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17th Translation Contest: "The Sounds of Silence" » English to Hausa » Entry by ALI SADIQ


Source text in English

Translation by ALI SADIQ (#22700)

A theme of the age, at least in the developed world, is that people crave silence and can find none. The roar of traffic, the ceaseless beep of phones, digital announcements in buses and trains, TV sets blaring even in empty offices, are an endless battery and distraction. The human race is exhausting itself with noise and longs for its opposite—whether in the wilds, on the wide ocean or in some retreat dedicated to stillness and concentration. Alain Corbin, a history professor, writes from his refuge in the Sorbonne, and Erling Kagge, a Norwegian explorer, from his memories of the wastes of Antarctica, where both have tried to escape.

And yet, as Mr Corbin points out in "A History of Silence", there is probably no more noise than there used to be. Before pneumatic tyres, city streets were full of the deafening clang of metal-rimmed wheels and horseshoes on stone. Before voluntary isolation on mobile phones, buses and trains rang with conversation. Newspaper-sellers did not leave their wares in a mute pile, but advertised them at top volume, as did vendors of cherries, violets and fresh mackerel. The theatre and the opera were a chaos of huzzahs and barracking. Even in the countryside, peasants sang as they drudged. They don’t sing now.

What has changed is not so much the level of noise, which previous centuries also complained about, but the level of distraction, which occupies the space that silence might invade. There looms another paradox, because when it does invade—in the depths of a pine forest, in the naked desert, in a suddenly vacated room—it often proves unnerving rather than welcome. Dread creeps in; the ear instinctively fastens on anything, whether fire-hiss or bird call or susurrus of leaves, that will save it from this unknown emptiness. People want silence, but not that much.
Ya zama gama-gari, a kalla a kasashe masu tasowa, cewar mutane na bukatar karancin karar sauti, abinda ya gagare su samu. Karar ababen hawa, kararrakin wayoyi ba kakkautawa. Sanarwa cikin lasifikoki a motocin bus da jiragen kasa, sautin talabijin a cikin ofisoshi da ba kowa, wadannan abubuwa na cuskunawa da dauke hankula. Dan Adam na gajiyar da kansa da kara iri-iri, sabanin abinda ransa ke bege – walau a cikin daji ne, ko a bakin teku ko wani kebabben wajen shakatawa don samar da nutsuwa. Alain Corbin farfesa na tarihi ya rubuto daga inda ya kebe kansa a garin Sorbonne, da kuma Erling Kagge, dan yawon duniya, wanda cikin abubuwan da ya ke tunawa na nahiyar Antarctica, inda su biyun su ka yi kokarin tserewa daga can.
Duk da haka, kamar yadda Mr Corbin ya fada a cikin littafinsa me suna “Tarihin Shiru” ya ce watakila ana zuguguta yawan kararrakin da ake dasu. Kafin kirkirar tayoyin da ake buga wa iska, titunan garuruwa cike su ke da kararrakin karafuna na wiluka na karfe da kofatan karfe na dawaki. Kafin bazuwar waya da ta samar da kadaicewa, cikin motocin bus da jiragen kasa cike suke da surutan jama’a. Masu saida jaridu ba zube su suke a kan tebur ba, sai sun kwala muryoyinsu su na talla, kamar yadda masu saida yayan itace iri-iri ke yi. Gidajen wasan kwaikwayo a hargitse su ke da fito da hayaniya. Ko da a kauyuka, manoma na aiki cikin wake-wake. Amma yanzu ba sa yi.
Abinda ya canza ba yawan karar sautukan ba ne, wadanda aka yi fama da su daruruwan shekaru a baya, saidai yawan jan hankalin, wanda ke musanya abinda kara zata maye gurbinsa. Akwai kuma wani abun wanda idan ya fado- a tsakar rukukin daji ne, ko a shararriyar Hamada, ko a dakin da ba kowa- yana razanarwa maimakon a yi masa maraba. Tsoro na saukowa, ana kasa kunnunwa don jin komai, hucin wuta ne ko karar tsuntsu ko motsin ganyaye, shine abinda zai cece shi daga wani holoko da ba a sani ba. Mutane na bukatar shiru amma ba irin wannan ba.


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