Cross-posted from Neutral Observer
As I grow older, I seem to get an
unusual kick out of small discoveries – something I remember from my
childhood. Maybe it is because I have become cynical about grand
insights and world-changing ideas.
zaban-e-yaar man turki, man turki namidanum
I
never knew what it meant. It was clearly in some foreign language, but
it nevertheless stuck in my head. Recently, I was reading a book about the history and culture of the Mughals by Annemarie Schimmel. Imagine my delight when I read that the strange sounding line was a lament first penned by Amir Khusro,
the great poet, musician and scholar who lived from 1253 to 1325 CE. He
lived during the first century of Turkic rule in Delhi and its
environs. Though his ancestors were of Turkic origin, he himself was
unfamiliar with the Turkish language as it was spoken by the Turks in
India at that time. He wrote this line in Persian, the literary
language of northern India from the thirteenth through the eighteenth
century. Translated, I believe it means:
The tongue of my friend is Turkish, but I know no Turkish.
I
have no idea why Shewan Rizvi, the lyricist, included this line in the
Hindi film song. It has absolutely no connection that I can fathom with
the rest of the song.
So, Amir Khusro wrote the
line sometime in the 13th or early 14th century, Rizvi incorporated it
into a ditty in 1962, I heard it for the first time in the 1980s, and
finally discovered the meaning in 2008. Thanks to the internet, you can
listen to the song (the audio is not great), read the lyrics, and speculate on the beauty of it all.
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