تیرا میرا رشتہ Tera Mera Rishta — The Bond Between Us

Sayeed Quadri

Geet

A man is asking himself a question he has avoided for years: why did I trust you, why did I part from you? The question arrives on a day when the answer is unavoidable, and the answer is the song's refrain: tera mera rishta purana, the bond between us is an old one. The bond has been there all along, and the song is the discovery of its age.

Sayeed Quadri wrote it for Awarapan in 2007, and Mustafa Zahid sang it over Pritam's music. Four passages ahead. The middle ones are the man's inventory of the damage, and the last one finds the bond at the bottom of it.

01 — tera yaqeen kyun maine kiya

تیرا یقین کیوں میں نے کیا
نہیں تجھ سے راہ کیوں جدا
مجھ پے یہ زندگی کرتی
رہی ستم، تو نے ہی دی ہیں پناہ
تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا
تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا

तेरा यक़ीन क्यों मैंने किया
नहीं तुझसे राह क्यों जुदा
मुझ पे ये ज़िन्दगी करती
रही सितम, तूने ही दी हैं पनाह
तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना
तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना

tera yaqeen kyun maine kiya
nahin tujh se raah kyun juda
mujh pe ye zindagi karti
rahi sitam, tune hi di hain panaah
tera mera rishta puraana
tera mera rishta puraana

Why did I believe you? Why did the road part from you? This life kept tormenting me, and it was you who gave me shelter. The bond between us is an old one. The bond between us is an old one.

The passage opens with the two questions the whole song is the answer to, yaqeen and judaai, the trust and the parting. The middle couplet is the song's balance sheet: the life's sitam, torment, on one side, and her panaah, shelter, on the other. The refrain is the verdict, tera mera rishta puraana, and the doubled repetition makes the age of the bond the song's first fact and its last.

یقین yaqeen: certainty; taking a thing as true
ستم sitam: cruelty, a wrong done
پناہ panaah: shelter, refuge

02 — hain kya tarap, hai ye kaisi saza

ہیں کیا تڑپ، ہے یہ کیسی سزا
تو کیوں مجھے آج یاد آ گیا
بے چین دن میرے بے چین راتیں ہیں
کیا میں کرو کچھ بتا
یہ میرے پاؤں ہی خُود میری بیڑیاں
اس سے تو مجھے چھڑا

हैं क्या तड़प, है ये कैसी सज़ा
तू क्यों मुझे आज याद आ गया
बेचैन दिन मेरे बेचैन रातें हैं
क्या मैं करूँ कुछ बता
ये मेरे पाँव ही ख़ुद मेरी बेड़ियाँ
उससे तो मुझे छुड़ा

hain kya tarap, hai ye kaisi saza
tu kyun mujhe aaj yaad aa gaya
bechain din mere bechain raatein hain
kya main karoon kuchh bata
ye mere paanv hi khud meri bediyaan
us se toh mujhe chhuda

What is this longing, what kind of punishment is this? Why have you come to my memory today? My days are restless, my nights are restless. Tell me something, what do I do? These feet of mine are themselves my shackles: free me from them.

The passage is the damage report, and the report is precise. The longing is a saza, a punishment, and its timing is the mystery, tu kyun aaj yaad aa gaya, why have you come to memory today. The passage's finding is its best line: the shackles are the man's own feet, meri bediyaan, and the plea that follows, us se chhuda, free me from them, is the only request the song makes, and it is a request the man cannot grant himself.

تڑپ tarap: a writhing; a pang of longing
سزا saza: a punishment
بیڑیاں bediyaan: shackles, irons on the feet

03 — kya mujh mein hai

کیا مجھ میں ہے
شخص وہ کہ رہا
آ آب میں دوں کچھ تیرا چکا
آنکھیں ہیں نم میری
سانسیں چبھن میری
زخم ہوا پیر ہارا
دل کے ویرانے میں
میرے پھنسنے میں
تو ہی تو ہر دم رہا

क्या मुझ में है
शख़्स वो कह रहा
आ आब में दूँ कर्ज़ तेरा चुका
आँखें हैं नम मेरी
साँसें चुभन मेरी
ज़ख़्म हुआ पीर हारा
दिल के वीराने में
मेरे फँसने में
तू ही तो हर दम रहा

kya mujh mein hai
shakhs voh keh raha
aa aab mein doon kuch tera chuka
aankhen hain nam meri
saansen chubhan meri
zakhum hua peer haara
dil ke veeraane mein
mere phansne mein
tu hi toh har dum raha

Is that person still in me, he keeps asking? Come, let me repay some of your debt. My eyes are wet, my breaths are a pricking, the wound healed, the pain lost. In the desolation of the heart, in my being trapped, it was only you who stayed, every moment.

The passage is the turnaround, and the turnaround is a question. Kya mujh mein hai voh shakhs, is that person still in me, is asked as the discovery it is, and the offer to repay the debt, qarz tera chuka, is the love's accounting. The last lines are the passage's finding: in the heart's veeraana, desolation, and in the phansna, the being trapped, it was she who stayed, tu hi toh har dum raha. The refrain follows, and the oldness of the bond is now the song's whole answer.

شخص shakhs: a person
چبھن chubhan: a pricking, a small persistent sting
زخم zakhum: a wound
ویرانہ veeraane: a desolate place, a wilderness

04 — tera mera rishta puraana

تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا
تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا
اوہ تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا
اوہ تیرا میرا رشتہ پرانا

तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना
तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना
ओह तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना
ओह तेरा मेरा रिश्ता पुराना

tera mera rishta puraana
tera mera rishta puraana
oh tera mera rishta puraana
oh tera mera rishta puraana

The bond between us is an old one. The bond between us is an old one. Oh, the bond between us is an old one. Oh, the bond between us is an old one.

The closing passage is the refrain alone, sung four times, and the repetition is the song's conclusion. The bond's age has been established, the damage has been inventoried, and the only remaining statement is the refrain itself, said until it becomes the song's whole content. The song ends on the age of the bond, and the age is the comfort: what has lasted this long will last.

Reading it whole

The song is a love song sung after the love has been called off, and its subject is the thing that survives the calling off. Tera mera rishta purana, the bond between us is an old one: the refrain is the discovery, and the passages around it are the evidence. The man has trusted, parted, suffered, and the bond has kept running underneath all of it, which is the refrain's whole claim.

The first passage is the question in its two forms. Why did I believe you, and why did the road part from you? The answer the song reaches is not an answer but a title: the bond is old, purana, and the age is the explanation. The word purana, old, is the passage's key, and the refrain repeats it until the age becomes the comfort.

The middle passages are the damage report, and the report is thorough. The life has been tormenting him, and she was the shelter, panah, the only one. The days are restless, the nights restless, and the feet themselves are his shackles, ye mere paanv hi khud meri bediyaan. The line is the passage's finding: the imprisonment is not hers, it is his own feet, and the bond is the jailer.

The last passage is the turnaround. Whatever is in me, the man asks, is that person still there? The debt is owed, the eyes are wet, the wounds have healed into scars, and in the desolation of the heart the one thing that kept coming back was her: tu hi toh har dum raha, it was only you who stayed, every moment. The refrain returns over the discovery and closes the song, and the oldness of the bond is the song's entire comfort. The recording became the decade's standard for the love that will not end, and the refrain has been quoted at weddings and funerals alike.

Recordings

Mustafa Zahid

From Awarapan (2007), composed by Pritam.

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 Awarapan (2007), composed by Pritam, lyrics Sayeed Quadri. The refrain returns between passages in the recording more often than it is printed here.

The song is recent work and remains 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.