"The perfumed fragrance" (Hindustani song -- Gulzar's)

I have seen the perfumed fragrance   of those eyes!
with touch of hand   this relation don't profane
it's merely a feeling   certain souls will recognize
you'd best let love be love!   it needs no name!

Love's not some turn of phrase   neither is love a voice
it is a silence   wherein listening has its say
it shall not cease   no shutting down   no dying flame
its droplet of brilliance   through the ages flows the same
it's merely a feeling   certain souls will recognize
you'd best let love be love!   it needs no name!

The lingering blooming of a smile   amid your eyes
and remnant gleam where light inclined around your eyelids
lips uttering nothing!   but on the trembling lips
we see so many fragments   of arrested legends
it's merely a feeling   certain souls will recognize
you'd best let love be love!   it needs no name!


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I've come up with the above translation -- thanks to Pragya Thankur's literal translation, followed by our discussion (with her detailed explanations of words & phrases in the original poem). Here is the original (transliterated):

Humne dekhi hai un aankhon ki mahakti khusboo
Haath Se chhu ke ise rishton ka ilzaam na do
Sirf ehsaas hai ye rooh se mehsoos karo
Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do

Pyar koi bol nahi, pyar aawaz nahi
Ek khamoshi hai sunti hai kaha karti hai
Na ye bujhtee hai, na rukti hai, na thahri hai kahin
Noor ki boond hai sadiyon se baha karti hai
Sirf ehsaas hai ye rooh se mehsoos karo
Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do

Muskarahat si khili rehti aankhon mein kahin
Aur palkon pe ujaale se jhuke rehte hain
Honth kuch kehte nahi kaanpte hothon pe magar
Kitne khaamsoh se afsaane ruke rehte hain
Sirf ehsaas hai ye rooh se mehsoos karo
Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do

Pragya also points to this link as a place to hear Lata Mangeshkar's version of the song (1969).

ghazal for professor Vasudev

"desperate for poetry"


Desperate for poetry   citizens jog at dawn
barking for poetry   bright as a dog at dawn
pining for poetry   see how they squander fortunes!
mining for poems in Philly or Prague   at dawn
diving from corporate ladders in suicide pacts
landing in clusters like Gog & Magog   at dawn
woozy with language   heady with fine semantics
slumbering   sauced in poesy's grog   at dawn
passing their evenings   heeding Parisian chanson
they blearily forage through Frisco fog   at dawn
hitch-hikers scouring Europe or Asia   scribble
dispatches emailed as "poem-in-prog   at dawn"
somewhere in Ladakh   a poet awakes & types!
another emerges   in Beijing smog at dawn
urban poets congeal   amid parks & alleys
rustics   running the rapids   clog at dawn
one   in Morocco   is pondering rune & quibla
one through the Kerala forest must slog   at dawn
hearkening bulbul & koel   by hour & season
halted by cricket in evening & frog   at dawn
crashing in tent or verandah   crazed for syntax
piling up verses like Lincoln logs   at dawn
Raphael's stunned in the midst of this plangent mayhem
posting anon to his poetry blog   at dawn

ghazal

"my lines"


I sat in a nook for years   & jotted my lines
ecstatic if wind & tears   had rotted my lines!
I wandered in rain & sun   and rarely I slept
too bad if nor waves nor piers   unclotted my lines!
the eyes of beautiful women   nurtured my dream
the violence of their lashes   dotted my lines
their globes sufficed for religion   heaven & earth
were charting my course   at times I shouted my lines
the clouds and branches became my cinema screen!
who cared if no literatus   spotted my lines?
abandon served for a credo   strife a refrain
alas if hints of ill manner   snotted my lines!
some days   a heavenly thought inspired my pen
some nights   a desolate feeling naughted my lines
distrusting rational speech   I preferred to croon
a caffeine-nicotine frenzy   plotted my lines
ornate casinos   accepted my gambling mood
in glib Mayavic machines   I slotted my lines
my poems came out as flowers   bees   & moonbeams
as ants they crawled   as flies   I swatted my lines
I loathed publication   & loved to grind my ink
lauding the muse   her glimmer alloted my lines
what did we seek? transformation   many expired
an obscure naive mirage   besotted my lines
enough!   the garrulous fantasy swoops & fades
I've meanwhile pruned & watered   & potted my lines
old Raphael!   you were simply passing the years?
I sought unwinding   yet something knotted my lines

ghazal

"anew"


Some dawns may afford a chance   to feel the world anew
some pirouettes in the dance   reveal the world anew

the puzzle of our existence   dangles from what thread?
the pressures of happenstance   unreel the world anew

if you are a dark enigma   what will light our way?
can joy hidden in your glance   not heal the world anew?

you set us spinning   uncertain which way's up or down!
while truing our course   you yet unkeel the world anew!

so brisk is the play of time!   so glib the luck of draw
no sooner we fold   again you deal the world anew

I wanted to dive in poetry   that mountain pool
to chill-out my mind   and re-congeal the world anew

I said   "where the raindrops turn to pearls   I'll wend my way
I'll gather from fruitful chance   what peels the world anew!"

I sought Raphael   imploring him to share song's lore
he laughed at my young romance   "you'd steal the world anew?"

ghazal

"of the ocean"


I sit on the shore   of the ocean
and watch more & more   of the ocean

some reckon the earth   is a dark house?
some find it the door   of the ocean

the world holds a hundred traditions
all drenched in the lore   of the ocean

some practice the peace of the seabreeze
some battle the war   of the ocean

the curl of the wave waxes lyric
as musics out-pour   from the ocean!

the lion   that king of the forest
expresses the roar   of the ocean

the toil of the world is relinquished
in foam from the chore   of the ocean

Ardeo brings pearls from the market?
he visits the store   of the ocean!