Relay translation and South–South imaginary: the case of Muhammad Iqbal in China

Abstract

This article examines the translation and reception of the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal—a Muslim revivalist and national poet of Pakistan in China during the late 1950s era of decolonization, as part of a broader imaginary of Chinese-Pakistani solidarity in the Global South. The 1950s have seen a burst of translations of foreign literatures into Chinese, in tandem with China’s leadership position in various iterations of non-alignment during the Cold War. Most often, original literature in African and Asian languages was translated via a mediating language—in the case of South Asian languages—English. Examining the translation trajectory of Iqbal’s poems from Urdu to English to Chinese, we argue and demonstrate that the Muslim content of Iqbal’s poetry was diluted and dismissed. Closely reading the translation into Chinese of some of Iqbal’s key concepts such as “The East” (Mashriq) and “Self” (Khudi), we trace the recreation of Iqbal in English and then Chinese—from a religiously-driven poet whose anticolonialism was rooted in Sufi revivalism to a staunch anti-imperialist proponent of Pan-Asian nationalism. We aim to shine a light on the critical role relay translation plays in South-South interactions, real and imagined.