RUMMAGING through books, old and new, arranged unsystematically in my bookshelf, I came across a thin volume titled Oedipus Rex, an Urdu translation of the play by Ahmad Aqeel Rubi. As the man is no more among us, this precious volume reminds me of him with his zest for all that goes as Greco. How deeply he was involved in that great tradition. Taking a cue from Zorba, the Greek, a novel by Kazantzakis, I feel tempted to call him Rubi, the Greek. Of course, he was not just a one-track mind.
Rubi’s pen was seen engaged in a variety of subjects under the guidance of his versatile mind. But what attracted his attention most was Yunan, everything ranging from mythology to medicine. He has even a Greek-inspired novel to his credit, in which some wandering soul from our present times, under some trick played on him, mysteriously finds himself landed in a strange land. He soon discovers to his utter amazement that he has in fact wandered into ancient Athens, that he is now rubbing shoulders with personalities such as Socrates, Plato, Sophocles and Aeschylus.
He has also to his credit a short introduction to ancient Greece. But he felt more elated when he won praise from Zia Mohyeddin for his translation of Oedipus Rex, a play by Sophocles. Zia Sahib chose to write the introduction of this translation when it was published in book form. He, in his foreword, paid compliments to the translator for being faithful to Sophocles. “The translation,” he wrote, “is faithful to the text. It is fluent and is free of verbosity”. The National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) chose to present it on stage at Zia Sahab’s direction. Sophocles stands high among the great dramatists of all times. He was a prolific writer and had written about 120 plays, but they were all lost with the exception of seven. Of these, three go to make a trilogy — Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Taken together these three plays have also been designated the Oedipus Cycle as they are all about the same family of King Oedipus. What a family and what tragedy! As a tragedy it stands high among the cluster of Greek tragedies. According to one analysis, “In the Oedipus Cycle, Sophocles deals with the downfall of greatness. But he is inspired as much by the greatness as by the downfall. We might say that the special Sophoclean emotion comes from the tension between his sad recognition of man’s tragic fate and his admiration for man’s wondrous powers.”
After due recognition of his study of Greek tradition, with particular reference to his ability of translating Greek drama, he was expected to engage seriously in translating Greek dramas. Perhaps NAPA too had suggested that he continue translating the rest of Sophocles’ plays. But perhaps his professional engagements came in the way.
In fact, Aqeel Rubi was among those writers who could not concentrate fully on their literary work. Their professional engagements served as an obstacle. Rubi had started his career as a teacher of Urdu literature. He retired as the head of the Urdu Department in F.C. College. He could not pursue his literary engagements after retirement because of the lack of opportunities in this field. Instead, he got opportunities in the film industry and chose to avail them. He started writing songs for films. But there too he could not continue long.
As stated above, Rubi’s was not a one-track mind. Endowed with a versatility of talent, he was capable of doing many things in different fields. This versatility itself did not allow him to remain engaged in any activity of writing and composing for long. That damaged his image of a serious writer. He has a number of fine pieces of writing to his credit, both in prose as well as in verse, but his piecemeal work in spite of his brilliance remained unrecognised.
So he was a writer who could not leave the impact of other well-acknowledged writers.
