KUCH DIN TO BASO MERI AANKHO MEIN

I listened to Ghulam Ali after a very long time. Being in the subcontinent, Gazals have touched me since my early days. Became a fan of Ghulam Ali, only this year though. Since then I have only listened to his gazals and this one gazal is my favorite.

I love the way it has been sung and also the deep lyrics it has. It’s almost a sad poem, sung in a very light mood. A must listen for everyone. Each and every verse has a great meaning.

The singer is longing for the beloved who has left him and explains himself the futility of her existence without him with her. It starts with a request for to giving the illusion back then goes on where he taunts her to be in an equal pain and ends with the acceptance of the reality of the failed love and loneliness. The loneliness has made him a “deewana” (comfortably numb) and so he is singing like a happy man, but the pain just doesn’t go and thus the words are sad.

Losing love is never an easy thing to do. It’s just way too difficult for us to accept that the illusion is over. We cry, we pray, we even beg for getting the love back. Then one day when the despondency grows to its limit and all our fetishes fail and the prayers go unanswered, we decline to the little self in us. This is the worst phase where we are enervated and can do anything. Fortunately, in today’s world, we grow up and move on and fall in love again.

But in some cases, we become so scared of love that we don’t accept it and don’t want to accept it even if it is there with its arms opened. We make so many excuses to avoid the reality. Even our incompetence becomes an excuse for not trying. Does losing become a habit for some people? Still searching for an answer….

Here is the Gazal and my translation of it.

Kuch din to baso meri aankho mein,
fir khwaab agar ho jao to kya

Koi rang to do mere chehre ko,
fir zhakhma agar mehkao to kya

Ik aainaa tha so tut gaya,
Ab khud se agar sharmao to kya

Mein tanha tha mein tanha hu
Tum aao to kya naa aao to kya

Jab hum hi naa mehke fir sahib
Tum baad-e-saba kehlao to kya
(baad-e-saba means morning or breeze)

Jab dekhne wala koi nahi
Buz jao to kya jal to kya

My Translation

My dearest love
Stay in my eyes at least for some more moments,
Its not important if you turn out to be dream

Colour my face red in love
Even by being a wound
But, colour it red

Our love was a mirror,
It finally broke
What is the use now,
If you blush by yourself

I was lonely, I am still lonely
So what if you come
So what if you don’t
Lonely I am

They call you the morning breeze, fresh and sweet
But I am the flower which is fragrant no more
(morning breeze is fresh and sweet because it carries the fragrance of flowers in it.)

Nobody around here to look out for you
So what if you glow, so what if you don’t