Translating Resistance: A Translation Studies Approach to Hum Dekhenge by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Keywords:
Faiz Ahmed Faiz; Hum Dekhenge; Translation Studies; ideological translation; Urdu poetry; resistance literatureAbstract
This paper examines the English translation of Hum Dekhenge, a politically charged nazm by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, through key frameworks in Translation Studies. Drawing on theories of equivalence, ideological refraction, and domestication/foreignization, the study evaluates how linguistic, cultural, and ideological meanings shift across translation. Through comparative analysis of literal, poetic, and hybrid translations, the paper argues that while semantic meaning may be preserved, the performative and political intensity of the original inevitably undergoes transformation. A balanced, resistive translation strategy emerges as the most effective approach.
References
Ali, Agha Shahid, translator. The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
Faiz, Faiz Ahmed. "Hum Dekhenge." 1979. Nuskha Hai Wafa, edited by Ali Madeeh Hashmi, Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2014, pp. 312-313.
Jakobson, Roman. "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation." On Translation, edited by Reuben Arthur Brower, Harvard University Press, 1959, pp. 232-239.
Lefevere, André. Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. Routledge, 1992.
Nida, Eugene. Toward a Science of Translating. Brill, 1964.
South Asian Resistance Archive. "Hum Dekhenge (We Will See) – Activist Translation." South Asian Resistance Archive, 2014, www.southasianresistance.org/faiz-hum-dekhenge/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2026.
Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2008.
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