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CSS 2023English (Precis & Composition)Q. 7

Translate the following into English, keeping in view figurative and idiomatic expressions. ("بزرگ نے بتایا کہ جنگل کے پار ایک پہاڑ ہے جہاں وہ پھول اُگتا ہے…")

By CSS Nexus Team ·

Original CSS 2023 English (Precis & Composition) paper

This answer to the CSS 2023 English (Precis & Composition) paper (Q. 7) was written by the CSS Nexus team. Read the outline first, then see how each point is developed.

Outline

  • Read the paragraph whole: an allegory of a healing flower no one has reached, and of humanity's search for light
  • ✓بزرگ → the old man / the elder (a wise old man)
  • ✓آنکھوں کی کھوئی ہوئی روشنی → lost sight (keep "light" if possible, for the final line)
  • ✓راستہ روک لیتے ہیں → bar the way
  • ✓کئی لوگ آئے اور چلے گئے → many have come and gone
  • ✓روشنی کی تلاش → in search of light
  • Keep the reported-speech frame ("The old man said that …") and the gentle, story-telling tone

Answer

The Urdu paragraph

بزرگ نے بتایا کہ جنگل کے پار ایک پہاڑ ہے جہاں وہ پھول اُگتا ہے جس کی خوشبو سے آنکھوں کی کھوئی ہوئی روشنی لوٹ آتی ہے، مگر پہاڑ بہت بلند ہے اور اس پر بے شمار چٹانیں ہیں، کانٹے دار جھاڑیاں ہیں اور بڑے بڑے پتھر ہیں جو راستہ روک لیتے ہیں۔ اِس پہاڑ پر جانے کے لیے کئی لوگ آئے اور چلے گئے مگر ایسا کوئی شخص نہیں آیا جو پھول تک پہنچا ہو۔ شاید اِسی لیے دُنیا میں دُکھ اور تکلیف ہے اور انسان روشنی کی تلاش میں ہے۔

Translation

The old man told us that beyond the forest there is a mountain where grows a flower whose fragrance restores the lost light of the eyes. But the mountain is very high, and its slopes are covered with countless rocks, thorny bushes and huge boulders that bar the way. Many have come to climb it and gone away, but no one has ever reached the flower. Perhaps that is why there is sorrow and suffering in the world, and why man is still in search of light.

How the expressions were handled

- آنکھوں کی کھوئی ہوئی روشنی لوٹ آتی ہے is rendered "restores the lost light of the eyes" rather than simply "restores sight", so that the closing روشنی کی تلاش ("in search of light") keeps its double meaning of eyesight and enlightenment.

- راستہ روک لیتے ہیں becomes the English idiom "bar the way".

- کئی لوگ آئے اور چلے گئے is "many have come … and gone away", keeping the sense of attempts that came to nothing.

- بزرگ is "the old man"; "the elder" or "the wise old man" is also acceptable.

- The present tense is kept inside the old man's account ("there is a mountain"), because he describes something that still exists.

Common mistakes to avoid

Translating "روشنی" as "brightness" or "lamp", turning the allegory into a literal travel report, and changing the final sentence's "perhaps" into a certainty.

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