Allusions to Greek and Roman mythologies have always been far more acceptable to our lovers of literature - particularly English - than those of Indian mythology. This does not necessarily hold true for the Muslim community. The above statement doesn't, however, mean that the significance of Hindu festivals has been lost on the minority community, but that the keener knowledge of mythology goes beyond the knowledge of festivals.
Not that attention was not paid to discover Hindu mythology, or folklore, by Muslims, but it was more or less confined to a microscopic minority. The common masses were not even initiated into the broad principles of religious beliefs. It was enough that they knew about the group categorised as the 'other'. This didn't mean that they didn't know the art of living together. Isn't human life a great leveller?
We are aware of Sanskrit folklore and Pali, Panchantra and Jataka have already been translated into Urdu. Baital Pacheesi, translated into Urdu, is a fairly well-known effort and English translations have also helped the dissemination of knowledge about them. The Arabian Nights has made good use of Kalila wa Dimna stories, Iranian folklore, Pre-Islamic folklore and Gilgamesh motifs.
The art of spinning one story from another, in a concentric style, couldn't find a wide currency in modern Urdu fiction with the onset of western fiction. The vogue of short-story shows that time has become a factor in measuring out the acceptable length of a story. Even epics and long poems are joining the storehouse of the past for very good reasons.
However, in contemporary Urdu fiction, Intezar Hussain has discovered how not to appear repetitive by plunging himself in the tradition of Sanskrit folklore, quite a strange territory to travel for a modern Urdu reader. There was a time when Intezar Hussain chastised Munshi Prem Chand for introducing this trend in the tradition of Urdu short story, which he thought was 'alien' to Urdu, as he wrote in Seep in 1962-1963.
Quite strange it was, though. Wasn't his fondness for the 'Dastaan' reservoir of stories a return to the Arabian Nights-mould of storytelling? Intezar Hussain was possibly baptising it as 'Islamic'. He was opposing Gandhi's politics. That's why Intezar Hussain has also delved into the myths related to the Judeo-Christian traditions of Prophets.
There was a time when these myths were labelled as 'Israeli Khurafat' in Tafsir literature. May be Intezar Hussain thought why not ride the bandwagon of 'Israeli Khurafat'? He also dealt with the legends and motifs related to Karbala. One doesn't know whether he was turning fiction into facts or facts into fiction. He did it with some success, but Intezar's tragedy is that when he is closer to the ideal stage of mixing facts with fantasies, he makes a hasty retreat to his favourite theme memories of times gone by and he feels exhausted and gives up the chase, even though he is in possessions of certain buts and the ends of his unfinished stories wait for a revisit.
Intezar Hussain has in his recent column in a daily has pointed at a 'Pakistani', as the third writer who has attempted a story on the theme of a German academic dealing with Indian folklore.
Perhaps he is that 'Pakistani' himself. His latest cycle of short-story writings shows his fondness for Indian mythology and he is quite spirited about his newly found anchorage. Intezar Hussain is undoubtedly, a wonderful pen. His Urdu columns, in particular, are classy. One only wishes that he sheds off a bit of his cynicism, which makes him an egotist without a good cause.
Mumtaz Rafique's 'Marx ki Nazmain' has created a stir by the quality of his translation. Marx wrote poetry, as well as fiction, an unfinished novel is his legacy proving that the aesthetics Marx espoused couldn't be categorised as mere ideological, as some Marxist writer's have claimed.
Aesthetics - the source of beauty - is a latter-day coinage in the 19th century. Earlier the word 'criticism' would suffice. Criticism implies judgement and aesthetic perception. George Santayama is credited with the first methodical theory of beauty, after Plato, Aristotle and Bendetto Croce's viewpoints. Dr M.M Sharif also came out with a book 'Jamaliyat Kay Teen Nazriye,' including his own, as the Islamic one.
Dr Sharif, at best, has summed up 'beauty' as a value in itself, which becomes meaningful in the context of a 'thing of beauty', coming up to the required standards of harmony, symmetry and rhythm. 'Form & Expression' are the tools which provide us a measure of whether what was constituted as beauty, has been achieved as an object of beauty.
Marx's approach was no different from Hegel's who thought that the inner and outer world formed an objective dialectical unity as they are indissolubly married. He also approximates to the idea that an ideal is formed in the mind - through an active verification of it being just and beautiful and then it is compared with the ideal itself.
Mumtaz Rafique has translated some poems of Marx pertaining to the time when Marx was in intense love with Jenny. He was possessed by love - almost overawed and his poems deal with his profuse enchantment with his beloved. This scribe has written the preface to these poems. Marx's poetry affirms his position as one of the world's most ardent readers of literature. His Das Kapital is a testimony of his passion for literature.
It is an extensive treatise on political economy written in German and edited in part by Engels. Bakunin, one of the authorities on Marx's literary interests thinks that very few men have read as much, and, it may be added, have read as intelligently, as Marx has.
Marx's reading included, from first to last, the work of poets, novelists, and dramatists, writing in many languages. But what has not been fully appreciated, however, is the extent to which imaginative literature penetrated and shaped Marx's writings.
Though, translations cannot hope to quench our thirst for the original poems, it can be said, without any contradiction that we haven't had any such attempt in the past so far and even the approximate, passable translation pleases us. I deeply recommend this book to my readers. Saujh Publications, Lahore, has produced this aesthetically pleasing book.