پہلا نشہ Pehla Nasha — The First Intoxication

Majrooh Sultanpuri

1919– 2000

Geet

A boy is describing the first time love has happened to him, and he cannot stop smiling about how badly it is going. It is the first intoxication, he says, the first dizziness, and the question he keeps asking his own heart is what he is supposed to do with it. The song is entirely a report from inside that condition, and the condition is the best one he has ever been in.

Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote it in the last full decade of his career, for Mansoor Khan's Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar in 1992, and it became the anthem of exactly the feeling it describes. Three passages ahead. The second one tries to describe the girl, and the third one describes what she has done to him, which turns out to be the same thing.

01 — pehla nasha, pehla khumaar

پہلا نشہ، پہلا خمار
نیا پیار ہے، نیا انتظار
کر لوں میں کیا اپنا حال
اے دلِ بے قرار
میرے دلِ بے قرار، تو ہی بتا

पहला नशा, पहला ख़ुमार
नया प्यार है, नया इंतज़ार
कर लूँ मैं क्या अपना हाल
ऐ दिल-ए-बेक़रार
मेरे दिल-ए-बेक़रार, तू ही बता

pehla nasha, pehla khumaar
naya pyaar hai, naya intezaar
kar loon main kya apna haal
ai dil-e-bekaraar
mere dil-e-bekaraar, tu hi bata

The first intoxication, the first dizziness. A new love, a new waiting. What am I to do with my condition, oh restless heart? My restless heart, you tell me.

Nasha and khumaar, intoxication and the morning-after dizziness of it, are the pair that names the condition. The song puts pehla, first, in front of the pair, and the rest of the passage is the question the first time always asks: what do I do with myself. Dil-e-bekaraar, the restless heart, is the classical name for the organ that cannot sit still, and the address to it, tu hi bata, you tell me, turns the song into a conversation the heart never answers.

نشہ nasha: intoxication
خمار khumaar: the dizziness left by intoxication
دل بےقرار dil-e-bekaraar: the restless heart

02 — udta hi phiroon in hawaon mein kahin

اڑتا ہی پھروں ان ہواؤں میں کہیں
یا میں جھول جاؤں ان گھٹاؤں میں کہیں
ایک کر دوں آسمان اور زمین
کہو یاروں کیا کروں، کیا نہیں

उड़ता ही फिरूँ इन हवाओं में कहीं
या मैं झूल जाऊँ इन घटाओं में कहीं
एक कर दूँ आसमान और ज़मीं
कहो यारों क्या करूँ, क्या नहीं

udta hi phiroon in hawaon mein kahin
ya main jhool jaun in ghataon mein kahin
ek kar doon aasamaan aur zameen
kaho yaaron kya karoon, kya nahin

Let me keep flying through these winds somewhere, or let me swing in these clouds somewhere. Let me join the sky and the earth into one. Tell me, friends, what do I do, what don't I?

The passage is the body's report on the intoxication, and the body's plans are all impossibilities. Flying in the winds, swinging in the clouds, joining the sky to the earth: the scale keeps doubling, which is the scale of first love. The last line hands the question to the audience, yaaron, friends, and the question kya karoon, kya nahin is the whole song's grammar. There is nothing to do. The passage knows it, which is why it keeps asking.

گھٹا ghataon: dark rain clouds

03 — usne baat ki kuchh aise dhang se

اس نے بات کی کچھ ایسے ڈھنگ سے
سپنے دے گئی وہ ہزاروں رنگ کے
رہ جاؤں جیسے میں ہار کے
اور چومے وہ مجھے پیار سے

उसने बात की कुछ ऐसे ढंग से
सपने दे गयी वो हज़ारों रंग के
रह जाऊँ जैसे मैं हार के
और चूमे वो मुझे प्यार से

usne baat ki kuchh aise dhang se
sapne de gayi voh hazaaron rang ke
reh jaun jaise main haar ke
aur choome voh mujhe pyaar se

She spoke in such a way that she left behind a thousand coloured dreams. I am left as if defeated, and she kisses me with love.

The girl appears in the song only as speech and gift. Usne baat ki, she spoke, and the speech is not reported, only its effect: dreams in a thousand colours, left behind like a deposit. The last two lines are the song's true confession. Haar ke, defeated, is the state the boy is left in, and the defeat is the prize. The kiss with love, pyaar se, is both the defeat's explanation and its reward, and the passage ends without a single further word, which is how the condition sounds.

ڈھنگ dhang: a manner, a way of doing a thing

Reading it whole

The song is a first love sung from inside itself, which is why it never needs to explain anything. Nasha, intoxication, is the word the whole tradition uses for love, and the song puts pehla, first, in front of it, which changes everything: this is the intoxication that will be the standard for every other one. The boy is not ruined. He is calibrated.

The refrain's question is the engine of the whole song: kar loon main kya apna haal, what am I to do with my condition? The question is addressed to dil-e-bekaraar, the restless heart, and the heart is asked to answer. It never does. The song is smart enough to know that the condition is the point, and that answering would end it.

The middle passages are the report from the body. He floats in the winds, he swings in the clouds, he wants to join the sky to the earth. The girl spoke in a certain way and gave him a thousand coloured dreams, and the last image is the truest: he is left as if defeated, haar ke, and she kisses him with love. The defeat and the kiss are the same event.

Udit Narayan's voice and the slow-motion photography of the film sequence made the song part of the standard memory of the Nineties. It is one of Majrooh's last great film songs, and it describes first love from the inside, the register he had made his own across four decades of writing for film: the condition never changes, only the singer.

Recordings

Udit Narayan and Sadhana Sargam

From Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), composed by Jatin-Lalit. The film version from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, with the slow-motion college sequence it was written for.

Text and rights

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

The song is from the film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), music Jatin-Lalit, lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri. The refrain returns between passages in the recording more often than it is printed here.

Majrooh Sultanpuri died in 2000, so this poem 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.