"Indian Song" (1904)
taraanah-e hindii
Published in baa;Ng-e daraa (The
Sound of the Bell) (1924)
From: kulliyaat-e iqbaal urduu (Lahore: Shaikh Ghulam 'Ali and Sons Publishers, 1973 (and later reprints),
p. 83
1) |
saare
jahaa;N se achchaa hinduusitaa;N hamaaraa ham bulbule;N hai;N us kii vuh gulsitaa;N hamaaraa |
1) better than the
whole world, our Hindustan 2) we are its nightingales, it [is] our garden |
|
Here it's to be pronounced
not 'gu-lis-taa;N' as usual, but 'gul-si-taa;N', to suit the meter. |
|
2) |
;Gurbat
me;N ho;N agar ham , rahtaa hai dil va:tan me;N samjho vuhii;N hame;N bhii dil ho jahaa;N hamaaraa |
1) if we would be in
'an alien place', the heart remains in the homeland 2) consider us too [to be] right there where our heart would be |
|
;Gariib
can mean either 'poor', or 'strange' (as in ((ajiib-o-;Gariib
); thus ;Gurbat is a state of foreignness, not merely
living abroad but with an extra sense of alienation thrown in. |
|
3) |
parbat
vuh sab se uu;Nchaa , hamsaayah aasmaa;N kaa vuh santarii hamaaraa , vuh paasbaa;N hamaaraa |
1) that tallest mountain,
a neighbor [=shade-sharer] of the sky 2) that [is] our sentry, that [is] our door-guard |
|
The English 'sentry'
and the Persian paasbaa;N form an enjoyably balanced
pair. |
|
4) |
godii
me;N kheltii hai;N us kii hazaaro;N nadiyaa;N gulshan hai jin ke dam se rashk-e janaa;N hamaaraa |
1) in [her] lap play
all her thousands of rivers 2) thanks to which our garden is the envy of Paradise |
|
The word order of the second line: jin ke dam se hamaaraa gulshan rashk-e janaa;N hai . |
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5) |
ay
aab-ruud-e gangaa ! vuh din hai;N yaad tujh ko ? utaraa tire kinaare jab kaaravaa;N hamaaraa |
1) oh river [=water-flowing]
Ganges! do you remember those days? 2) when our caravan descended on your bank |
|
The first line could
also be read as a question, or an exclamation; it's nicely phrased so
that it can appeal to almost any Indian's historical vision. In the second
line, tire kinaare is oblique because there's really
a 'ghostposition' par that's been colloquially omitted
but still has its effect. And it's tire instead
of tere as a permissible spelling change, to suit
the meter. |
|
6) |
ma;zhab
nahii;N sikhaataa aapas me;N bair rakhnaa hindii hai;N ham , va:tan hai hinduusitaa;N hamaaraa |
1) religion does not
teach [us] to keep enmity with each other 2) we are Indian, our homeland is Hindustan |
|
Until very recently,
historically speaking, hindii was much more likely
to mean 'pertaining to Hind' in general-- and thus 'Indian'-- than to
refer to a particular modern language. |
|
7) |
yuunaan-o-mi.sr-o-romaa
sab mi;T ga))e jahaa;N se ab tak magar hai baaqii naam-o-nishaa;N hamaaraa |
1) Greece and Egypt
and Byzantium all became erased from the world 2) but until now our identity [=name and sign] lives on |
|
Since mi;Tnaa
is an intransitive verb, there's no agent involved, and thus no indication
of how they became erased. |
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8) |
kuchh
baat hai kih hastii mi;Ttii nahii;N hamaarii .sadiyo;N rahaa hai dushman daur-e zamaa;N hamaaraa |
1) there's something,
that our existence does not become erased 2) [for] centuries the cycle of time has remained our enemy |
|
There's another 'ghostposition'
after .sadiyo;N , which explains its oblique plural
form. It's here pronounced '.sad-yo;N', for the meter. |
|
9) |
iqbaal
! ko))ii ma;hram apnaa nahii;N jahaa;N me;N ma((luum kyaa kisii ko dard-e nihaa;N hamaaraa ! |
1) Iqbal, there is
no [intimate] friend of ours in the world 2) what does anyone know of our hidden pain? |
|
The closing-verse of
a ghazal often contains the poet's pen-name, and thus has occasion to
reflect on the rest of the poem, but still, after this very upbeat ghazal,
the sudden bleakness comes as a shock. |
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