Intoxication

I remember the day when I first lay my hands on Harivanshrai Bachchan's Madhushala. I was having conjunctivitis so missed college and stayed at hostel. Borrowed the book from a friend. Cant tell was it the simple language, the sharp digs at social lacunae, or just the musical nature of his work, I just got addicted to it. Me and my friend from UP had this recitation competition, which went on for days (not that great for my roomies). 

I felt similar intoxication when I read Pablo Neruda. I have only read few of their works, but felt that both write about different things, but somehow their style felt similar (well I am not that great at writing/thinking why I like some things, I just like them). As opposed to  Mr. Bachchan, who writes about social values (especially in Madhusala), I felt Neruda is great in talking about love and pain. Some of the best lines that I like from Madhushala and some random lines from Neruda are below. 

Neruda:

• Love is so short, forgetting is so long. 
• Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
  and these the last verses that I write for her. 
• I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

From Madhusala

1. मुसलमान औ' हिन्दू है दो, एक, मगर, उनका प्याला,
  एक, मगर, उनका मदिरालय, एक, मगर, उनकी हाला,
  दोनों रहते एक न जब तक मस्जिद मन्दिर में जाते,
  बैर बढ़ाते मस्जिद मन्दिर मेल कराती मधुशाला!

2. मदिरालय जाने को घर से चलता है पीनेवाला,

'    किस पथ से जाऊँ?' असमंजस में है वह भोलाभाला,
     अलग-अलग पथ बतलाते सब पर मैं यह बतलाता हूँ -
       'राह पकड़ तू एक चला चल, पा जाएगा मधुशाला।'

3. एक बरस में, एक बार ही जगती होली की ज्वाला,
    एक बार ही लगती बाज़ी, जलती दीपों की माला,
   दुनियावालों, किन्तु, किसी दिन आ मदिरालय में देखो,   
    दिन को होली, रात दिवाली, रोज़ मनाती मधुशाला।


Tried my hand at writing a poem after writing this post...and i was terrible. Dropped the idea for time being. 

Some gujarati song and couplets

This is one of the song I like and its relatively easy to translate, so, here it goes. Its written by Saif Palanpuri.

આંખોથી લઇશું કામ, હવે બોલવું નથી

રૂપાળું એ એક નામ, હવે બોલવું નથી

યૌવનમાં એક રેશમી સાહસ કર્યું હતું

એવું મળ્યું ઇનામ, હવે બોલવું નથી


પૂછો ના, પ્રીત મોંઘી કે સસ્તી છે દોસ્તો

ચૂકવી દીધા છે દામ, હવે બોલવું નથી

લ્યો સામે પક્ષે ‘સૈફ’ નજર નીચી થઇ ગઇ

શબ્દો હવે હરામ, હવે બોલવું નથી

I will use eyes now, don't want to speak (now),

one golden/beautiful name, don't want to speak

Did one silky (nice) adventure in youth, 

got such a return, don't want to speak (about it)

Don't ask if love is expensive or cheap,

have already paid the price, don't want to speak about it (now)

On the opposite side, eyes are now lowered 

words are now useless, don't want to speak now.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Again not happy with translation, but managed to complete it though.

Liked this couplet by Sunya Palanpuri

પ્રેમ ઇર્ષાથી પર ક્યાંક હોતો નથી, શબ્દથી વાત કેરું વતેસત થશે,

હોઠ સીવીને ચુપચાપ જોયા કરો, મૌન પેદા કરે છે ભરમ કેટલા?

Love is never without envy; if spoken about, it would be blown out-of proportion,
seal the lips and watch, see how many confusions it then creates.

---------------------------------------------------------------
This one by Sunya Palanpuri is equally nice
પરિચય છે મંદિરમાં દેવોને મારો,
અને મસ્જિદોમાં ખુદા ઓળખે છે.
નથી મારું વ્યક્તિત્વ છાનું કોઇથી,
તમારા પ્રતાપે બધા ઓળખે છે.


God in temples is acquainted with me,
and allah in mosque knows me;
(now) my personality is not unknown to anyone,
because of you, everyone knows me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the lines by Sunya that I like
કાંટાની અદાલત બેઠી છે લેવાને જુબાની ફૂલોની.
kanto ki adalat baithi hai, lene ko zubani phoolon ki
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this one by Mariz is awesome. Ill try to translate it in hindi, which I think should be easier,

હું ક્યાં કહું છું આપની ‘હા’ હોવી જોઈએ,

પણ ના કહો છો એમાં વ્યથા હોવી જોઈએ.

એવી તો બેદિલીથી મને માફ ના કરો,
હું ખુદ કહી ઊઠું કે સજા હોવી જોઈએ.

મેં એનો પ્રેમ ચાહ્યો બહુ સાદી રીતથી,
નહોતી ખબર કે એમાં કલા હોવી જોઈએ.

પૃથ્વીની આ વિશાળતા અમથી નથી ‘મરીઝ’,
એના મિલનની ક્યાંક જગા હોવી જોઈએ.

hum kab kehte hain ke aapki haa honi chahiye,

par na kehto ho usme kuch gum (?) hona chahiye,

hame aise bedile se toh maaf na kijiye,

hum khud keh uthe ke saja honi chahiye

humne unka pyaar chaya sidhi reet se,

pata nahi tha usme bhi, kala (?) honi chahiye,

prithvi ke yeh visalta, aise hi nahi 'mariz',

uske saath milan ki koi, jagah honi chahiye...

Romanticism..

Today is a special day for me. I tried to listen some of the things I like, one of them is a song written by Aadil Mansuri, and sung by Manhar Udhas (I am big fan some of songs sung by him). It is one of the most romantic thing I ever heard. The original song can be found here. 

જ્યારે પ્રણયની જગમાં શરૂઆત થઈ હશે,

ત્યારે પ્રથમ ગઝલની રજૂઆત થઈ હશે.

પહેલા પવનમાં ક્યારે હતી આટલી મહેક,

રસ્તામાં તારી સાથે મુલાકાત થઈ હશે.

ઘૂંઘટ ખુલ્યો હશે ને ઊઘડી હશે સવાર,

ઝુલ્ફો ઢળી હશે ને પછી રાત થઈ હશે.

ઊતરી ગયા છે ફૂલના ચહેરા વસંતમાં,

તારા જ રૂપરંગ વિષે વાત થઈ હશે.

‘આદિલ’ને તે જ દિવસથી મળ્યું દર્દ દોસ્તો,

દુનિયાની જે દિવસથી શરૂઆત થઈ હશે.

Though I truly believe, translation can never capture the essence of original, especially in poetry (combining with my meagre ability to trnaslate), I try to translate it here:

I give up translating. I just found out, if I am looking for a alternate career (which I am), translation is not one for me. Will try to translate the penultimate couplet though, it is one of my fav:

Flowers are looking sad in mid-spring,

there must have been talk of your beauty.

At this point I remember how I once described SS, one of my college crush to a friend when I saw here after a month long college break: she looks like a flower which has been cleansed with the morning dew...then the word spread around in my group that I was officially in LOVE. 

If you dont find the above lines special, the dis-credit goes to translator. Try learning gujarati, and you'll love it :).


This is a special song for me, as with this I was introduced to the world of romanticism in gujarati poetry. One of the thing that I don't like about Gujaratis, is the lack-of-respect/fame/due that they give to the artist. I am sure, if some of them were born in Bengal, they would have been hugely popular. 

Like this song

Since one of my college mate posted this song on facebook, I have been slowly getting addicted to it.