Wohhanske agar maa.Nge.N to hum jaan bhi dede.N,
If she laughs and asks, then I would even give my life
Haa.N yeh jaan to kya cheez hai? Imaan bhi dede.N!
Yes, after all what is this life? I would even give up my faith!
Kyo.N ki yeh ishq ishq hai, ishq ishq, yeh ishq ishq hai, ishq ishq
For this is love, this is love, this is love
FEMALE:
Bahut kaThin hai Dagar panghat ki
The path to the riverside is very dangerous
Ab kya bhar luau.N mai.N Jamuna se matki?
Now how can I fill my jug with water from the banks of the Jamuna River?
Mai.N jo chali jal jamuna bharan ko dekho sakhi ji mai.N jo chali jal jamuna bharan ko
As I was on my way to fill my jug with water from the Jamuna,
Nand kishor mohe roke jhaadon
The young boy of Nanda [Krishna] stopped me
To kya bhar luau.N mai.N Jamuna se matki?
So how can I fill my jug with water from the banks of the Jamuna River?
Did you know Bharat Bhushan actually got married in real life to Ratna (who ironically played the only character in the film NOT in love with him!) Surprise, right!? She was his second wife, and some even say that later mild-mannered Bharat Bhushan had had an affair with none other than Meena Kumari. Did the scandals never end in this town?
i am completely bowled over by your passion for writing , translating and brining to life the SPIRIT of this great quawwali. i l was truly in search of the menaing of the URDU words though the meaning came through the rendering of the song.quawwali, i sincerely thank you for this service that you have done for the listeners and readers..may god bless you and may god shower you with love and affection..
Beautiful Qawwalli and truly mother of all qawwallis. Very well translated. Even though, sher or shayaris can be interpreted by each in their own way, I am pointing to the sher: Mere shauq-e-khaana-kharaab ko, teri reh-guzar ki talaash hai. I would interpret shauq-e-khaana-kharaab (as this should be read as 2 words in conjunction), as wretched love. Shauq also means love in urdu and khaana-kharaab is one word which means wretched.
What great insights! Thank you Imran for sharing all these excellent thoughts! This was by far one of the most difficult translations we had ever done, both because of the complexity of the Urdu, but also because of its rich references to outside literature and folklore. Glad you liked the post!
My postulation is grounded in the concept of Creationism which proposes God created the universe and man, giving both a vivid, material form. Via His divine power He endowed everything with life, thereby bestowing it a purposeful function. For humankind this core function is essentially to love, obey and worship God in accordance with His commandments, as detailed by His Prophets.
Conversely, translation rarely if ever can give a precise definition of the original text but if we translate and read each line in isolation the problem is exponentially compounded and the original message becomes terribly confused. However, if we read the translated verses as an integrated statement it can and does make a lot more sense.
Thanks to your blog, I got to understand so many words and phrases of which I had no clue whatsoever (shauq-e-khana kharaab, jaan-soz, rasn-o-daar, Koh-i-toor, to name a few). I am now able to appreciate and enjoy the piece even more. Thank you once again.
1) Vehshat-e-dil rasn-o-daar se roki na gayi: I think here, vehshat-e-dil (madness of the heart) refers to the craziness of love itself. So this line should perhaps translate as: Love is crazy; it is not stopped by ropes nor by the gallows.
All other comments here are more than a year old, and I am reading today!! but it is absolute delight to read it. I was listening to this qawwali in loop since yesterday and could get meaning of most of words and phrases used. And now after reading this blog going back to my loop. I am enjoying it even more now. It feels like the there is presence of God (love) itself in the qawwali the way it is written composed and sung !!
Jaa.n-soz ki haalat ko jaa.n-soz hi samjhegaa
Only one whose heart is on fire can understand the condition of another whose heart is on fire
Mai.N shamaa se kehta hoo.N mehfil se nahii.N kehta
Absolutely brilliant bit of work here! For long i have looked for a high quality piece of translation of the wonderful Urdu poetry available. Thanks to your efforts, you made my day with this translation. Do you have other works in Urdu as well?
Tu ishq hai kisi aur ka Sang reh raha koi aur hai
Tu zindagi kisi aur ki Tujhe jee raha koi aur hai
Tu ishq hai kisi aur ka Sang reh raha koi aur hai
Tu zindagi kisi aur ki Tujhe jee raha koi aur hai
Ishq ki baazi haari izzat bhi saari haari
Humne toh pyaar main haan yaar saari khushiyan vaari
Tujhko bhula ke dekha hassi mein chupa ke dekha
Tujhe hum na bhul paye jaan gayi duniya saari
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