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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

One Sher and meaning


Hazaron saal nargis apni benoori pe roti hai,
Badi mushkil se hota hai chaman mein deeda_var paida.

हजारों साल नर्गिस अपनी बेनूरी पे रोती है
बड़ी मुश्किल से होता है चमन में दीदावर पैदा
                                                                                            - अल्लामा इक़बाल


Nargis, I am given to understand, is a rare flower that blooms once in many, many years. And even that flower has to mourn its woeful fate for thousands of years before an appreciator of its beauty is born.

It's a deep sher with multiple layers in its meaning and obviously multiple ways to interpret it.

I take it that a thing of beauty created by the creator is without value unless there is someone there to appreciate it and admire it for what it really is. In my view there is a moral here to be nice to those who love us and admire us instead of being too proud of our beauty, our status or our accomplishments.

There are many Hindi film qawwalis on this debate, one sher that I am remembering right now is:
Nazrein jo na hoteeN to nazaaraa bhi na hota,
Duniya mein haseenoN ka guzaaraa bhi na hota.
Nazron ne banaya hai inhein buut bhi khuda bhi,
Nazron ne sikhayee hai inhein shokhee bhi adaa bhi. 

4 comments:

ammar said...

Hi

I think AI is referencing Greek philosophy here. Goddess of Vengeance i.e. Nemesis punished Narcissus and changed him into a Nargis flower. So the sher, although could be interpreted the way you "read" it, really is talking about appreciating hidden beauty - and it really takes a special person to appreciate it which does not happen very often.

-Ammar

OldKidYoungMind said...

The humanity suffers from blindness in a faith accepted voluntarily or imposed on it by a despot,a tyrant or oppressive invader conqueror before a visionary comes along with a new world vision.

Anand said...

I found the same explanation in the comment section of this blog http://swatisani.net/asad/hazaaron-saal-nargis-apni-be-noori-pe-roti-hai/

I wonder who has copied from whom :-) Sad in any case.

Sunil Goswami said...

@Anand, it's obvious they have copied, actually quoted, from me. The commenter has started with the words "Someone had this lovely translation …………" and he has put my words in quotes, so it's an obvious quote. He has just not given credit to me.