Sufi

I was at home this whole week, and managed to browse through my old collection of cassettes. Yes, cassettes are the same plastic objects which were used for storing audio in the last century. Anyways, the collection reminded me of my long lost favorites like – Sufi music. I used to like it a lot … voices of Abida Parveen and Shubha Mudgal … and lyrics by Khusrau, Manzoor Alam, Taji, Kabir. I suddenly fell in love with them again and spent the whole day listening to them. I’m posting a Persian song by khusrau and a Hindi one by Zaheen Shah Taji that I liked the most:

chonani dar nazar nazzaare gaan raa,
ke ronagh beshkani mahpare gaan raa.

[Your lovers behold your limitless beauty so as to make a thousand idols fade away]

to dar khaabe khosho man bhi to har shab,
shomaram taa sahar sayyare gaan raa.

[As I see you lost in the darkness of night, I count the stars till dawn (as if they were you)]

The Hindi one…

मै होश में हूँ तो तेरा हूँ, दीवाना हूँ तो तेर हूँ,
हूँ राज़ अगर तो तेरा हूँ, अफ़साना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ॥
[ अफ़साना == a popular story, a legend ]

बरबाद किया बरबाद हुआ, आबाद किया आबाद हुआ,
वीरानां हूँ तो तेरा हूँ, काशाना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ॥
[ काशाना == a flourishing abode, a garden ]

इस तेरी तजल्ली के क़ुर्बाँ, क़ुर्बान-ए-तजल्ली हर उनवाँ,
मैं शमा भी हूँ तो तेरा हूँ, परवाना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ॥
[ तजल्ली == light ] [ क़ुर्बान-ए-तजल्ली == dedication to eternal light or god ]
[ उनवाँ == path, used here as ways of worship ]

तू मेरी कैफ़ की दुनिया है, तू मेरी मस्ती का आलम,
पैमाना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ, मयखाना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ॥
[ कैफ़ == intoxication ]

हर ज़र्रा ज़हीन की हस्ती का तस्वीर है तेरी सर-ता-पा,
ओ काबा-ए-दिल ढाने वाले, बुतखाना हूँ तो तेरा हूँ॥
[ ज़र्रा == dust ] [ हस्ती == existence ]
[ सर-ता-पा == head to feet ] [ बुतखाना == temple ]

The above songs are from the album based on the Jahan-e-Khusrau concert. The album is called “The Realm of the Heart”.

6 thoughts on “Sufi

  1. Jeet says:

    Yeh persian gaane ka matlab kaise aata hai tumhe?

  2. Many words like “taa sahar” means “till dawn” … this is very similar to urdu. Urdu ki madad se kafi persian samajh me aa jati hai, aur maine pick bhi vahi lines ki jinka matlab clear tha. 🙂

    Waise mai Persian seekhna chahta hoon, par pata nahi kaise.

  3. Ankur Pruthi says:

    Hey,

    Long time! and seems that you are doing fairly well, Mobiance ‘n all…

    Way to go d00d,

    Best Wishes,
    Ankur

    P.S. sorry for the OT comment!

  4. Rahul says:

    Dost, 2 mahine baad shayari padhi, lekin khudah jaanta hai ki yeh qalaam padhna was worth the lull. bahut khoob! sukhan pe bhi daalo aisa kuch

  5. kundalini says:

    nikhilesh, thanks for stopping by. am going to upload chonani again at mine, so do check back. i really enjoyed this post. i attended jahan-e-khusrau in delhi and heard these being performed live. the shubha one is a favourite. maybe i’ll put the mp3s up some time.

  6. RITESH says:

    hey bhaiya.. i just came from a test at biosciences dept.. and i was feeling dull. i tried to relax, but was feeling distracted. i needed rest. and, i clicked on ur blog site.. and read these lines… thnx for the nice translation…

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