{"id":2259,"date":"2015-04-10T04:01:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T23:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2015-04-11T11:38:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-11T06:38:38","slug":"language-and-the-writer-an-evening-with-aamer-hussein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/2015\/04\/language-and-the-writer-an-evening-with-aamer-hussein\/","title":{"rendered":"Language and the Writer – An Evening with Aamer Hussein"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Soonha Abro, Associate Prose Editor at Papercuts magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Desi Writers\u2019 Lounge (DWL) and Liberty Books recently organised an evening of readings and conversation\u00a0in Karachi with the renowned short story writer, Aamer Hussein. The event\u00a0was held on March 24, 2015, at the Liberty Books outlet next to BBQ Tonite. The discussion was moderated by our very own Farheen Zehra Jaffar, DWL’s Karachi representative.<\/p>\n

The discussion kicked off with questions about Hussein\u2019s experience in writing in both English and Urdu, and whether aspiring\u00a0writers should focus\u00a0on writing in a certain language. It is the language that chooses the\u00a0writer, he replied \u2013 a fitting response for a writer like him, who is known for the multilingual abilities that have always manifested\u00a0themselves in his stories.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_6368\"<\/a>

Aamer Hussein answering a question at the event. Photo: Style Planners Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

As a child, Hussein was taught to read and write in English, and spoke Urdu at home. Later, he mastered Urdu\u00a0and Persian by taking a degree\u00a0in\u00a0these languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, gaining exposure to the lesser-known writers and their works in these languages. Meanwhile, he read voraciously in Italian, French, English, Urdu, and Persian, as well as the English translations\u00a0of Arabic, Russian, and several other European\u00a0and East Asian literatures.<\/p>\n

Although Hussein initially\u00a0wrote in English, experimenting with his matter and form for many years, much of his most recent work has been in Urdu. He published four short stories in a 2012 issue of Dunyazaad, a literary journal that comes out of Karachi. These stories materialised on paper only because he attempted to write them in Urdu instead, as he had been unable to write them in English.<\/p>\n

Much of Hussein\u2019s literary influences have come from his extensive readings of English translations of a large variety\u00a0of regional\u00a0literatures from all over the world. His own stories have also been translated\u00a0into many languages, including Italian, Arabic, and Japanese.<\/p>\n

For Hussein, translating a literary text from one language to another makes that text more accessible\u00a0to people who do not read, write, or speak the original\u00a0language, as indicated by his own case. However, a translation of a literary text must encapsulate the essence of the story, even if certain aspects\u00a0of the original\u00a0need to be changed, he added.<\/p>\n

Hussein also read some passages from his book The Swan\u2019s Wife, especially from the title story, which was translated from Urdu.\u00a0Farheen then read the corresponding\u00a0passages from the Urdu\u00a0original Maya Aur Hans.<\/p>\n

\"Aamer

Aamer Hussain with DWL Karachi representative Farheen Zehra Jaffar (right) and Papercuts Editor\u00a0Afia Aslam (left). Photo: Style Planners Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

The readings not only acquainted\u00a0us further with Hussein\u2019s literary craft, they also demonstrated\u00a0how the appeal of a story changes\u00a0with language during the\u00a0process\u00a0of translation. This was, by far, the best part of the evening\u00a0\u2013 a great chance to observe the theory of\u00a0translating a literary text being put into practice.<\/p>\n

\"_MG_6381\"<\/a>

Aamer Hussein. Photo: Style Planners Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

At the end of a stimulating, insightful discussion\u00a0on language and writing, the floor was opened up for questions\u00a0from the audience, which comprised of young writers, students, and general readers, as well as a few renowned Pakistani authors\u00a0from Karachi.<\/p>\n

An audience member asked Hussein about what inspires him to write so many strong female characters in his stories, to which he replied that it is because he believes that women demonstrate\u00a0incredible courage every day in small ways,\u00a0much more\u00a0than men.<\/p>\n

It felt particularly good to see the audience\u00a0also contributing to the discussion\u00a0at hand with several relevant, perceptive\u00a0questions about language and the writer. One seldom sees such an occurrence in Karachi\u00a0nowadays.<\/p>\n

This was the second author\u00a0meet-up in March. Earlier, DWL met with Laurent Gayer<\/a>, where he chatted\u00a0with Sabin Agha about his book Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City. DWL will continue to organise similar events\u00a0on a regular basis\u00a0in the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Soonha Abro, Associate Prose Editor at Papercuts magazine   Desi Writers\u2019 Lounge (DWL) and Liberty Books recently organised an evening of readings and conversation\u00a0in Karachi with the renowned short story writer, Aamer Hussein. The event\u00a0was held on March 24, 2015, at the Liberty Books outlet next to BBQ Tonite. The discussion was moderated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[365],"tags":[542,538,15,539,544,540,541,543],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desiwriterslounge.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}