For a translation of the lyrics click here-
or else here is a version
Editor notes
The poem is added here from the site
http://www.alif-india.com/love.html
with the permission Mr. Yousuf Saeed who holds the copy rights.
Commentary
Khabaram- This is not a rumor. We have 'khabar'- factual information- you will come. Just as what Quran Sharif reveals re. the Unseen is purely factual and not in the manner of a imperative or metaphoric (majazi) statement, so too is this news absolutely factual, of indefeasible authority, and import.
Imshab- this night. Which night? Is it shab-e-baraat? Or laylat al qadr? Is the news we have received of the nature of predestination or of repentance and the altering of Destiny?
Sar-e-man fidaa-e-raah- This head to be a sacrifice to the road by which you ride towards us. Madhva gave an interpretation of the Rg Vedic 'rupama rupama pratirupa babhoova' such that the horses (Hari) of the chariot of forms which is ever approaching nigh are the incarnations of the Lord such that there is a unique haecceity obtaining in that Reflection which, presumably, has a special salvic power. Head sacrifice is a prominent feature of Saivite and Sakta imagery. From the Saivite point of view, Jaydratha is the most fortunate for the arrows of Arjun conveyed his head to the lap of his father. In Quran Sharif, it is the son of Abraham who gives the interpretation of his father's dream whereby his own head goes as sacrifice. When the beloved son's falls the ground, how can the father avoid being shattered into a thousand pieces? Yet, what else is Love? There can be lust and sex and a sort of usury of begetting but who wants that for his fore-fathers or his own descendants?
Amir Khusrou was of mixed Turkish and Indian parentage. By devotion to his Preceptor he redeemed all his ancestors, descendants and those who cherish or were cherished by them.
aahwan-e sehra- by convention, the Indian antelope was hunted by music but this points to something much older the mrga as 'beast'and its 'tishna' thirst as being directed to the mirage of the blue Sky which it hopes to drink to slake its parching thirst. The deer skinned clad ascetic is concerned with 'Viveka', discriminating the mirage (Mrga-trshna) from the Mansarovar lake aloft over which the sublime swan (Parmahans) spreads its wings and soars to the Heavens.
What is left of this poem now is just pure virtuousity and individuality. The trope is a very familiar one- in modern English literature, its locus classicus is Max Beerbohm's Zulieka Dobson. To reproach the beloved for promiscuity is just dog in the manger selfishness. But, precisely because the beloved is 'virtuous' and won't grant any favours, the suggestion is made that she glories in her merely destructive power and that she will definitely come to my grave where all the love-lorn beat their heads out against my tombstone.
http://www.alif-india.com/love.html
with the permission Mr. Yousuf Saeed who holds the copy rights.
Commentary
Khabaram- This is not a rumor. We have 'khabar'- factual information- you will come. Just as what Quran Sharif reveals re. the Unseen is purely factual and not in the manner of a imperative or metaphoric (majazi) statement, so too is this news absolutely factual, of indefeasible authority, and import.
Imshab- this night. Which night? Is it shab-e-baraat? Or laylat al qadr? Is the news we have received of the nature of predestination or of repentance and the altering of Destiny?
Sar-e-man fidaa-e-raah- This head to be a sacrifice to the road by which you ride towards us. Madhva gave an interpretation of the Rg Vedic 'rupama rupama pratirupa babhoova' such that the horses (Hari) of the chariot of forms which is ever approaching nigh are the incarnations of the Lord such that there is a unique haecceity obtaining in that Reflection which, presumably, has a special salvic power. Head sacrifice is a prominent feature of Saivite and Sakta imagery. From the Saivite point of view, Jaydratha is the most fortunate for the arrows of Arjun conveyed his head to the lap of his father. In Quran Sharif, it is the son of Abraham who gives the interpretation of his father's dream whereby his own head goes as sacrifice. When the beloved son's falls the ground, how can the father avoid being shattered into a thousand pieces? Yet, what else is Love? There can be lust and sex and a sort of usury of begetting but who wants that for his fore-fathers or his own descendants?
Amir Khusrou was of mixed Turkish and Indian parentage. By devotion to his Preceptor he redeemed all his ancestors, descendants and those who cherish or were cherished by them.
aahwan-e sehra- by convention, the Indian antelope was hunted by music but this points to something much older the mrga as 'beast'and its 'tishna' thirst as being directed to the mirage of the blue Sky which it hopes to drink to slake its parching thirst. The deer skinned clad ascetic is concerned with 'Viveka', discriminating the mirage (Mrga-trshna) from the Mansarovar lake aloft over which the sublime swan (Parmahans) spreads its wings and soars to the Heavens.
What is left of this poem now is just pure virtuousity and individuality. The trope is a very familiar one- in modern English literature, its locus classicus is Max Beerbohm's Zulieka Dobson. To reproach the beloved for promiscuity is just dog in the manger selfishness. But, precisely because the beloved is 'virtuous' and won't grant any favours, the suggestion is made that she glories in her merely destructive power and that she will definitely come to my grave where all the love-lorn beat their heads out against my tombstone.
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