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Above: Mrityunjay Awasthy

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Maaye Ni:
O Mother Of Mine

INNI KAUR

 

 

 

 

 

How do you thank someone who has brought music back into your life?

I know not. But I am going to try.

After my mother passed away (four years ago, on September 24, 2011), I stopped listening to music. Lyrics were jarring; rhythm was agonizing.

In silence, I grieved.

In silence, I walked.

In silence, I painted.

In silence, I prayed.

And then, in July 2014 a song ‘Maaye Ni’ appeared on my Facebook feed.

The words, the tempo entered my being. Tears flowed; solace embraced.

I began listening to the haunting voice of Mrityunjay Awasthy -- the words penned by Harbhajan Singh (1920-2002).

In the voice, I heard a longing. A longing of an era gone by.

His voice transports me. At times, I find myself standing with Bebe Nanaki. She is pacing the terrace under a star-lit night, waiting for her beloved brother’s return.

“He’s close, he’s close by,” she says.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“His fragrance is nearing. Can you not smell it?” she replies.

Her love astounds me.

At other times, when his voice takes me to the banks of the River Chenab, I hear a drowning Sohni pleading with the fishes: “Eat my flesh, but devour not my eyes. For, in my eyes resides my Mahiwal.”

Her love overwhelms me.

I confess, I do not understand all the words in his songs. His Punjabi is chaste; mine is flawed. His play on words is brilliant.

I struggle to understand the intensity of his songs. In that struggle, there is a joy. That joy holds me.

His song ‘Pritam Rehsi Na’ is the one that I listen to before I turn in for the night.

In my arrogance, I have dared to translate it. It is a pale rendering and I have taken many liberties. Hope Mrityunjay Awasthy will forgive this transgression, knowing it comes from an ardent fan.


MY LOVER WILL LEAVE

Radiantly adorned
you came,
and then you left
without uttering
even a sweet word.

You just left.
Without hearing me,
You left.

Gloriously bejeweled,
you came
and captivated me.

This love, this intoxication,
Is this an illusion?
An artful trickery?
To entrap me,
in your love?

Know you not,
Your arrow
pierced me instantly.
My heart quivers
yet
you appear not.

My body spasms
yet
you coalesce not.

Mysterious is this
love of yours.

If this is to be my destiny
then
I accept this willingly, for
in this mystifying yearning
is a mystifying union.


Mrityunjay Awasthy, thank you for bringing music back into my life. Particularly this week, when I mark the fourth anniversary of the passing away of my mother, Sardarni Jagmohan Kaur.

 

To hear "Pritam Rehsi Na", please CLICK here. 

Inni Kaur is a story-teller and poet who currently resides in Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. She is the author of ‘Journey with the Gurus’ series‘, ‘Sakhi-Time with Nani ji’, and ‘Thank You, Vahiguru.’ She serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of The Sikh Research Institute.

September 20, 2015

Conversation about this article

1: Amardeep (USA), September 25, 2015, 1:54 PM.

Indeed, a great artist.

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O Mother Of Mine"









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