Ayeshamangal: The Ballad of Ayesha
Once you pick up a book by Anisul Hoque, you simply can’t lay it down till the very last page. He does away with any superfluity in structuring his stories, there is clarity in language and he has a penchant for conjuring up characters with a special kind of dexterity. Anis has written romantic novels and post modern novels too. He has also skillfully brought to life contemporary history and its impact of the individual, or on society as a whole, in some of his novels.
These cannot be classified as historic novels, nor can they be restricted to any slot. These are snapshots of the times, times entwined in history of Bangali identity, traditions and very personal narratives. Take, for example, his novel Ma. It revolves around the 1971 war, but is also the story of a woman’s struggle through life. The 1971 war draws inevitable conclusions in the story, but the woman’s sufferings, self-respect and fight for her rights, are in no way eclipsed. This is a story that steals the heart.
Another such novel is Ayeshamangal. A hijacked Japanese aircraft landed in Dhaka in 1977 and within a few days of the incident, devastation struck the lives of a large number of air force officers and others. There was a series of coups and counter coups. The accused were tried in a military tribunal, though the accusations against them remained unclear.
Several were sentenced to death and even their families did not know when and where their sentences were carried out. Reports appeared in the newspapers. In his novels Ma, Jara Bhor Enechhilo, Bir Protiker Khoje and a few others, Anisul Hoque used the probing pen of a journalist, the skills of a scribe with a nose for news. He is a journalist by profession and the events of 1977 remained etched in his memory.
Quite some time after the event, a report appeared in the daily Bhorer Kagoj about one of the accused. Another incident surfaced. A wife had long been searching for her missing husband. Upon reading the news report, she turned up at the newspaper office and Anisul Hoque found himself face to face with a person who was a living part of the recent history of an attempted coup. He penned the story of that grieving wife and named her Ayesha.
He borrowed this name from Bankimchandra, but he researched with the perseverance of a journalist and gave completeness to the character. To do so, Anis delves into epic of Mangalkabya. He finds similarity between Ayesha and Behula. Ayeshamangal vividly describes a real-life story, the pages of the book reverberating with the intensity of the writer’s narrations of Ayesha’s feelings, her sighs and sufferings, and the angst of waiting.
We tend to forget about the Ayeshas of this world, but it will not be possible to forget Ayesha of Ayeshamangal.
Perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of the author Anis is his intelligent sense of humour. Naturally this sort of humour cannot be expected in Ayeshamangal. Instead he uses a sharp sense of irony. This irony drives us to question narratives of history, to dig a little deeper.
The Ballad of Ayesha, an English translation of Ayeshamangal, has recently been published and is now available in the bookstores. That is good news. Previously, Freedom’s Mother, an English translation of the novel Ma by the same author, won wide and popular readership in India and elsewhere. The Ballad of Ayesha will certainly gain popularity too as the translation has been done with fluency, keeping the essence of the original alive. I believe it will certainly captivate the English readers.
The book has been translated by Inam Ahmed. Inam Ahmed himself is a creative writer with a commendable command over English and so has been able to translate the historical and factual-fiction of Ayeshamangal with smooth fluidity. It is always imperative to focus on cultural translation in such work, as it is introducing one culture to another. The merit of the translation depends much on the clarity of interactions between the two cultures. And Inam Ahmed has done an admirable job.
The question may arise, why has ‘mangal’ be translated as ‘ballad’? Actually Mangalkabya has all the elements of an English ballad. And in Ayeshamangal, Ayesha’s long wait for the return of her husband, Anis’ depiction of her determination and helplessness, her suffering, her anger and the moments of uncertainty, all come to life. It had all the characteristics of a ballad.
The readers of the English translation have an added perk. This is a conversation between the writer Anisul Hoque and the translator Inam Ahmed. The reader will get a clear picture of Ayesha’s story, as well as an explanation of the story’s parallel with Behula and Mangalkabya. The interview will also answer any curiousity about Anisul Hoque. The book has been published by Harper Perennial.
* This review has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir