Today We Seperate - Gulzar
Today we seperate with no apprehension for tomorrow
But life after all is not as concise as this
Our bloody wounds don’t show as yet, But when they cool pain will emerge And when time’s intoxication will cease, From inside our sallow faces will emerge
How do they matter these gossips’ words For they stake nothing on them? Who shall respond to the interrogation of wounds When all people do is ask endless questions?
When tomorrow arrives, who is to know what will come? Past’s tomorrows that are already done, they don’t return Those who gather branches from time’s tree should Know how no leaves can grow from what is broken
Of wet clay is this heart, this man Only to sight do they appear hard And if tears ask why, it will also take a while For their tracks to wipe them dry and answer
Translated from the Urdu. You may also listen to Bhupinder sing this melodic ghazal from the movie "Thodisi Bewafai".
Translations
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Bindu
Thanks!
Hey, Thanks for introducing this song to me. It's wonderful. And having hte translation is very good too because I can't speak Hindi/Urdu well.
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"Those who gather branches from time’s tree should Know how no leaves can grow from what is broken"
Beautiful. You know how Gulzar writes about partition and the division of Punjab...I wonder if this can somehow relate back to that. That whole idea that you can't ever go back home again. I remember him reading his poem about thinking he was back home in his mother's kitchen but then waking to realize that it was just a memory. Memories are good but they're painful too because they can't hardly ever be replicated. Maybe he's saying you should remember things but you also have to accept the bittersweet idea that they're just memories, not something to build a life on. I don't know, the words are just really pretty and really great job on the translation.
BTW, I'm sleepy/watching, I didn't know how the whole registration thing worked so I just put my name on it :)
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Gulzar's earthiness
is what takes me back to his songs again and again. He manages to beautifully - in a way that I can only call Indian - order images and metaphors into grids of words that stay with you a long time after you have heard them sung. I would even say Bollywood is redeemed in my eyes because it includes poets such as Gulzar in itself.
I translate Gulzar so that his lyricism may seem into my writing in English, and give it that folksy Punjabi Urdu tinge. Thanks y'all for the kind comments.
-S
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