is a thoroughly enjoyable story and it might even have a moral for our own people.
This is the second of Nesin's book translated by the writer. Five years ago he translated another book of Nesin's short stories in English, titled Laugh and Lament.
Masud Shaikh has become famous for translating Turkish literature, as well as significant material from Turkish language in Urdu for Pakistani readers as well as in English for a wider overseas audiences. Kemal Hasan Gur, the former Turkish Ambassador, paid him a handsome tribute declaring 'Sir, you have done great work by introducing our (Turkish) literature to outside world to enable them to recognise that the literary heritage of my country is equal to the English literature.'
Ambassador Gur made this comment at a function held in 2005 to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Turkey's founder Kamal Ata Turk. In addition to the translation of Nesin's short stories Shaikh also wrote another book Universal Dimension of Ataturk Beginning in 2002 with the translation of the first collection of Turkish short stories Turkey Kay Bahetareen Afsanay. Shaikh has so far written or translated 12 books on Turkey either in English or Urdu.
These are titled Laugh and Lament, Roads and Footprints. Two plays, The Money Game, Creating a Man. A new collection of Turkish stories done in the English language Turkish Delight, Pakistan and Turkish Folk Wisdom, as well the study of Armenia "Lies and More Lies."
Five thousand copies of the last mentioned book have sold out in Turkey, and sufficient number of copies of the same has been ordered by defence services libraries in Pakistan.
Masud Akhtar Shaikh also wrote Democracy in Tears - a commentary on Pakistan's political scene. Thus Masud Shaikh has reached the top as one of the foremost authority in Turkish literature and is held in esteem by Pakistani literary establishment as well as higher institutions of learning in Pakistan. He is often invited in these forums to speak on Turkish literature and on technical aspects of translation, primarily because no Pakistani university has an established department of translation.
National Language Authority Chairman Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik describes Colonel Shaikh as a writer who has built bridges between the writers of Pakistan and Turkey. PAL chief Iftikhar Arif said a Bureau of Translation is necessary in Pakistan, because the time has come to disseminate our literature overseas.
Masud Shaikh is often invited to Turkey and literary organisation of that country accord him the same respect and protocol as they would to dignitary, from Pakistan, and because Turks refer to Pakistanis as Kardesh, a brother.
Masud Shaikh passed the Turkish language translator's examination in 1963. Thereafter the army sent him to Turkey to do a staff course. Since then he has been interested in Turkish literature. He has also made personal friendship with a number of contemporary fiction writers and poets. This friendship helped him translating a number of Turkish masterpieces in English as well as Urdu.
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