King Lear’s Urdu rendition at Napa is a praiseworthy endeavour

A good translation, it goes without saying, is a formidable achievement. And when the work to be translated is a Shakespearean play, the challenge is manifold, for the Bard of Avon wrote many dialogues in verses and much of their beauty, besides their content, lies in the arrangement of words in a poetical structure.

In this context, the Urdu version of King Lear being presented at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) under the direction of Zia Mohyeddin is a successful effort, as many of the Urdu dialogues, translated by veteran actor Khalid Ahmad, who also deftly plays the main character of Lear, were very poetic and retained the majesty of the original work that not only covers the universal themes of flattery, lust, loyalty, follies of old age and dangers of being outspoken, but also portrays Marxist and existentialist criticism of life, much before such philosophical schools of thought existed with their current names.

The play is about a king, namely Lear, deciding to divide his kingdom among his three daughters in his life, as he wants to rest in old age. He, however, disinherits his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who is his only sincere child, as she fails to flatter him, which the other two evil daughters, Goneril and Regan, do successfully.

In another subplot running parallel to the main plot, the Earl of Gloucester disowns his sincere son Edgar, as he is deceived by his evil illegitimate son Edmund. As these old men misjudge their faithful children, they have to pay for their hamartia, leading to a tragic end, by which most of the key characters die.

A monologue of Edmund in the play runs thus: “A credulous father! and a brother noble, / Whose nature is so far from doing harms / That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty / My practices ride easy! I see the business.”

It was beautifully translated into: “Saada baap aur bhola bhai. Itna masoom ke kuchh bhi maan le. Jab donon hee itnay seedhay hain to main kyun na karun apna ullu seedha.”

The famous quote of Lear — “I am a man / More sinn’d against than sinning” — was transformed into “Main gunahgar kam hoon aur gunah-raseeda ziada hoon”.

A dialogue of Lear — “Robes and furr’d gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, / And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks” — was beautifully converted into “Qeemti libaas aur nafees ta’aam mein saaray aib chhup jaatay hain. Gunah par sonay ka zira baktar charha do, insaf ki laathi khud hee takra kar toot jayegi”.

The dialogues, however, cannot be effective if they are not delivered well. In this regard, the entire cast was praiseworthy, as they acted their parts well. However, some actors stood out and, fortunately, they were those who either had to speak monologues or had a plenty of witty content in their dialogues. Being a seasoned actor, Ahmad was very good as Lear. Besides, Raheel Siddiqui also received much applause from the audience for the portrayal of the Fool. The character of Edmund was also played effectively by Paras Masroor, whose monologues explaining his evil designs fully captured the audience’s attention.

However, the hall turned somewhat absurd during the scene in which Lear spends a stormy night under the sky. The scene is considered one of the most moving scenes of Shakespeare.

The tragic substance of the play reaches its zenith when one finds a former king having no protection against the rain and thunder, and it is there when his speech touches on the themes of futility of human existence and the inherent injustice in how the world works, where some have all the luxuries of life and others are deprived of the very basic necessities.

The scene turned absurd because of the audience’s laughter, the reason for which was Edgar, played by Nazr-ul-Hasan, who was behaving like an ape as he was pretending to be insane to escape arrest, since he had been falsely implicated by his evil brother of plotting against his father, the Earl of Gloucester, enacted by Syed Meesam Naqvi.

The audience breaking into chuckles was quite against the essence of the scene, but there was also no fault on the part of the actor, because someone playing a mad man has to do what a mad man does.

The Urdu adaptation of the play was perhaps abridged, as it lasted for two hours and 45 minutes, whereas its complete presentation in English takes more than three hours.

However, even if it was abridged, it was very skilfully done, as those who knew the plot and who had read the play did not find any major thing missing. The sound and light also fully complemented the presentation.

Napa presented the play for the media on Wednesday, a day before it was opened for the public on Thursday. It will be staged until December 29.