First Letter To Uncle Sam

This translation retains the flavour of the original. Needless to say, Manto is Manto.

i wish i could read the urdu original. not easy being a writer or an artist in a poor society. or any society. the great Van Gogh could not sell a single painting in his entire life, lived a life of poverty, chopped off and mailed in his ear in frustration at one time - and now people make tens of millions of dollars from his paintings.

while Ghalib may have been concerned with infamy after death, I wonder what he would have say about fame after death: is it worth the misery??

khalid:

what more can i add about the letters?

a welcome to chowk...over the years i have enjoyed reading your profiles ...look forward to more from you

rgds

t

Brilliant.Moving.In my opinion, the words of a gentlemen and a scholar.If the translation is true to the last word I WANT MORE OF THE SAME.Begone all the other trite, hackneyed articles and peurile immature rants.This is the best.I WANT MORE OF THE SAME.If i ever visit pakistan i will pay my respects to Saadat Hasan Manto.

Brilliant, timeless, incredible.


There are so many passages to savor and enjoy - here are two of my favorites.

1 - How I wish he had been born in your country. He would have been carried to his grave with great fanfare and over his resting place a skyscraper would have been built. Or were his own wish to be granted, his dead body would have been placed in a pool of glass and people would have gone to view it as they go to a zoo.

2 - What it adds up to is that your dogs are better off than us. Die here today, you are forgotten tomorrow. If someone in the family dies, it is a disaster for those left behind who often can be heard wailing, “why did the wretch die? I should’ve gone instead.” The truth is, uncle, that we neither know how to live nor how to die.

these letters are timeless. i look forward to reading more.