{"id":489,"date":"2017-06-11T00:30:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-10T19:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=489"},"modified":"2025-12-10T04:30:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:00:52","slug":"inspired-by-insomnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=489","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by Insomnia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traditionally the insomnia of hot sleepless nights has inspired my attempts at translating some of my favourite poems<\/a>. Tonight, however, I am sleepless because I slept away the late afternoon and evening of an unseasonally cold June day. <\/p>\n

I realised that I had left these two poems in Return to The Land of Poems<\/a> unassailed. So here goes.<\/p>\n

Jab teri samundar aankhon mein ~ Faiz Ahmed Faiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

ye dhoop kinara, sham dhale
\nmilte hain dono waqt jahan,
\njo raat na din, jo aaj na kal,
\npal bhar ko amar,
\npal bhar mein dhuan,
\nis dhoop kinare, pal do pal,
\nhonton ki lapak,
\nbaahon ki chanak,
\nye mel hamara jhoot na sach,
\nkyon raaz karo, kyun dosh dharo,
\nkis kaaran jhooti baat karo,
\njab teri samundar aankhon mein,
\nis shaam ka sooraj doobega,
\nsukh soenge ghar dar wale,
\naur raahi apni raah lega<\/em><\/p>\n

When in your ocean eyes<\/strong><\/p>\n

at dusk
\nthis edge of sunlight
\nthis twilight
\nneither night nor day
\nnot tomorrow nor today
\neternal for a moment
\nevanescent the next
\nstolen moments
\nat this sunlight’s edge
\nlips springing
\nlimbs clinging
\nour union
\nneither true nor false
\nno need for secrecy
\nno need for blame
\nno need for lies
\nwhen the evening sun sets
\nin your ocean eyes
\nhouseholders will sleep peacefully
\nand the wanderer shall take to the road<\/p>\n

Farz karo ~ Ibn-e-Insha<\/strong> <\/p>\n

farz karo
\nhum ahl-e-wafa ho
\nfarz karo
\ndeewane ho
\nfarz karo
\nyeh dono baatein
\njhooti ho afsane ho
\nfarz karo
\nyeh ji ki bipta
\nji se jor sunai ho
\nfarz karo
\nabhi aur ho itni
\naadhi humne chhupai ho
\nfarz karo
\ntumhe khush karne ke
\ndhoonde humne bahaane ho
\nfarz karo
\nyeh nain tumhare
\nsach-much ke maikhaane ho
\nfarz karo
\nyeh rog hai jhoota,
\njhooti preet hamari ho
\nfarz karo
\nis preet ke rog mein
\nsaans bhi hum pe bhaari ho
\nfarz karo
\nyeh jog bijog ka
\nhumne dhong rachaaya ho
\nfarz karo
\nbas yahi haqeeqat
\nbaqi sab kuch maaya ho<\/em><\/p>\n

just suppose<\/strong><\/p>\n

just suppose
\ni may be faithful
\njust suppose
\ni may be crazy
\njust suppose
\neach assumption
\nmay be a fallacy, a fable
\njust suppose
\nmy heart’s torment
\nmay have been coerced (from my heart)
\njust suppose
\nthere may be more to reveal
\ni may have concealed one half
\njust suppose
\nto delight you
\ni may have invented excuses
\njust suppose
\nthese eyes of yours
\nmay be actual taverns
\njust suppose
\nthis malady, this love for you
\nmay be a fabrication
\njust suppose
\nin the affliction of this love
\neach breath may be an ordeal
\njust suppose
\nthis destined union
\nmay be an elaborate masquerade
\nbut
\njust suppose
\nonly our love exists
\nand all else is an illusion<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Confession Time:<\/strong> Some sharp-eyed readers have pointed out that Momin Khan Momin’s couplet in the quoted post<\/a> remains untranslated. <\/p>\n

tum mere paas hote ho goya*
\njab koi doosra nahi hota<\/em><\/p>\n

My excuse\/explanation is that this couplet defies translation (at least by myself – haath patthar se ho gaye manoos to shauq kooza-gari ka kya kiije<\/em>). <\/p>\n

The juxtaposition of ‘goya<\/em>‘ in an already haikuesque expression opens up a labyrinth of interpretations. <\/p>\n

Ghalib’s exaltation<\/a> of this couplet is not accidental. It is the perfect example of Urdu poetry’s ideal of ‘kooze mein samundar<\/em>.’<\/p>\n

*The word ‘Goya<\/em>‘ has been explained thus – ‘Goya is an Urdu word that refers to a momentary suspension of disbelief that occurs when fantasy is so realistic that it temporarily becomes reality, usually associated with a story very well told.’<\/em> There is no exact translation for this word in English. ‘So to speak’<\/em> is an insipid approximation.<\/p>\n

P.S : Comments and suggestions are welcome as usual. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditionally the insomnia of hot sleepless nights has inspired my attempts at translating some of my favourite poems. Tonight, however, I am sleepless because I slept away the late afternoon and evening of an unseasonally cold June day. I realised that I had left these two poems in Return to The Land of Poems unassailed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1858,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/1858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}