Hard ask: ‘Can Pakistanis and Indians be friends?’

Vikram Seth on translations, colonial influence and upcoming sequels.

LAHORE:

“The degree of difficulty and reluctance South Asians face in befriending people of other countries in the region, especially India and Pakistan is unfortunate,” novelist, translator and poet Vikram Seth said on Friday.

Seth was addressing the opening session of the Lahore Literary Festival on Friday. Visitors poured in throughout the hour long session. Much to the surprise of audience, the session titled The Suitable Duo began five minutes ahead of its schedule. The session was moderated by Nasreen Rehman and stylised to feature recitations of his own work. The conversation webbed into a dialogue - a very candid dialogue.

Describing his friendship with Rehman, Seth said he was lucky to be friends with Rehman, also his host during his stay in Lahore for the LLF. Seth discussed his observation that people from various South Asian countries often found it hard to be friends. “It is unfortunate that you can’t be friends with Pakistanis easily if you are an Indian and vice versa...unless of course you are abroad.”

Seth read excerpts from The Golden Gate - a tale set in the 1980s’ San Francisco, An Equal Music and from his 1,349 pages long novel A Suitable Boy, published in 1993. The recitations were interrupted frequently due to the noise in the hall, till Seth himself had to intervene.

On Seth’s translations, Rehman asked how he had stumbled upon the art of translation. Seth said the works of an 8th century Chinese poet had motivated him to study Chinese. Even though translations sometimes failed to reflect prose and its nuances the way its parent language did, there was no other choice. “Translation is the only means to access literary works in other languages,” he said.

Reading a Chinese poem from his book, Three Chinese Poets, translated from the works of poets, Li Bai, Du Fu and Wang Wei, Seth said he was compelled to translate the poems for reasons unknown to him. He also recited his poem Host, inspired from George Herbert’s Love.

Seth’s recitation of his poem Small Things - For Papa on his 90th birthday, with references to his father’s cufflinks and watch, both of which he was wearing at the time, was the most moving part of the session. He received warm applause for that.

“I was born after the partition and am post colonial by definition,” he said, “But that does not mean that colonial remnants are not evident in the works, words and lives of, not just our parents’ generation, but even ours.”

The sequel of A Suitable Boy, titled A Suitable Girl, is expected to come out soon. He said even though most of the characters are brought forward in the sequel, one of the protagonists of the original book, Lata - now in her 80s - has also changed.

Seth concluded the session by discussing humanity and love. For Seth, religion of birth is but a pure chance, as is being born in this world. “Let us just hope that if we cannot eschew hatred we can at least eschew group hatred.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2014.