Cultural representation in a language not native to that culture is tricky business. As someone who writes poetry on Indo-Pak culture and its socio-political dynamics – not in Urdu or any of the many regional languages, but in English – it is something I am always reflecting upon and trying to do justice by in my craft.
Whether appropriating a culture you don’t have firsthand experience of or representing a culture you are intimately acquainted with, treating it with depth and sensitivity, especially in a non-native language is an authorial exercise guaranteed to challenge even the most seasoned writer.
The Lahore Fort is possibly my most favourite historical site in the world.
Some of the reasons culture portrayal can be demanding:
* Imparting universality of emotion and experience while retaining uniqueness.
* Using non-native language without compromising the flavour of the culture.
* Trying not to portray it as the Other, as alien.
* Striking the balance between playing with “partial truths” and maintaining cultural authenticity.
* Being faithful to your own complex interactions with a culture.
Two books of poetry that have greatly influenced my understanding of rendering cultural poetry in a non-native language are 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye and Handwriting by Michael Ondaatje. I find them to be remarkable in the way one effortlessly transports me to the Middle East, the other drowns me in the mythical history of Sri Lanka. After reading and re-reading these two as well as many books of prose and poetry that deal with different cultures over the years, and informed by my own experience writing such poetry, I find rendering culture can be distilled to these five guidelines:
1 – Specificity
Ambiguity may work in most poetry but doesn’t translate as well for cultural poetry. Try to be as specific as possible in word choice. Wherever possible, use the English word for the native one.
2 – Details
Go for the little known detail to bring your verse or prose alive. Tell people something new, other than what they know, or what is cliched, about a culture.
3 – Form
While you can represent culture through the content of your writing, remember that you can also borrow forms from that culture’s literary traditions. E.g. Maybe your poetic content could be in the form of a ghazal or ruba’ii or haiku.
4 – Authenticity
While fictionalizing reality is what writers do, when rendering culture we must not fictionalize it to a degree that it loses authenticity and becomes uncredible. In order for the writer to express authority on his subject, he must remain faithful to the essence of that culture.
5 – Audience
While representing culture in their work, writers must keep in mind their audience which can include those who are strangers to it as well as those who are intimately connected with it. Ideally, they should craft a piece that can hold both audiences.
Hope this was useful. Until next week!
Vine
It’s going to be finish of mine day, but before ending I am reading this enormous article to improve my experience.
Zakia R. Khwaja
Thank you for your comment, Vine. 🙂 Good to know you found this post useful!
Frank Sayre
Dear Zakia!
I had just finished up with my writing chores for the day when I checked in with the support-a-writer community. I joined it over a year ago and was very active at first. Although I’ve tapered down, I caught your post (it was very convincing & well stated )at the top of the page and decided to make an entry.
Soon it became obvious that I was drawn to your post, as well as who you are. Spotting your photo I thought, what lovely woman. Upon reading your blog from the 23rd I was further drawn in; it was as lovely as you are… by my standards.
Reading “about ” in your bragging rights you wrote: “I can read anyone under the table,” I smiled and grew more curious. Would she be willing and ready to read my book, a memoir of a path with a title befitting today’s spectrum of life?
We are of different cultures, but I know of your culture starting back from 1966 when I began reading Eastern philosophy; about yogis, Avatars, about Buddha, and Christ and on and on. Then I went out and lived a life right out of the book “Siddhartha” by Herman Hess, noble laureate.
Well, I sort of did, but for the most part. I wanted to awaken and was not cut out to be a ascetic, so I became someone of question. I’ve already written a book about a certain five year period of my life when I worked with my older brother and a pal and we were smugglers. The book reads like a fast paced novel.
Now to point: Would you be interested in reading the 2nd book which is about the path I took and all the woman I met along the way? I can send you the back cover page 4 starts.
The cultural difference you might find appealing, like what went down in the 1960’s during the free love era of brotherhood ,clear through to the 1990’s era, most all of this set in California. It is a narrative abut human pitfalls, about overcoming shadow side; all of this through visitations with the many woman that I met and had relations with. I do my best to confess and stand and deliver the truth and what it was that awakened me and how it awakened me.
Care to peek?
I love your mind and what your heart reveals
We are one
Lets chat. We could go over to email and be more private: brotherhoodsayre@gmail.com
Zakia R. Khwaja
Thank you for your lovely comment, Frank! 🙂 I would love to read your work. You can send it to me at scribesmadness@gmail.com. However, it may take me a while to get to it since I am juggling many writing projects at the moment. So glad you liked the blog! 🙂
Ammar Anwer
I will be waiting for the next one 🙂
marvelous 🙂
Zakia R. Khwaja
Glad you liked it, Ammar! Thanks for your comment. 🙂
Mowahid
Very concise and enriching. I am sure it’ll be a great help for all those bilinguals out there, trying to overcome the tragedy of losing in translations. I am still a little doubtful about the possibility of balancing authenticity and audience, but I guess that’s where ‘the strategy’ helps.
Zakia R. Khwaja
It’s always a fine line to walk for writers, Mowahid. The dangers of becoming too ‘exotic’ or too cliched in order to play to your audience are always there. I think a writer’s instinct plays a big role here as well as just constant commitment to achieving mastery over one’s craft.
Thank you for your insightful comment! 🙂