Originally written in Bengali, Shabnam presents a passionate love story set in 1920s Afghanistan. What is love? asks author Syed Mujtaba Ali: a dream or a dreamy reality? Maybe, it is like an overnight train journey through a long tunnel, in which the traveler stays awake to catch a glimpse of the sun’s first rays, but falls asleep just before dawn. When he wakes up frustrated, he comforts himself by thinking that the soft light had touched his skin and its warmth had seeped into his veins through the pores. The elusiveness of love is a potent theme in this classic novel now available in an English translation from Nazes Afroz.
The 1920s was a decade of turbulence in Central Asia, bookended by the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and civil war breaking out in Afghanistan in 1929. Having himself worked in the Education Department of Afghanistan, during 1927-29, Ali blended experiences, facts and fiction in Shabnam. Though a love story at its core, the novel depicts the impact of political instability and modernization in Afghan society under the shadow of the Ottoman Empire.
Amanaullah, King (or self-styled ruler) of Afghanistan at the time, had Turkish blood on his mother’s side; the influence of Persianate culture was apparent in his regime. He actively encouraged ball dances, tennis and English cuisine. He was not however on amicable terms with his chieftains, one of whom was Sardar Aurangazeb Khan. Besides their courtly antagonism, dacoits and goons were a constant menace in the cities of Pagman and Kandahar.
Shabnam, the eponymous heroine of this book, is a girl of nineteen. Born in Paris to a diplomat father, she spent the first ten years of her life there. Fluent in French and Farsi, witty, fun-loving, bold and courageous, Shabnam is representative of contemporary elite Afghan women, citing her Turkish lineage as a reason for her daring personality. Manjun, the hero and narrator, is fascinated by Shabnam’s liveliness. An erstwhile resident of Sylhet in the present-day Bangladesh, Manjun was in Kabul to teach in a local college.
During one of her nocturnal ventures, Shabnam meets Manjun in the street outside the Palace. The acquaintance soon develops into a love affair. They discuss poetry, and she daringly visits his house alone and proposes marriage (despite the upheaval caused by attacks on the city from dacoits). Manjun agrees and they have a simple marriage in his house. Love, in other words, triumphs over all social and political barriers.
Though the story ends in tragedy, Shabnam remains a symbol of positivity and strength throughout.
In Manjun’s eyes, she was “Shabnam Shiuli”: her innocence as pure as “shabnam” ( “dewdrop” in Persian) and her beauty as fresh as “shiuli”, a dew-drenched autumnal flower in Bengal. Their courtship brings together the poetry and romantic legends of Persia and Bengal. While Shabnam recites Hafiz, the Persian lyric poet, Manjun quotes from Satyen Datta, a contemporary Bengali poet. They celebrate their wedding night by quoting verses from Vaishnava poets (Chandidas, Jagadananda, Jyandas and Balaram Das) and Persian lyricists (Nimami, Firdausi, Jami and Figani). Legends of Layli Majnun and Radha Krishna are invoked to describe the states of pleasure, longing, union, separation and suffering in love.
Shabnam blurs the dividing lines between poetry and prose. In this regard, it has affinity with Rabindranath Tagore’s poetic novel Sesher Kobita (The Last Poem or Farewell Song).
The Afghan society portrayed in this novel is quite different from the general current notion of it being conservative, patriarchal and stifling. Shabnam and Manjun’s courtship presents a rich tapestry of inter-cultural dialogue, etched out as a trajectory to retrieve a slice of lost time. It pays homage to the glorious Persianate culture that faded with the fall of the Ottomans.
Translating this book into English must have been a great challenge. Afroz manages to keep intact the multilingual flavour of Asian poetic traditions (Bengali, Sanskrit and Persianate) in his English translation of verses of various poets. Enriched with vivid intertextual references and multilingual poetry, Shabnam is a modern classic, one that deserves far more attention in discourses on world literature. This English translation will hopefully go some way to achieving that.