اگر تم ساتھ ہو Agar Tum Saath Ho — If You Are With Me

Irshad Kamil

1971– living

Geet

Someone is asking the person they love to stay, just for a moment, so the heart can settle. The request is tiny and the song is huge, and the two sizes are the whole point. If you are with me, the song keeps saying, and each time it says it, it means something slightly more painful than the time before.

Irshad Kamil wrote it for Tamasha in 2015, and Alka Yagnik and Arijit Singh sang it for the film's most devastating scene. Four passages ahead, and the third one contains the line that stopped the film in cinemas.

01 — pal-bhar theher jao dil ye sambhal jaaye

پل بھر ٹھہر جاؤ دل یہ سنبھل جائے
کیسے تمہیں روکا کروں
میری طرف آتا ہر غم پھسل جائے
آنکھوں میں تم کو بھروں
بن بولے باتیں تم سے کروں
اگر تم ساتھ ہو اگر تم ساتھ ہو

पल भर ठहर जाओ दिल ये संभल जाए
कैसे तुम्हें रोका करूँ
मेरी तरफ़ आता हर ग़म फिसल जाए
आँखों में तुमको भरूँ
बिन बोले बातें तुम से करूँ
अगर तुम साथ हो अगर तुम साथ हो

pal-bhar theher jao dil ye sambhal jaaye
kaise tumhein roka karoon
meri taraf aata har gham phisal jaaye
aankhon mein tumko bharoon
bin bole baatein tumse karoon
agar tum saath ho agar tum saath ho

Stay for a moment, let this heart settle. How do I keep stopping you. Every grief that comes toward me slips and falls. I fill my eyes with you. I talk to you without words. If you are with me, if you are with me.

The plea in its purest form. Pal-bhar, a moment, is the unit the whole song negotiates in, and the reason given is the most private one available: so the heart can settle. The third line is the song's great claim: grief, gham, does not stop coming, it simply cannot get traction when she is there. Phisal jaaye, it slips, is the exact physics of being comforted. And the conversation without words, bin bole baatein, closes the passage on the oldest proof of intimacy.

پل بھر pal-bhar: for a moment, the blink of an eye
سنبھلنا sambhalna: to steady oneself, to recover balance
پھسلنا phisalna: to slip, to lose grip

02 — behti rehti nehar nadiyon si teri duniya mein

بہتی رہتی نہر ندیوں سی تیری دنیا میں
میری دنیا ہے تیری چاہتوں میں
میں ڈھل جاتی ہوں تیری عادتوں میں
اگر تم ساتھ ہو

बहती रहती नहर नदियों सी तेरी दुनिया में
मेरी दुनिया है तेरी चाहतों में
मैं ढल जाती हूँ तेरी आदतों में
अगर तुम साथ हो

behti rehti nehar nadiyon si teri duniya mein
meri duniya hai teri chaahaton mein
main dhal jaati hoon teri aadaton mein
agar tum saath ho

Your world is full of flowing canals and rivers. My world is inside your wanting. I keep melting into your habits. If you are with me.

The woman's passage, and it draws two worlds in two lines. His is wide and moving, rivers and canals, nehar nadiyaan, the world of a man who lives out there. Hers is small and entirely interior: inside his wanting, teri chaahaton mein. The verb of the last line is the song's confession: dhal jaana, to melt, to take the shape of the container. She has become the shape of his routines, which is the most accurate account of deep love and the most dangerous one.

نہر nehar: a canal
چاہت chaahat: wanting, love
ڈھلنا dhalna: to melt, to take the shape of something

03 — teri nazron mein hain tere sapne

تیری نظروں میں ہیں تیرے سپنے
تیرے سپنوں میں ہے ناراضی
مجھے لگتا ہے کہ باتیں دل کی
ہوتی لفظوں کی دھوکے بازی
تم ساتھ ہو یا نہ ہو کیا فرق ہے
بے درد تھی زندگی بے درد ہے
اگر تم ساتھ ہو

तेरी नज़रों में हैं तेरे सपने
तेरे सपनों में है नाराज़ी
मुझे लगता है कि बातें दिल की
होती लफ़्ज़ों की धोखेबाज़ी
तुम साथ हो या ना हो क्या फ़र्क़ है
बे-दर्द थी ज़िंदगी बे-दर्द है
अगर तुम साथ हो

teri nazron mein hain tere sapne
tere sapnon mein hai naaraazi
mujhe lagta hai ke baatein dil ki
hoti lafzon ki dhokhebaazi
tum saath ho ya na ho kya farq hai
bedard thi zindagi bedard hai
agar tum saath ho

Your dreams live in your eyes, and in your dreams there is displeasure. I have come to feel that the heart's talk, once it becomes words, is the trickery of words. With you or without you, what difference does it make. Life was heartless, and life is heartless. If you are with me.

