Surjit Hans, the man who translated Shakespeare's works into Punjabi, dies at 89

The renowned Sikh historian and writer Surjit Hans died on Friday at the age of 89. The retired history professor, who lived with his journalist daughter Nanki Hans in Punjab's Mohali town, contributed his two decades of meticulous effort to translate all the works, including 38 plays, of the 16th century Bard of Avon into Punjabi.

Who was Surjit Hans?

Surjit Hans was a famous historian and writer, who had translated all the works of William Shakespeare into Punjabi. He taught history at Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University and chose to translate Shakespeare into Punjabi full-time only after his retirement in 1993. He was assigned the translation work by the Patiala-based Punjabi University.

What inspired Surjit Hans to translate Shakespeare's work?

Hans' relationship with Shakespeare went back to his college days when he played the part of the wounded soldier in 'Macbeth' and acted in 'Hamlet'. In an interview with IANS a few years ago, Hans had said his love for the Bard's works got stronger when he lived in London for seven years in the 1960s and saw plays at the Royal Shakespeare Club.

Asked about the difficulties he faced in translating the Bard's works into Punjabi, Hans had said: "Translating Shakespeare constructionally and in verse form was not difficult. In Punjabi though, there are no words to translate English words like he, she, him or her. You have to use a verb to tell the gender. In his poem, 'Venus and Adonis', the reference to these words comes in every line. But the beauty of the verse gets lost in doing translation. The weakness of (Punjabi) language is there."