Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Ek Geet Hijar Da

Ek Geet Hijar Da
Ajj asaan ve bolna / Today I shall speak
Ajj kise na tokna / Today I shan't be stopped
Lekh ve jindrhi da / The script of destiny
Ajj asaan ve bhogna / Today I shall live it

Na roveen meet moiyan te mere / Don't cry at my death my Friend
Na paavin vainh moiyan te / Don't sing mournful tunes
Tu gaaveen geet / Sing instead this song
Ek geet / This Song

Kal jo beet gaya / Yesterday, all that passed
Na beeteya O jo beet gaya / Hasn't passed but remains with me
Sool mere seene / A thorn in my heart
Vairi khob gaya / Driven by Foe

Keetey main sab chaare / I've used all options
Saarey upaa haare / All cures have failed
Ehda 'laaj bas ek geet / The only cure is this song
Ek geet hijar da / A song of longing

Ek geet hijar da / A song of longing
Ek geet sabar da / A song of restraint
Ek geet karam da / A song of kindness
Ek geet reham da / A song of mercy

Ek geet milan da / A song of union
Ek geet balan da / A song of burning
Ek geet gunaah da / A song of Sin
Ek geet panaah da / A song of pardon

Ek geet, Ek geet, Ek geet / A song, A song, A song

Hunh na kujh disda / Now I see nothing
Hunh na kujh sujhda / Now I can't grasp anything
Zehar naseebaan da / Since the poison of the fate
Ajj asaan jo peeta / Has been mine to drink

Sa'te taras kareen / Have mercy on me
Na lekha mera mangii / Don't ask for my liabilities
Ve tu sunii eh mera geet / Just listen this song of mine

Vekheen zara / Look here
Na hove kharaab / Don't let it go waste
Boohey tere, hanju mera / This teardrop of mine
Ho jaave tere dar te manzoor / Let it be accepted at your gate
Mere Huzoor / My Master

Eh geet hijar da / This song of longing
Eh geet sabar da / This song of restraint
Eh geet karam da / This song of kindness
Eh geet reham da / This song of mercy

Eh geet milan da / This song of union
Eh geet balan da / This song of burning
Eh geet gunaah da / This song of Sin
Eh geet panaah da / This song of pardon

Eh geet, Eh geet, Eh geet / This song, This song, This song


~Rabbi Shergill


I love it when people read the blog and post me lyrics to follow up with new lyrics.
Thanks to http://chupkese.blogspot.com/. I hope the owner of blog and Rabbi doesnt mind this.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Ishtihaar

For the Lost Love:

ik kudi / A girl
jihda naam mohabbat / whose name is love
saad muradi / simple, dainty
sohni fabbat /a lovely sight
gumm hai gumm hai / she is lost
gumm hai / lost
gumm hai / lost
gumm hai / she is lost

surat osdi / Her face
parian vargi / A fairy's likeness,
seerat di o / temper
Mariam lagdi / a picture of Mary
hasdi hai tan / when she laughts
phul ne jhardhey / the petals fall
turdi hay tan / when she walks
ghazal hai lagdi / a melody plays
lamm salami / her graceful height
saru kadd di / like a wicker tree

umar ajey hai mar ke agdi / her years are still of nascence
par naina di / but the language of eyes
gal samajhdi / she comprehends


gummian janam janam / she is lost from many
han hoye / births ago
lagda iyon jyon kal / though it seems as affair of yesterday
di gal hai / yesterday / why, it seems an affair of today
iyon lagdai jion ajj di gal hai / why, it seems this
iyon lagdai jion hun / moments affair
di gal hai hune taan mere kol kharhi si / just now she stood by my side
hune tan mere kol nahi hai / and now she has vanished
ai keha chhal kehi bhatkan / what trick what chase is this
soch meri hairaan barri hai / my senses, they're mystified
os kudi nu tol rahi hai / searching for that girl

oss kudi nu meri saunh hai / I call out to that girl in my name
os kudi nu apni saunh hai / I call out to that girl in my name
os kudi nu sab di saunh hai / I call out to that girl in my name
os kudi nu rab di saunh hai / I call out to that girl in my name

jey kittey parhdi sunhdi hove / if she reads or hears this
jeyundi jan o mar rahi hovey / if she be alive or dying
ik vari aa ke mil javey / come and meet me once
vafa meri nu daag na laavey / do not sully my devotion

nahi tan maithon jia na janda / lest I can't live
geet koi likhia na janda nor write a word
nahi tan maithon jia na janda / lest I can't live
geet koi likhia na janda / nor write a word
nahi tan maithon jia na janda / lest I can't live

Spl Thanks to Writer(who pasted this song for us on comments) and to
http://bansalanurag.blogspot.com/2004/12/listen-this.html

P.S I Wish to See Rabbi Shergill Website coming up some day. Else I would be highly obliged to make one with my friends in our free time. (I hope Sam doesnt kick me for committing something like this). I guess we guys deserve atleast Rabbi's Email address atleast :-). I hope its not too much to ask for..

