Monday, September 18, 2006

"Understanding Everything"

Ai murgh-e-sahar ishq ze parwaaneh biyaamoz
Kaan sookht raa jaan shud wa aawaaz nayaamad.
Aain maddayaan dar talbash be-khabar-aanand
Kaan raa keh khabar shud khabari baaz nayaamad.
[From Gulistaan by Saadi Shiraazi, 13th century Persian poet]

O bird of the morning, learn love from the moth,
Because it burnt, lost its life, and found no voice.
These pretenders are ignorantly in search of Him,
Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned.
[Translated from the Persian by Edward Rehatsek]

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Aql ke madarse se uth,
ishq ke mai'kade mein aa,
Jaam-e-fanaa-o-bekhudi,
ab to piyaa jo ho so ho.
[by Hazrat Shah Niaz]

Arise from these seminaries of intellect and analysis,
Come to the taverns of love,
The goblet of annihilation and self-detachment,
I have now consumed, let what will be, be.
[Interpretive translation by Siyaah]

Rendered beautifully here by Abida Parveen for Muzaffar Ali's "Raqs-e-Bismil: Dance of the Wounded".

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In the past several days, I have been thinking of "Understanding" and "Experience", both as an internal existential dilemma, but also as an occupational necessity. How much can we really know, understand or analyze? Everything we know - whether in the natural or social sciences - is ultimately bounded by the fact of our being human. We therefore record human "experiences" rather than "knowledge" in any objective sense. This thought (and analysis!) has instilled in me a new-found appreciation for "experience". Perhaps we cannot ever fully understand existence, but can only experience it by being part of it.

9 comments:

Phoenix said...

Love your thought about experience...and also the second verse..the first one is too profound for me..
but yes life has to be experiencced, it cannot be known simply because it's no one thing. It is rather the process of knowing, and that is what is experience

Sadia said...

The persian bit is lovely. Have saved it to my computer.

Raqs-e-Bismil is an awesome album, my favourite being the rendition of 'roshan jamaal-e-yaar se hai anjuman tamaam'.

Siyaah said...

"To experience is to know" is what I'm thinking.

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My favorite in Raqs-e-Bismil is actually the one that I extracted the verses above from "Ishq mein tere...", though all numbers are amazing.

--
Persian poetry is out of this world...I am falling in love with it myself...

Smriti said...

Everything we know - whether in the natural or social sciences - is ultimately bounded by the fact of our being human
Very well said!I completely agree, whatever we do or understand is constrained by our being human beings.
Beautiful translation for the second verse.

Anonymous said...

The Hazrat Niaz poetry ("Ishq mein tere...Jo ho so ho") to Abida's song was a great link. Could you please post or guide/send me to a translation of the entire song.

Siyaah said...

anonymous:
Thanks! Glad you liked the poetry. I dont know if there is a translation of the entire song...I'll keep it in mind for a future translation here...

Unknown said...

u r gud n' i feel cathartic reading ur thoughts-experience n' understanding n' choice of ghazals. though i don't much believe in translatn 'coz d beauty is in d lg more dan thoughts...yet is helpful 2 non urdu speaking people. i myself came across ur blog luking 4 d meaning of 'pabajolan'.

Unknown said...

u r gud n' i feel cathartic reading ur thoughts-experience n' understanding n' choice of ghazals. though i don't much believe in translatn 'coz d beauty is in d lg more dan thoughts...yet is helpful 2 non urdu speaking people. i myself came across ur blog luking 4 d meaning of 'pabajolan'.

Gaurav Singhal said...

Very good blog!