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The Tale of Genji, the world’s first novel penned in the 11th century, is now being translated from its original Japanese form into Urdu in Pakistan and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

This was disclosed at the Pakistan Japan Literature Forum at the Japan Information and Culture Centre in the Japanese Consulate here on Wednesday, although they thought it rather premature to share the name of the translator for now.

There are several translations of this classic work of Japanese literature written by a noblewoman, Murasaki Shikibu, in the early years of the 11th century including many in English. “The Pakistani writer working on his translation has been at it for a while now and is currently working six hours a day as he gets closer to the conclusion,” it was disclosed by journalist Khurram Sohail at the Japanese Consulate, who added that the Urdu translation would be a big achievement once completed as it was not an easy book to translate.

“Many have attempted and failed on getting lost in the story that moves in several directions simultaneously,” he explained.

“Even the well-known Urdu writer in India Syed Ehtesham Hussain tried it, but was only able to write an abridged version, giving just the gist of the actual story,” he said.

Later, a few pages from the abridged Urdu translation were read out to the audience giving a glimpse of the story.

Genji is a son of a Japanese emperor who falls madly in love with a beautiful young concubine Kiritsubo, whom every other woman in the kingdom becomes extremely jealous of and starts plotting against. When she bears a son as beautiful as she is, the baby becomes the emperor’s favourite prince giving way to more envy especially from the mother of the emperor’s other son, the crown prince.

“The novel which talks of emperors, concubines, samurai, aristocratic society in ancient Japan, etc, even had to be translated into easy Japanese during the 1800s so that the Japanese people could read and understand it. And it was another 50 years before its English translation could come out for the rest of the world to be introduced to it,” said Mr Sohail. “You also get guides to help you follow The Tale of Gengi,” he added.

Journalist and guest speaker Rafaqat Hayat also commented about how wonderful it was that the novel even though written so long ago on a scroll, managed to survive through the years. He said that some people, particularly those in the West, believed Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote to be the first novel of the world. “But we now know that it is The Tale of Gengi,” he said. “It would be great to be able to read the classic work of literature in our own Urdu,” he said.

Originally published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2018