Nahin nigaah mein manzil

I listen to Ghazals on and off-love the 70's and 80's ones and generally complain that there's too much of Jagjit Singh flooding the music stores and airwaves.

Recently came across Abida Parveen's rendition of this gem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Had heard 'Nahin Nigaah mein manzil' for the first time on Wordspace during Diwali (see '06 blogs), forgotten about it and then had the memory surface again when it played in a movie recently.

Listened to it off the net.Again.And again.

Original reproduced below with a translation by Siyaah that I Googled off the net (my Urdu translation would not have done Faiz justice)

Nahin nigaah mein manzil to justujoo hi sahi,
Nahin visaal mayassar to aarzoo hi sahi.

Na tan mein khoon faraaham na ashq aankhon mein,
Namaaz-e-shauq to waajib hai, be-wuzu hi sahi.

Kisi tarah to jame bazm maikade waalon,
Nahin jo baada-o-saaghar, to haa-o-huu hi sahi.

Gar intezaar kathin hai to jab talak ai dil,
Kisi ke waada-e-fardaa ki guftgoo hi sahi.

Dayaar-e-ghair mein mehram agar nahin koi,
To Faiz zikr-e-watan apne ru-ba-ru hi sahi.

Interpretive translation from the Urdu by Siyaah

Though the destination eludes sight- let the search be;
Though union defies attainment- let the longing be.

The body lacks blood, the eyes lack moisture
-Yet the prayer of desire is obligatory, without purity it may be. [2]

Let the gathering come alive somehow- O those of the tavern,
If not goblets of wine, let lightheartedness and laughter be.

If the wait is tough- then in the meantime, O heart,
On someone's promise of tomorrow - let conversation be. [4]

In this abode of strangers, if no confidant exists,
Faiz - let the invocation of homeland with yourself be. [5]

Translator's notes:

[2] Namaz: prayer - original word relates to ancient Persian form of worship. Be-wuzu: to not be in a state of ceremonial/physical preparedness for prayer. Wuzu literally refers to ablution preceding prayer.
[4] waada-e-fardaa: literally, promise of tommorrow. Fardaa also has implications of 'the day of the event', 'judgement day', 'day of resurrection'.
[5] Mehram: has many shades of meaning, including 'confidant', 'trustworthy friend', 'close relatives', 'spouse'. Zikr: has many shades of meaning, including 'mention', 'remember', and 'invoke' (often in a spiritual sense).

Original translation sourced from http://siyaah.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html