Urdu and English: Code of Silence, by Lorette C. Luzajic, Translated by Saad Ali and Nashwa Yaqoob Butt

Self Portrait, by Helene Schjerfbeck (Finland) 1915

Code of Silence

The sister hasn’t spoken in months, you say. More than that, actually, nearly a year. Things were just going along and then one day, she stopped talking. At first you thought she was playing some messed up kind of trick that you weren’t getting. Then you thought it was a protest. Sometimes she would write something down in the little notebook she’d started carrying around. But there would just be a few cryptic words like “the broken heart of Mexico” or “before they turn the summer into dust.” It took some figuring but eventually you caught on that these were snippets of song lyrics. Nothing in her own words, not even on paper.

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Urdu Translation
 
ہیلن شیرف بیک (فن لینڈ) کی تصویر "ذاتی شبیہ" (۱۹۱۵ء) کی طرز پر 
 
خاموشی کا ضابطہ 
 
بہن نے کئی مہینوں سے کوئی بات نہیں کی، تم کہتی ہو۔ اُس سے بھی زیادہ عرصے سے، دراصل، تقریباً ایک سال سے۔ سب کچھ ٹھیک چل رہا تھا اور پھر ایک دن، اُس نے بات کرنا بند کر دیا۔ شروع میں ایسا لگتا کہ وہ کوئی الجھانے والا حربہ لگا رہی ہے جو تم سمجھ نہیں پا رہی۔ پھر ایسا لگتا کہ یہ کوئی احتجاج تھا۔ بعض دفعہ وہ یاداشت کی بیاض میں کچھ لکھتی جس کو اُس نے اپنے ساتھ رکھنا شروع کر دیا تھا۔ مگر وہاں صرف چند خفیہ الفاظ ہوتے جیسے " میکسیکو کا ٹوٹا ہوا دل" یا " اُن کے موسم گرما کو دھول میں تبدیل کرنے سے پہلے۔" کچھ اندازہ لگانا پڑا مگر آخرکار تم نے پکڑ ہی لیا کہ وہ گانے کے کچھ بول تھے۔ اُس کے ذاتی الفاظ میں سے کچھ بھی نہیں تھا، نہ ہی کاغذ پر۔
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Transliteration

​Helene Schjerfbeck (Finland) ki tasweer Zaati Shabeeh (1915) ki tarz per
 
Khamooshi ka Zabta
 
Behen ne kayi mahenoon se koi baat nahein ki, tum kehti ho. Uss se bhi ziada arsae se, darasal, taqreban aik saal se. Sab kuch theek chal reha tha aur phir aik din, uss ne baat kerna band ker diya. Shuru mein aisa lagta ke who koi uljhane waala harba laga rehi hai jo tum samejh nahein pa rehi. Phir aisa lagta ke yeh koi ehtejaaj tha. B’aaz daf’a who yaadasht ki beyaaz mein kuch likhti jis ko uss ne apne saath rekhna shuru ker diya tha. Magar wahan sirf chand khufiya alfaaz hote jaise “Mexico ka toota huwa dil” ya “unn ke mosam-e-garma ko dhool mein tabdeel kerne se pehle.” Kuch andaaza lagana pera magar aakhir kar tum ne paker hi liya ke who gaanay ke kuch bol thay. Uss ke zaati alfaaz mein se kuch bhi nahein tha, na hi kaaghz per. 

Lorette C. Luzajic
translated by Saad Ali & Nashwa Yaqoob Butt

This poem first appeared (in English) in The Neon Rosary: tiny prose poems (Cyberwit Books).  

Saad Ali (b. 1980 CE in Okara, Pakistan) has been brought up and educated in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. He is a bilingual poet-philosopher and literary translator. His new collection of poems is titled Owl Of Pines: Sunyata (AuthorHouse, 2021). He has translated Lorette C. Luzajic’s ekphrastic poetry and micro/flash fictions into Urdu: Lorette C. Luzajic: Selected Ekphrases: Translated into Urdu(2023). He is a regular contributor to The Ekphrastic Review. He has had poems published in The Mackinaw and Synchronized Chaos. His work has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology. He has had ekphrases showcased at an Art Exhibition, Bleeding Borders, curated at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie in Alberta, Canada. Some of his influences include: Vyasa, Homer, Attar, Rumi, Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Kafka, Tagore, Lispector, et alia. He enjoys learning different languages, travelling by train, and exploring cities/towns on foot. To learn further about his work, please visit: www.saadalipoetry.com; www.facebook.com/owlofpines.


Nashua Yaqoob Butt (b. 1984 C.E.) is from the Gujrat District, Pakistan. She is a teacher, social worker, and poetess. She holds an MA in Mass Communication from The Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan. She has authored two collections of poetry: Luminous Butterfly (2021), and Solitude: Silence and Self Identity (2023). Currently, she teaches Urdu and Social Studies (Secondary Level/Grade 9 & 10) at the Jinnah Public School & College, Gujrat, Pakistan. She has also been a part of a local Social Welfare Organisation (working for the empowerment of women in the region) as a Crochet Instructor. Her influences include: Rumi, Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Amrita Pritam, and Rabindranath Tagore – to name a few. In her spare time, she pursues gardening, sketching/painting, writing, and crocheting. You can learn more about her work via her Facebook Author Page: www.nashwayaqoobbutt.