On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published, anonymously, his pamphlet, Common Sense. I actually didn’t remember this but Washington Post’s very helpful Today in History reminded me.
Which also reminded me that sometimes in July, 2006, I had decided to annotate and translate Common Sense into Urdu. I admit that the only progress I made on this so far is to get the title translated - trust me, it was far harder than you’d imagine. I also read through Paine’s Rights of Man and The Age of Reason.
I honestly don’t know if I can do this judiciously - or at all. But, with 2008 being the year when Pakistan’s resident dictator decides, again, to suspend democracy and freedom - with the help of the White House - I think it will be my fruitless gesture.
One of my plans for this year is to translate two tracts myself, so am going to cheer you on in this endeavour. But am now curious: how did you translate the title into Urdu?
Me too: what’s the translation for “Common Sense” in Urdu — “Mamoli Hiss”?
More on this soon.
It would be a tough job to translate this pamphlet into Urdu. Since most Urdu readers are not aware of the background, it will be good if you write a preface to the translation with lots of end notes for further explainations.