جشنِ بہارا Jashn-e-Bahaara — The Festival of Spring

It is called the festival of spring, and love is amazed to see it. In the garden, the fragrance is angry with the flower. Some grief is hidden behind the curtain of the air. All the sights are frightened. The streams of time are asleep. And in the heart, some lost words are wandering.

The passage sets the song's whole method with its first phrase. Kehne ko, it is called: the season's name is quoted and immediately tested. The pairings are all broken: the scent is khafa, offended, with its own flower, and the grief hides behind the air's chilman, its thin curtain. The last line is the passage's hinge, khoyi si baatein, lost words in the heart, and the whole song is the attempt to find them.

جشن بہاراں jashn-e-bahaara

the festival of spring

خفا khafa

displeased, out of sorts with somebody

رنج ranj

grief, a hurt carried quietly

چلمن chilman

a hanging bamboo blind

How do we say what this cruelty is? Now we think: how can anyone say whether she is ours or not? We travel together, and still there are distances, as the two banks of a river never meet.

The passage states the lovers' condition in the image of the river. Saath safar, travelling together, is granted in the first line, and the faasle, distances, follow in the second, and the image that carries the contradiction is the two banks: they run together forever and never touch. The question, voh hai ya nahin hamaare, is she ours or not, is the whole courtship's question, and the passage refuses to answer it, which is what the banks are for.

ستم sitam

cruelty, a wrong done to somebody

کنارہ kinaara

a bank, an edge

Near, and still not near. This grief does not suit us. There is, as it were, a glass wall between.

The passage gives the song its architecture. Paas phir bhi paas nahin, near and yet not near, is the paradox the whole song has been circling, and the answer is the wall: sheeshe ki deewaar, a wall of glass. The wall is transparent, which is why the nearness is real, and it is a wall, which is why the nearness fails. The image is the film's own, the protocol of the Mughal court, and the song has given it to the lovers to carry.

راس raas

to suit somebody, to agree with them

The song we heard, the heart had chosen it. How did time tell us this story? If we are grieving, she is not happy on her side either. In the meetings themselves, the loneliness has dissolved, as it were.

The passage lets the other side into the song for the first time. The lover's grief is matched: voh bhi udhar khush toh nahin, she too is not happy on her side. The word udhar, on that side, is the wall speaking. The last line is the passage's strange comfort, mulaqaaton mein tanhaai ghul gayi, in the meetings the loneliness has dissolved: the meetings are real enough to thin the solitude, which is the most the wall allows.

نغمہ naghma

a song, a melody

غمگین ghamgeen

sorrowful

ملاقات mulaqaat

a meeting

Even meeting, we do not meet. Even blooming, the flowers do not bloom. The springs are in the eyes, and in the heart, autumn.

The passage is the song's final verdict, and it is delivered in three parallel negations. Mil ke bhi na milna, meeting and not meeting, khil ke bhi na khilna, blooming and not blooming: the wall has entered the verbs themselves. The last line splits the season in two, bahaarein in the eyes, khizaan in the heart, and the split is the song's truest statement. The festival of spring is where it is seen. The autumn is where it is felt.

خزاں khizaan

autumn

گل gul

a flower, a rose