Saturday, November 25, 2006

another look at sleep



neend

budhapa, sota hai
maathe par ek haath rakhe
sapno ko roke huye aankhon mein aane se

bachpan, sota hai
befikr, taange failaye
apni hi duniya banate huye

jawani
sirf karvatein badalti hai raat bhar
usse neend aati hi kahan hai


isn't it strange that in Hindi, we call old age & childhood as masculine and youth as feminine :) *updated, no, in Hindi every awastha is feminine, its in Urdu, that bachpan and budhapa ae masculine & youth is feminine* and i tried, but couldn't post a satisfactory translation. so, i'll hav to round up the usual suspects and ask them for a favour again ;)

19 comments:

Aditi said...

well written as always.. i trust u had a good weekend

San said...

I get hindi lessons when i visit here, it's beautiful reading some of these posts aloud.

Anonymous said...

ohhhh ma! this is just the tops :)

ideas count, Adi - a lot of ppl can weave words. Penny for ur imagination sa'ab!!

jac said...

A good friend of mine told me the meaning !!

neend na aayi
aap se furmayee

Anonymous said...

Awww, thank you for going into the trouble, Adi; it was great!

Your lady is a lucky one. =]

sophie said...

i need help Adi - i have most of
it but my tranlation is not making
perfect sense -
i think i have some words wrong?

nihar said...

JO BEHFIKRI BACHPAN ME HAI WOH JAWANI AUR BUDAPE MEIN KAHA,
JO MAUSUMIYAT BACHPAN MEIN HAI WOH KAHI AUR KAHA.
WAISE HATS OFF TO U,I DINT KNW NEEND CUD ALSO B FEMININE AUR MASCULINE.
ADIJI KAHA SE ITNI RESEARCH KARTE HO???:)

Anonymous said...

Hey...I speak Hindi so I understand what you've written, but I am not sure what the third line is trying to say. Are you trying to say that our budhapa stops us from showing our dreams in our eyes?

Btw, maybe this translation helps?

Old age: sleeps with one hand on the forehead, stopping dreams from entering our eyes...

Childhood: sleeps carelessly, legs spread out, making its own life...

Youth: Only some things have changed, all night he never sleeps (emphasis on last part)

I don't know translation of karvatein (my crude translation: "some things") though I know what it is...kinda.

I found your blog through a friend's...I never read poetry in Hindi, it's a really refreshing change.

Keshi said...

can ya teach me Hindi then?

mere ko shudh hindi nahi aati hai...

lol!

Keshi.

Anonymous said...

Again a masterpiece !! So true.

Thanks for your visit to my blog.
By now, you must have known I have started visiting your blog frequently though sorry to say (these days very busy).

Keep writing, keep us gasping for more.

dwaipayan said...

how true!!

Salil Mirashi said...

aap toh Gulzar Saab ke Humraahi lagte hai janaab.....lovely man!!!
never been to delhi....but can feel it through ur lines.
romanticism is hard to appeal to a cynic like me...but ur romanticism does hit me. Wonderful!!!!


P.S.
i too hate poverty....lekin...we can't get rid of it....and in the scenario of this truth..lies an alternative...that we can take care of the poor...we can contain it if we want...but the Government Bhaisaab's aren't that keen on doin it....so felt like sayin this.

Revealed said...

Hehe..nice to c so many peeps asking for no translation! I agree with San! I get hindi lessons too :) and much more interesting ones than the ones in school :D

Arti Honrao said...

knock knock ...
May I try my hand at this?

Old age sleeps
With one hand on forehead
Stopping the dreams from entering the eyes

Childhood sleeps
Carefree, sprawled
Creating a world of its own

Youth
Just keeps on tossing and turning
Where does it get to sleep!


Is this close to what you have been looking for?
I am not so good at translations but thought I could give it a try. Done that a few times for my poems as well.
I feel that the message should get across, rhyming is not necessary!

BTW, lovely post and lovely blog



GBU
Arti

Namrata - "Time's Ticking away..I'm Wasting Away" said...

I know.. I know.. part 3 on hold..have been busy getting baked, fried and grilled at work just to be one to climb the ladder..and a fruitful time.. coz i got the role i was fighting for..net net.. adrian has been frozen ... will NOW get back to thawing him.

So a wee bit more patience would be highly appreciated :)

Neat poem btw :)

insane freak said...

beautiful...

it's such lingering feeling, those sleepless nights,
"woh raatein, bechaini ki, jiske liye hum intezaar karte hain.. unke har gam har tanhayi, har mehfil ke liye"

= rich

Sigma said...

Hmmmm ... very beautiful, and very thoughtful .... you do know how to weave words :-))
I thought I'd try to translate this one, but I see that you have had help, and anyway so many people are asking not to translate :-))

Would like to talk about the gender of ages though. You observe that in urdu old age and childhood are masculine, but youth is feminine. In hindi all are feminine. I beg to differ. My urdu vocabulary is not something to talk about, but I can talk about hindi.

In fact in hindi all the awastha's are feminine as you said - balyawastha, yuvawastha, and vriddhawastha. But we have another set of words which are masculine - bachpan, budhapa (i do think they are both hindi words), and yauvan.

oceanic mirages said...

budhapa, sota nahi
karta hai mehsus band aankho se jo ab tak dhala, acha tha ya tha bura,
bachpan, sota nahi
gotiyon si ghumti aankhe thak karband ho jati hain, jb hilone thaka det hain inhe,
jawani,soti bhi nahi jagti bhi nahi, na jane kitne sapne banati hai,sawaanrti hai,aansuo se bheg kar muskurati hai aur band kar aankhe fir sapno me kho jati hai...

Hats off tou dear... A mind blowing post it was...insightful and thought prowoking...

Anonymous said...

love the art, and yes there'll be a welcome drink :)

dreamt before

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