“Ye Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye”
The lyrics from Pyaasa, which apparently are very famous, were written by Sahir Ludhianvi. A YouTube user named Telectroscope was good enough to translate some of them. The previous song that I posted is translated also, but I was even more impressed by the lyrics here – and the song as well, for that matter. So I’m going to post these:
This world, of palaces, of thrones, of crowns
This world, of despots, of tribes
This world, of greed, of aristocrats
This world, what can be won by having it?
Each body is injured, every soul is thirsting
Confusion in all eyes, sadness in the hearts
Is this really the world or the rule of madness?
This world, what can be proved by having it?
Here, a man’s existence can be toyed with
Here, are the colonies of murderers
Here, death comes cheaper than life
This world, what can be had by having it?
Here, youth stumbles like a social abomination
Here, young bodies deck for sale in the bazaar
Here, love is transacted as in trade
This world, what can be gained by having it?
This world, where man is nothing
Where loyalty is not expected, friends mean nothing
Here, love neither deserves nor demands respect
This world, what can be achieved by having it?
Burn this perversion, demolish this tyranny
Remove it from my sight, this despondency
To you it belongs and you alone can keep the world
This world, what can be made by having it?
And here’s an excellent description of this scene from Philip’sfil-ums:
The film’s final song, Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai, elevates the film to an astonishing musical and dramatic crescendo, as slight head movements by all the major characters in the film match rising musical figures as Dutt cuts rhythmically among their close-ups. As the song builds from a whisper to a scream, Mohammed Rafi’s steady voice breaks as Vijay’s supposed admirers mutate into a rioting mob: the sequence provides a textbook example of how a filmmaker can wed the visual and sound elements of cinema to a storyline in the construction of powerful emotional meaning.
Sahir was a genius. It should be mandated as international law that his lyrics by subtitled on all his films DVDs.
be subtitled, I meant…
That’s a nice idea – though I guess, for our sake, the law should specify that they must be subtitled in English :) …
But the only legal action that ever took place regarding his lyrics, at least from what I’m reading at YouTube, is that they were censored! The other song, “Jine Naaz Heh Hind Par,” was apparently banned from Indian radio and even pulled from the film for a while.
I think that when somebody offers lyrics that contain stinging social critcism, the likelihood is that any mandates issued (by any government) will be there to minimize the number of people who can hear and understand those words, not maximize.