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Urdu Translation of Alice in Wonderland

Chapter · January 2015

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Haris Qadeer
University of Delhi
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 Excerpt

Urdu Translation of Alice in Wonderland

From Alice in World of Wonders, Oak Knoll Press, New Castle

The status of Urdu as an Indian language has suffered lamentable decline as it has drawn fewer

literary practitioners than ever before despite enjoying greater

state patronage in independent India. The current state of

children‟s literature in Urdu is even worse. Yet, in the past,

several major writers had played a significant role in

strengthening the tradition of children‟s literature in Urdu,

which is as old as the language itself. Thus it is that the

pantheon of writers of children‟s literature in Urdu includes

such distinguished names as Nazir Ahmed Delhvi, InshaAllah

Khan, Muhammad Hussain Azad, Allama Iqbal, Maulvi

Ismail Meerathi, Syed Imtiyaz Ali and Mushtaq Ahmed. As a

result, they are all known as much for their immense

contribution to “serious” Urdu literature as for their works on children‟s literature.

***

One of the most popular children‟s texts available in translation in the Indian subcontinent is Lewis

Carroll‟s Alice in Wonderland. There are two translations of Alice in Wonderland into Urdu.

Saeeda Zubairy was the first translator. Titled Alice Ajnabi Duniya mei (Alice in Strange World), it

was published by West-Pak Publishing Company, Lahore, Pakistan in 1968. The second and more

famous translation is by Muhammad Khalid Akhtar. Akhtar‟s translation was published in 1981 as
 Alyee ka Khawab Nagar (The Dream City of Alyee) by Hijra Publication, Islamabad. This

translation uses more contemporary and simplified version of Urdu which makes it more accessible

to a wide range of readers. It has adopted and adapted the story to suit the imagination of readers of

Indian subcontinent. Akhtar has made slight modification in the title of the story. The literal

translation of the title of Alice in Wonderland could be “Alice haairet-e-Jahan mei” but Akhtar has

modified it to “Alyee ka Khwab Nagar” (Alyee in Dream City). In Akhtar‟s translation the

protagonist‟s name “Alice” is “Urduised” into “Alyee”, a name that has many similar sounding

variations in Urdu such as Ali, Alia and Annie. Akhtar chose to use only the initial two letters “Al”

while culturally adapting the word Alice into “Aylee” in order to make the name Alice sound

culturally familiar to Urdu readers. The title of Zubairy‟s translation is a literal one as it is closer to

the original English work.

*****

Haris Qadeer and Sumanyu Sathpaty, Delhi University

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