Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Désolée

you have gone, Ranaai
i erred, it is true
betrayed you, i admit
it was a slip
it meant nothing
but you do not understand

gone from these dwellings!
turned your back on those who love you, revere you
gone so suddenly from those who cannot live without you
left behind in these sordid rooms
where everything is just what it seems
there is no you

you cannot live with a rival so beneath your contempt
i can see that
you will not need to
i will banish her to the furthermost corners of myself
we shall not look upon her face
she will bother us no longer

we will live here, you and I
and not a shadow will fall

you have gone, Ranaai
it meant nothing
but you do not understand

7 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

votre douleur, c'est magnifique!

kuffir said...

the 4th stanza is the only one that seems to express love with dignity- the other parts seem to be an exercise in wringing hands and grovelling.
why does this poem remind me of another?

Sheetal said...

The one: I had to look up douleur, having used up a generous chunk of my French in that title :-)

Kuffir: Does it? Anyway, to me it isn't strictly a love poem - more about misery when beauty deserts you.

The post apart, generally speaking - love can be dignified, of course it can. But it is only one of its faces, masks even. It is my belief that love is a little desperate, that surrender is a lesson we must learn, that love must be lived through, not skimmed over.

Ye ishq nahin aasaan bas itna samajh lije
Ek aag ka dariya hai aur doobke jaana hai

You needn't agree, of course :-)

readerswords said...

and the Old Man expressed the something similar earlier:

ishk muhko na sahi, vejshat hi sahi
meri vehshat teri shohrat hi sahi

kateh keje na ta- alluk hamse
kuch nahin hai to adavat hi sahi

...

hum bhi tasleem ki khoo daalaingey
be-niyaazi teri aadat hi sahi

Guess ishk and surrender are synonymous.

Love 'as' surrender are a constant theme in Urdu poetry, incidentally, including and specially in Kaifi Azmi. "Tumhari zulf ke saaye main shaam kar loonga", for example, but elsewhere too.

Despite his attempt at being the official poet of the communist party, it is in his romantic poetry that Kaifi excels at least in his film lyrics, unlike Sahir, who scintillates in his popular 'lyrics with a message' besides romantic poetry.

Anonymous said...

The one: I had to look up douleur ..

Hmm .. same here :-)

BTW does Ranaai mean something?

And, before one forgets, baby blog alert.

Sheetal said...

BS: I know! How many times have our poets not languished over bandagi, parastish and the like. All over the place.

I was watching the Shammi starrer Prince last week and there was Hasrat (I think) saying:
Mohabbat ki yeh intaha ho gayi
Ke masti mein tumko khuda keh gaya
Zamana yeh insaaf karta raha
Bura keh gaya yah bhala keh gaya

The one: Hey, good good! Trade in Brazilian liquor, do we? heh heh had to look up that too :-)

Yes, Ranaai means beauty, elegance. In this case, beauty in one's perspective, 'nazaria'.