SECTION 3a *back to section 2j-3*
(we're now on page *sīn , continued*)     
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After the mushairah was over, iced falsa was set out. The friends ate a couple of small plates of it apiece. They all betook themselves to their homes. After that the dining-cloth was spread. Munshi Sahib and I and Umrao Jan ate dinner. 
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mushāʿirah ḳhatm hone ke baʿd fālsah kī barf jamāʾī gaʾī - us kī do do qafliyāñ aḥbāb ne nosh kīñ - sab apne apne makān ko tashrīf le gaye - us ke baʿd dastar-ḳhvān bichhā - munshī ṣāḥib ne aur maiñ ne aur umrāʾo jān ne khānā khāyā -
Munshi Sahib: (to Umrao Jan) Please just recite that opening-verse of yours that you had recited before. 
munshī ṣāḥib :: ( umrāʾo jān se ) żarā apnā vuh mat̤laʿ to paṛhiye jo āp ne pahle paṛhā thā -

Umrao Jan:
to whom would we recite the state of the sorrowful heart, oh Ada
in wandering we strolled through the world/age 
kis ko sunāʾeñ ḥāl-e dil-e zār ay adā
āvāragī meñ ham ne zamāne kī sair kī
Munshi Sahib: There's no doubt that your vicissitudes must be very interesting indeed! Since you've recited this opening-verse, I've been thinking so. If you would tell your life-story, then it won't be devoid of pleasure. 
munshī ṣāḥib :: is meñ shak nahīñ kih āp ke ḥālāt bahut hī dilchasp hoñge - jab se āp ne yih mat̤laʿ paṛhā hai - mujhe yihī ḳhiyāl hai - agar āp apnī sar-gużisht bayān kareñ to lut̤f se ḳhālī nah hogā -

I too supported the Munshi Sahib's words. But Umrao avoided the subject.

Our gracious Munshi Sahib had had from his earliest years a great ardor for stories and tales. In addition to the Thousand and One Nights and the dastan of Amir Hamzah, all the volumes of Bustan-e Khiyal had passed before his gaze. There was no novel that he wouldn't have looked at.

maiñ ne bhī munshī ṣāḥib ke kalām kī tāʾīd kī - magar umrāʾo pahlū bachātī thīñ -
hamāre munshī ṣāḥib-e mihrbān ko ibtidā-e sin se qiṣṣah kahāniyoñ kā baṛā shauq thā - alf lailah , amīr ḥamzah kī dāstān ke ʿalāvah būstān-e ḳhiyāl kī kul jildeñ naz̤ar se gużrī huʾī thīñ -koʾī nāvil aisā nah thā jo āp ne nah dekhā ho -
But after staying for some days in Lucknow, when he realized the excellence of the real colloquial speech of educated people, most novelists' groundless stories, artificial language, and imitative, foolishly melodramatic utterances, had lost their place in his heart. 
magar lakhnaʾū meñ chand roz rahne ke baʿd jab ahl-e zabāñ kī aṣlī bol-chāl kī ḳhūbī khulī - akṡar nāvil-navīsoñ ke be-take qiṣṣe - maṣnūʾī zabān - aur taʿṣṣub-āmez aur be-hūdah josh dilāne-vālī taqrīreñ āp ke dil se utar gaʾī thī -

The speech of Lucknow's people of taste pleased him extremely. That opening-verse of Umrao Jan's had given rise in his heart to that idea to which allusion has been made above. In short, from Munshi Sahib's ardor, and my concurrence, Umrao Jan was under duress, and she became willing to tell her life-story.
lakhnaʾū ke bā-mażāq logoñ kī guftagū bahut hī pasand āʾī thī - umrāʾoo jān ke us mat̤laʿ ne āp ke dil meñ vuh ḳhiyāl paidā kiyā - jis kā ishārah ūpar kiyā gayā hai - al-qiṣṣah munshī ṣāḥib ke shauq aur merī ishtiʿālak ne umrāʾo jān ko majbūr kiyā - aur vuh apnī sar-gużisht kahne par rāẓī ho gaʾī -
There's no doubt that Umrao Jan's speech was very pure, and why would it not be? First, she was literate; second, she was educated among prostitutes of a high rank. She had frequented the company of princes and navabs' sons. She had access even to royal palaces. What she had seen with her own eyes, other people wouldn't even have heard with their ears. 
is me kuchh shak nahīñ kih umrāʾo jān kī taqrīr bahut shustah thī - aur kyūñ nah ho - avval to [*ʿain*] ḳhvāndah , dūsre aʿlâ darje kī rañdīyoñ meñ parvarish pāʾī - shahzādoñ aur navāb-zādoñ kī ṣuḥbat uṭhāʾī - maḥlāt-e shāhī tak rasāʾī huʾī - jo kuchh unhoñ ne āñkhoñ se dekhā aur logoñ ne kānoñ se nah sunā hogā -
To the extent that she kept telling her life-story, I secretly kept writing it down. After it was complete, I showed her the manuscript. At this Umrao Jan became very angry. But now what could be done? Finally she came to a kind of understanding, and fell silent. She herself read it; and here and there, whatever [errors? omissions?] remained, she corrected.
apnī sar-gużisht vuh jis qadar kahtī jātī thīñ maiñ un se chhupā ke likhtā jātā thā - tamām hone ke baʿd maiñ ne musavvadah dikhāyā - us par umrāʾo jān bahut bigṛīñ - magar ab kyā hotā thā - āḳhir kuchh samajh būjh ke chup ho rahīñ - ḳhvud paṛhā aur jābajā jo kuchh rah gayā thā - use durust kar diyā -
I've known Umrao Jan since that time when she used to keep company with the Navab Sahib. In those days, I too used to have my 'sittings' there. Whatever has been described in this life-story, I have no doubt of its being word-for-word true. But this is my personal opinion. Readers are free to form their own supposition as they wish. 
maiñ umrāʾo jān ko us zamāne se jāntā hūñ - jab un se navāb ṣāḥib se mulāqāt thī - unhīñ dinoñ merī nishast bhī akṡar vahāñ rahtī thī - us sar-gużisht meñ jo kuchh bayān huʾā hai mujhe us ke ḥarf ba-ḥarf ṣaḥīḥ hone meñ koʾī shak nahīñ hai - magar yih merī żātī rāʾe hai - nāz̤irīn ko iḳhtiyār hai jo chāheñ qiyās kar leñ -

-- Mirza Rusva

Lucknow
March 1899

-- mirzā rusvā

lakhna))uu
maarch 1899 ((i _
 
 

 
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