Daniele Speziale
Daniele Speziale, also known by the pen-name Rahi Italvi, was born in 1998. He is a social worker and a budding writer and translator from Italy. He currently lives and works with an NGO in Kinshasa, D.R. Congo. Daniele is also a graduate in MSc Development Studies from SOAS, University Of London, and has experience working with grassroot organizations in a variety of countries. A polyglot, Daniele has studied around 15 languages, with a predilection for Hindustani in which he also composes poetry under the pen-name of Rahi Italvi. In 2022, Daniele was a finalist in the Jawad Ali Memorial Prize For Urdu-English Translation, and his Hindustani poetry is currently being published on Rekhta.
Poetry (translation)
Your love’s infinity
Through cruelty, or promised veil-lessness
Test my tenacity – that’s what I want.
The exercise of translating ghazals always carries multiple genre-specific challenges: should the translator be literal, even when the symbolism (such as “promise-of-veil-lessness”) is so far from the Anglophone imagery?
POETIC RENDITIONS – COLUMN 1
Poetry (translation)
کچھ روز ایسے ہی شروع ہوتے ہیں
اپنی خیریت کو بھلانے کا ڈر
اپنے منہ میں رینگتا ہے کسی لفظ سا
POETIC RENDITIONS – COLUMN 1
In this translation, I opted for a relatively simple syntax to maintain the conciseness of the original text.