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Dear Rafi, While I was talking to Masood Munawar I
remembered the letter you had written when you were inspired by Mohammad
Gill’s article about Mixed Marriages. When I read that letter again I
was inspired to translate it in Urdu and include it in our project of
the Urdu book From Islam to Humanism. I wanted your story to be included
with the stories of my other free thinker friends: Rafiq Sultan, Askari
Naqvi, Zahra Naqvi and Nauroz Arif.
I
am sending you my humble translation. I hope you like it. I tried to
capture the essence and took some liberties. Some people say
‘translation is like a woman, if she is faithful she is not beautiful,
and if she is beautiful, she is not faithful’ I do not fully agree with
that statement as it sounds like a sexist statement but it is amusing.
So feel free to make the translation as faithful and beautiful as you
wish. We might be able to have both qualities in the translation.
While reading your story about your relationship with your sweetheart
wife I thought I should introduce you to my sweetheart Bette Davis as I
would like you to meet her one of these days. I met her in 1978 when I
was doing my psychiatry training at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
We used to do psychotherapy together and then we became friends. Over
the years we stayed in contact and nearly three years ago I shared with
her how much I was fond of her and would like us to become sweethearts.
I was pleased to know that feelings were mutual. So she moved to Ontario
with her daughter Adriana who she had adopted from Romania when Adriana
was only two weeks old. Adriana is 15 now and we have a wonderful
relationship. She is quite creative and loves horses.
Now Bette and I have become friends, colleagues and sweethearts. We
wrote two books together and presently she is editing my next book
Freedom of Religion…Freedom from Religion.
I
was impressed by your insight that all couples have conflicts and the
future health and happiness of the couple depends upon their capacity to
resolve conflicts. Bette and I had a crisis last week but we were able
to resolve it and I feel fortunate that our love and adoration helped us
transform our breakdown into a breakthrough. I feel more peaceful in our
relationship and so does she. That crisis inspired me to write a poem
titled LAST LOVE that I want to share with you. I hope you like it.
Affectionately, Sohail
May
18th, 2006 |