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
Brilliant. The contribution of Dushyant kumar has been enormous but somewhat under played. Dad has often quoted Dushyant kumar in his column esp this one.
Dad had made a film called ” Shaayad” in 1979 . Check out ” ye zuban humse si nahi jaati” written by Dushyant kumar from “Shaayad”
Regards.
Will do!
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Read some Harivansh Rai Bachhan. I think you would like it. These lines are from “Reedh ki Haddi”.
Sir
har sene me jal rhi aaj
ab bhadakni chahiye,
waqt ka takaja h ki
ye ghadi badalni chahiye.
very nice