Main to piya se / Naina laga aayi ray,
Ghar naari kanwari / Kahay so kahay,
Main to piya se / Naina laga aayi ray.
Sohni suratiya / Mohni muratiya,
Main to hriday ke peechay / Samaa aayi ray;
Ghar naari kanwari / Kahay so kahay,
Main to piya say / Naina laga aayi ray.

This is a poem by Amir Khusrao – one of the most versatile poets from the Indian subcontinent dating back nearly eight centuries. Credited with bringing Qawwalis to the subcontinent, he is often also credited for creating the Ghazal style. He was certainly responsible for creating the percussion instrument “tabla” – that I have played for thirty five years or so. He is called the “Parrot of India”.

This poem was incorporated in Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s rendition of the very popular Qawwali “Chhap Tilak”.

The true meaning and impact of this poem is perhaps difficult to appreciate in this age and time when you meet your opposite sex on date.com. In those days society frowned heavily on young men and women getting to meet or know each other. All marriages were arranged by parents or social elders. It is in this context, that this girl (the poem is written from the point of view of the girl) who has softness for a neighborhood boy meets him (although it is translated as “had an affair”, the literal meaning is simply “my eyes engaged with his” ) and then writes about her feelings. She realizes that some neighborhood friend of her will tell on her and there will be dire consequences, but she simply does not care.

I am sure many of my friends growing up with me in India a few decades back can relate to that neighborhood girl or boy (as the case might be) and the trysts on the sly and the painful consequences later 🙂 Wonder what was the parallel situation in USA at around that time. I am sure there was that high school girl or boy that parents did not approve of but my guess is that the retribution was not as harsh, if it was there at all. Maybe I need to go back a century in this country to get a parallel.

In any case, here is the translation:

I have just had an affair with my darling,
I don’t care what the neighborhood girls say;
For I just had an affair with my darling.
Oh, his beautiful face, charming like an idol,
I have just earned a place in the very bottom of his heart.
I don’t care what the neighborhood girls say,
For I just had an affair with my darling.