Aag jalni chahiye by Dushyant Kumar

I search for good Hindi poems but one that remains a favorite is ‘aag jalni chahiye‘ by Dushyant Kumar. When it comes to poetry, I feel Urdu is blessed with some peerless artists and works but I am sure there are Hindi gems that I have probably not discovered yet. As I spend more time writing, I look for good works in Hindi (and would love to hear what is your favorite hindi work in comments).

But to begin with, here is aag jalni chahiye and my cursory translation (hopefully accurate)-

Ho gayi hai peer parvat si, pighalni chaahiye,
Is himalaya se koi ganga nikalni chaahiye

The sorrow has reached the gigantic proportions of mountains, it is time that a soothing Ganges emerges out to alleviate the pain

Aaj ye deewar pardon ki tarah hilney lagi,
shart lekin thi, ki yeh buniyaad hilni chahiye

Yes, the walls have begun to tremble like a sheet of paper but our deal was to get the foundations shaken

Har gali mein, har shahar mein, har nagar, har gaon mein,
haath lehraatee hue, har laash chalni chahiye

In every alley, road, town and village, every suffering body should be protesting

Sirf hungaama khada karna mera maqsad nahin,
saari koshish hai, ki yeh soorat badalni chahiye

Rabble rousing is not my aim, the whole effort is to bring a change

Mere seene mein nahin, to tere seene mein sahi
ho kahin bhi aag, lekin aag jalni chahiye

If not in my mine, then yours by all means – wherever it may be lit, but the point is that the fire must be lit

There’s a great undercurrent of calm revolution in the words here that is hard to match. I can imagine the protagonist as not the excitable active superhero but someone with restraint, composure and maturity who is determined to see a change. He may not be seething in rage or revenge but he is a calm headed person seeing beyond the facade of violent revolution, he believes in changing the underlying problems.

I love the lines – sirf hungama khada karna mera maqsad nahin and shart lekin thi ki ye buniyad hilni chahiye

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