The turn of the song, and it happens in the middle of the passage. The dreams in her eyes contain displeasure, naaraazi, and the discovery follows: the heart's speech, translated into words, becomes dhokhebaazi, deception. The same language that built the love has been lying inside it. Then the question that everything in the film hangs on: with you or without you, what difference. And the answer is the most quoted line of the decade, bedard thi zindagi, bedard hai, life was heartless and life is heartless, past and present tense agreeing that nothing has changed.

ناراضی naaraazi: displeasure, sulking
دھوکے بازی dhokhebaazi: trickery, deceit
بے درد bedard: heartless; without feeling

04 — palkein jhapakte hi din ye nikal jaaye

پلکیں جھپکتے ہی دن یہ نکل جائے
بیٹھی بیٹھی بھاگی پھروں
میری طرف آتا ہر غم پھسل جائے
آنکھوں میں تم کو بھروں
بن بولے باتیں تم سے کروں
اگر تم ساتھ ہو اگر تم ساتھ ہو

पलकें झपकते ही दिन ये निकल जाए
बैठी बैठी भागी फिरूँ
मेरी तरफ़ आता हर ग़म फिसल जाए
आँखों में तुमको भरूँ
बिन बोले बातें तुम से करूँ
अगर तुम साथ हो अगर तुम साथ हो

palkein jhapakte hi din ye nikal jaaye
baithi-baithi bhaagi phiroon
meri taraf aata har gham phisal jaaye
aankhon mein tumko bharoon
bin bole baatein tumse karoon
agar tum saath ho agar tum saath ho

The day is gone in a blink of the eyelids. Sitting still, I go on running. Every grief that comes toward me slips and falls. I fill my eyes with you. I talk to you without words. If you are with me, if you are with me.

The song's last passage returns to the opening plea, and the two new lines show what the plea has become. Baithi-baithi bhaagi phiroon: sitting still, I go on running. It is the exact portrait of a person whose life is on hold and cannot stop. The grief still slips, the eyes still fill, the words are still unspoken, and the refrain now lands differently: after the third passage, agar tum saath ho is no longer a condition being wished for. It is a fact being remembered.

پلک palk: an eyelid
جھپکنا jhapakna: to blink

Reading it whole

The song has two movements, and the break between them is the entire story of the film. The first two passages are the plea. Stay a moment. Every grief that comes toward me slides off me when you are there. My eyes fill with you, and I talk to you without words. The second two passages are the discovery, and the discovery is the song's real subject: the love is not conditional on the staying. It keeps working anyway.

The first passage is the purest expression of what another person can do for you. Meri taraf aata har gham phisal jaaye: every grief that comes toward me, it slips and falls, when you are there. It is the most accurate description in the language of what presence does: the grief does not go away, it simply cannot get a grip. And the song's version of conversation, bin bole baatein tumse karoon, talking to you without words, is the oldest claim of intimacy, delivered here as a small daily fact.

The second passage is the woman's, and it says what love has done to her world. In your world of flowing rivers and canals, neher-nadiyaan, my world is small and it is entirely inside your wanting, teri chaahaton mein. And then the line that is both surrender and description: main dhal jaati hoon teri aadaton mein. I keep melting into your habits. She has become the shape of his routines. It is the most domestic line in the song, and the most devastating, because it describes a person who has dissolved her borders.

The third passage is where the song turns, and it turns on the film's central wound. Your dreams live in your eyes, and in your dreams there is displeasure. And then the line that rearranges the whole song: mujhe lagta hai ke baatein dil ki, hoti lafzon ki dhokhebaazi. I have come to feel that the heart's talk, when it becomes words, is a deception. The passage is the man discovering that the same words that built the love have been used to lie inside it. After that, the question of the song: tum saath ho ya na ho, kya farq hai. With you or without you, what difference does it make.

And the answer to that question is the last line of the passage, the one that emptied the cinemas: bedard thi zindagi, bedard hai. Life was heartless, and life is heartless. The past tense and the present tense in one sentence: nothing has changed, nothing will change, and the line is not a complaint anymore. It is a diagnosis. The song's last passage returns to the plea's words, pal-bhar theher jao, and the film's famous scene lets the two of them almost reach each other and not quite.

Alka Yagnik and Arijit Singh split the song between the two people in it, which is what makes the turn from plea to verdict audible. The recording people mean is the one from the film.

Recordings

Alka Yagnik and Arijit Singh

From Tamasha (2015), composed by A.R. Rahman.

Text and rights

Devanagari text supplied and checked by a reader who knows the language. The Urdu script and the transliteration follow that reading.

From the 2015 film Tamasha, composed by A.R. Rahman. The refrain returns between passages in the recording, more often than it is printed here.

Irshad Kamil is alive and writing, so this song is still in copyright. It is quoted here as the subject of Harf's own criticism: the translation, the reading of each passage and the essay around them are original work written for this page. If you hold the rights and would like something changed, tell us on Instagram.