Aug 4, 2013

Black or White - It don't matter!!!

I have been reading a little bit of Sufi poetry for some time now. This is a poem in Saraiki (a dialect of Punjabi) composed by a great Sufi Poet Hazrat Khwaja Ghulam Farid. I made a very humble attempt to translate it in its essence, so my friends could feel its beauty too.

Kis wal akheya wey Majnu nu,
O teri Laila disdi kaali Ve
Majnu ney jawaab ditta,
O teri akh na dekhan wali

Je tu dekhen meri akh naal
Teri surat na jaaye sambhaali Ve

Ved vi chitte te Quran vi chitti,
Vich siyahi rakh ditti kaali Ve
Ghulam Farid jitthe akhiyaan lagiyaan,
Otthe kya gori kya kaali Ve!”


Translation:
‘Oh Majnu, what’s wrong with your sight
Your Laila looks as dark as the night’
- When someone said with spite
He said:
- Let me shed some light

With my eyes, when you see,
She’s a form of divine beauty

The Vedas are white, the Quran is white,
It’s the black ink that makes them shine bright, 
Ghulam Farid says -when you love someone,
It don’t matter if you’re black or white


Happy Friendship Day!!!

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