Thursday, September 18, 2008

Josh in Translation

O flower, at your life, my heart shudders,
A smile is all for which you bloom...
Said the flower "even a smile my friend,
who receives in this garden of gloom"

Original by 'Josh':


Gunche teri zindagi pe dil hilta hai,
Bas ek tabassum ke liye khilta hai...
gunche ne kaha ki "Is chaman mei.n baba,
Ye ek tabassum bhi kise milta hai"

25 comments:

Kumail said...

ek arsey baad aap ka post...aur woh bhi Josh....don't even get me started on this topic. Lovely translation, Sadia. But please do take some poetic license.....1st, 2nd and 4th lines have to rhyme...

Siyaah said...

Wonderful translation. You've set a very high standard with this one. Captured the original so well.

Sadia said...

Kumail: you expect the world of me! second aur fourth line rhymes hi mushkil se match hue...

Siyaah: :)

Anonymous said...

Hello Sadia,

If you have the time, do reply to this. I'd like to get your thoughts on something I'm writing. I thought I'd talk to you because I found your Faiz translations really beautiful.

Best,
Dileep

PS. You can reach me at verp1986@yahoo.com

editor said...

Khoob.
Tremendous.

ise kahte haiN bilaa-mubaalghaa qalam-tod tarjuma...


I heard it in Shayar-e-Inquilab Josh's own voice on All India Radio....they were airing an old mushaira in which Josh had recited many rubais.

Anonymous said...

Sadia,
Hi! tracked you back after eons. Wonderful to see the thriving blog, and yes beautiful translations too.

I can relate to what is captured, after all Josh and I share a common string of Malihabad.

Sadia said...

indscribe: I've heard Josh's voice reciting too. very powerful!! the voice makes you want to jolly well listen to what is being said lest u get slapped for dreaming :(

Sadia said...

Lc: It does seem to be eons, considering i can't seem remember any lightning crashing :(. who is this from Malihabad? i wonder how you did manage to track back in these trackless sands of virtuality.

Anonymous said...

Josh Malihabadi is from Malihabad? And you dont seem to recall - thats because the trail of a comment once randomly made on someone's blog might beckon the grey's! so no sweat. :) n yes, i can coil back because that trace still remains in my virtual world!

Sadia said...

Now we are playing riddle riddle?

Mauni Alima said...

Fantastic, its not just how u feel n write, but its also tht u r open to reflections, inner and outer all, vist my blog n chk why i am here at urs. God Bless.Mauni

AFRAR YUNUS said...

sadia
bahot khubb.

Mahender said...

Hello Sadia ,
Namaskar,
Your poetry n choice of poetry is very good , refined n sensitive. Thank u very much. My name is Mahender. Bye the way I also like poetry specially urdu poetry very much. I also write poetry, but very idle in publishing. result only some published in magazines only when friends sent them n no book. by profession I am a Govt. officer of Govt of West bengal . now on Study leave in Bombay upto May 2010.
I am of firm view that we can be very good friends.My emai address is pooniams@gmail.com
In hope of reply.
MAHENDER

Sadia said...

Mauni, Afrar, Mahendra: Glad you guys liked it :)

Arfi said...

let the garden of gloom wilt away!

no posts lately ?

Sadia said...

Yes Arfi no posts lately... i"m letting this garden of gloom wilt away :)

J said...

Sadia,

Since you like this one, and I don't have the good fortune to know Urdu myself, would you be interested in translating this? :)


aate hai.n ghai'b se ye mazaamee.n khayaal mein... ghalib sareer-e-khwama, nava-e-sarosh hai

It's been bugging me ever since I found Junaid's blukashmir.blogspot.com

Jyoti

Kumail said...

Ahem. We are waiting for your post. Sd/- All Admirers.

Sadia said...

I could explain it to you J, translating this well is going to be a task. now tell me are u willing to wait for the better translation or shall i give u word meanings :)

Kumail: there is nothing to write nowadays :(... thats why im translating...

meer said...

Where have you heard this Josh's , cause I don't think you do have the entire poem!

Sadia said...

meer: You are right, i don't have the entire poem. i heard only this bit and i believed it was the entire poem

meer said...

Even If you had the 500 pages plus Diwan of Josh, it would be a hard index to find, unless you are an avid read of teh Urdu language.....my question was, where did you hear it?

Sadia said...

meer: i read this first in tasneem's mukri's collection of selected urdu poetry around 10-12 years ago, or maybe even more, and it simply stuck in my mind :). Although the book wasn't a great one, i will be eternally grateful to it for introducing me to some of the best urdu poets...

meer said...

Ah! thank you for the reference. My memory of the poem goes to that documentary on Ustad Amir Khan's Documentary on something that people hardly remember about, Doordarshan. The Ustad replies with these very lines when asked if he was happy.

And, yes,a lovely translation.

Bhuvanesh said...

Thanks for the translation!

I thought about the rhyming issue for a couple of minutes, but no luck yet... it does seem hard, at least with *oom and *ume.