Aaj yoon mauj dar mauj gham tham gaya: Faiz

Aaj yoon mauj dar mauj gham tham gaya
Is tarah ghamzadon ko qaraar aa gaya
Jaise khushboo-e-zulf-e-bahaar aa gayi
Jaise paighaam-e-deedaar-e-yaar aa gaya...

[by Faiz Ahmed Faiz]

The entire ghazal is mesmerizing. My favorite rendition, somewhat in an unorthodox style, is the Muzaffar Ali composition sung by Sukhwinder Singh...

Faiz has been translated well by others, so I generally don't translate him here...(even the youtube video below has a translation)

Barson baad

Barson baad mile hain aise
Ek pal bhi beeta na ho jaise

Kya samjhen is haalat ko ab
Sab paaya sab khoya jaise

Wo paakeezgi ke do lamhe
Aur ek umr azaab ki jaise

Tab ye gham tha tumko khoya
Ab samjha do jahaan kho diye kaise


[work in progress...by Siyaah]

Thinking of adding another matla (opening couplet) [Jigar Moradabadi sometimes has two matlas...would be interesting to explore this tradition more]

Gunaah-gunaah mein farq hai aise
Tum - aur baaqi duniya jaise...

Agar Na Zohra Jabeenon: Jigar Moradabadi

Agar Na Zohra Jabeenon...
By Jigar Moradabadi.

Agar na zohra jabeenon ke darmiyaan guzre
To phir ye kaise kate zindagi kahaan guzre [1]

Mujhe ye waham raha muddaton ke jurrat-e-shauq

Kahin na khaatir-e-maasoom par geraan guzre [2]

Khata muaaf, zamaane se badgumaan ho kar

Teri wafaa pe bhi kya kya humein gumaan guzre [3]

Junoon ke sakht maraahil bhi teri yaad ke saath
Haseen haseen nazar aaye, jawaan jawaan guzre [4]

Mujhe tha shikwa-e-hijraan, ke ye hua mahsoos -
Mere qareeb se hokar wo naagahaan guzre [5]

Bohot azeez hain mujhko unhi ki yaad Jigar
Wo haadasaat-e-mohabbat jo naagahaan guzre [6]

---
One of my favourite ghazals by my all-time favourite poet, Jigar Moradabadi...seems I have been carrying it around for decades - especially [2], [3], and [5] touch a very special place that is quite unique and comes straight from the heart. Suddenly and unexpectedly (naagahaan), the right time has come to unburden and post it here...

The version sung by Vinod Sehgal has been with me for ever, and is unsurpassable. Found an mp3 here; surprisingly the full version isn't on youtube yet. 

Let's see if I can translate this well...will take time for sure...each word carries the weight of months and years...

Abandon

"We move on and on, in search of mystery...and then we come to see that the only mysteries we want are the ones we'll never solve. And all we can do is try to cage with reasons what we know to be beyond the scope of reason. Till at last we surrender to something beyond us, and become unknowable ourselves."


"Metaphor was critical to the Sufis...because it was itself a metaphor: it said that behind the things we see, behind the people who speak, there lies another dimension, and that the other person sees even the things of the world in the light of the eternal."


From Pico Iyer's "Abandon".

Hum Dekhenge: Faiz's Predictions, Tunisia, Egypt and Beyond

Faiz Ahmed Faiz's lines echo around in one's mind these days, witnessing the upheavals in large parts of middle-east under oppressive political elites for long, for far too long...

Faiz's choice of words is haunting for several reasons: it is at once inspiring, hopeful, suggests a state of current oppression, and most importantly, predictive. He almost seems to be predicting that this indeed will happen, and "indeed, we too will witness..." - and the predictions at first glance are quite extreme, almost incredible. Yet, it is all happening...

Hum dekhenge
Laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge...


Jab zulm-o-sitam ke kooh-e-garaan
Rooi ki tarah ur jaaenge...


Sab taaj uchhaale jaaenge
Sab takht giraae jaaenge...


I rarely translate Faiz, as it has been done by so many others quite well. One blogger's version is here.

Iqbal Bano's version remains the definitive one in terms of singing these lines...