Update: We now have a video of the original poem sung by Shiv Kumar Batalvi. Check out this post.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

The subject of Rabbi's affection?

It first occured to me when listening to Tere Bin (lyrics) for the nth time while trying to code a custom-made HTTP Proxy at work. It's a love song all right, beautifully and melodiously composed with a hint of Tabla; the words are quite touching if you pay attention to them. I wasn't feeling too good; Delhi is my home and Bengaluru, for all its green glory; doesn't match up to the relief of killing the Delhi heat with Mom's chocolate shake.

Mom! That's it! It's Mom!

I felt like I had cracked the Matrix. Tere Bin was written for a mother. I was sure as hell. Then I heard this...

ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia / i have gone and seen it all
amrika , roos, malaysia / America, Russia, Malaysia
kittey vi koi fark si / there wasn't any difference
har kise di koi shart si / they all had some condition
koi mangda mera si sama / some asked for my time
koi hunda surat te fida / some were fascinated with my face
koi mangda meri si vafa / some demanded my fidelity
na koi mangda merian bala / none wanted my demons

Mom! That is so Mom! I mean, frankly, who'd want your demons?

milia si ajj mainu / i found today
tera ik patra / a note of yours
likhia si jis 'te / on which you had scribbeled
tun shayr varey shah da / a varis shah couplet
park ke si osnu / upon reading which
hanjnu ik duliya / a teardrop fell
akhan 'ch band si / what was locked in the eye
seh raaz ajj khulia / was revealed today
ki tere bin / that other than you
eh mere hanjnu / these tears of mine
kise hor / won't be kissed by
nahio chumna / none else

And that was it for me. Sealed. Nothing more touching than a mother's letter.

Amazingly, someone somewhere else had the same thought. I received an email yesterday from a reader, Sahil:

... I just wanted to know the history behind ' Tere bin'. I've heard its written for his mother. I've even heard its not written by Rabbi but by Varis shah himself(whose name features in the song...just like Kabir writes bout himself in his dohas and bulla too mentions his name in his composition).

The song is definitely not for some girlfriend. It may be for a guy as well. Maybe for a best friend. But somehow i have this inkling that it is for his mother.

Could you please enlighten me?

Well, I don't know if he wrote it for his mother. But I know that Rabbi composed it. Maybe he didn't compose it for anyone in person, maybe he did it for more than one person. But my inkling goes with Sahil; I think it's a subtle suggestion, the 'undercurrent' that is more common in the world of bigger literary compositions; the Arrow in the FedEx logo. Some see it, some don't.

Drop in your comments.

UPDATE (29 OCT 07): Well, I change my stance. After reading the scores of comments on the original post, I think its one of those things from which everyone takes what they want. It reminds people of their father, mother, close friend, sibling, and others. In short, it reminds them of the person they most want to be reminded of. 

Lets not try to restrict it to one person, because it probably was never meant to.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Welcome to Rabbism

This should ideally have been the first post on this blog. However, let's stick to our adages (aka better late than never) and define the reason of this blog and our personal fascination with Rabbi Shergill.

The Purpose is pretty clear: We wanted to have one place where we could keep everything related to Rabbi - his lyrics, downloads, interview et all. Why? Because all of us, like quite a few other people around the globe, truly loved the brand of music that Rabbi has forged for himself in one album.

We're not connoisseurs of good music, and we're not true blue music partisans either (Although amongst us we manage 200+ hours of music a week, and we have KD, an iron filing of the Rock magnet.) So anyways, the point is, we're normal people who found something special in Rabbi's music. Something that was eternal, that never got old as we scratched our hard disks' shergill segment for its 20,000th round.

We can't define what we found, but it was something profound, and something that connected us to it. And we just knew that there would be others around the world who found it too. And maybe one of them would define it for us.

And hence, this blog. Welcome to Rabbism.