PhD can be hard. And it has been hard for me. Lots of musing and pondering about the prospect of utter failure. But recently things have looked up. Studying disordered systems has really re-ignited, in a sense, my love for physics, and it seems I'm somehow naturally tuned to study such problems (possibly because yeh dil hai hindustani). My recent work has attracted a bit of attention and my advisor has egged me to on to meet and discuss my ideas with many people. In this hour of possibly very ephemeral triumph, I was reminded of Faiz's mukhtasir nazm (short poem) "Aae kuchch abr aaye, kuchch sharaab aaye" (Let the clouds come, and let the wine flow). And how perfect it is, for I've remembered Faiz at different moments many many times throughout my PhD.
(Painting of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, by an unknown artist)
So here's a rough translation (sort of literal) by me --
Aae kuchch abr kuchch sharaab aaye,
Uske baad aaye jo azaab aaye!
Let the wine flow and the clouds pass me by,
Then whatever pain should come I will comply.
Baam-e-miina se mehtaab utre,
dast-e-saaqi mein aftaab aaye,
Let the sunshine inundate my glass of wine,
And moonshine spill from the hands of my lover.
har rag-e-khuun mein chiraaghaan ho,
saamne phir vo be-naqaab aaye,
And let her then come before me unveiled,
and every vein of my blood be rekindled...
Umr ke har varq pe dil kii nazar,
teri mehr-o-vafaa ke baab aaye.
At every turn in life, let my heart be witness
to the stories of your kindness, your faith...
Kar rahaa thaa gham-e-jahaan kaa hisaab,
Aaj tum yaad be-hisaab aaye.
But as I sat down to count moments of misery,
I only remembered you, infinitely many times.
Na gayi tere gham ki sardaari,
dil mein yun roz inqalab aaye.
Your sorrows still come to haunt me,
And set my heart in flames of revolt.
jal uthe bazm-e-ghair ke dar-o-baam
jab bhi hum khaanumaan-kharaab aaye.
Fires lit up at doors of enemies,
every time I came home dissipated, inebriated.
Is tarah se apni khaamoshi goonji,
goyaa har simt se javaab aaye.
So deafeningly loud were the cries of my silence,
that echoes reverberated, from every direction, with the answer
'Faiz' thi raah, sar-basar manzil
hum jahaan pahunche, kamyaab aaye.
'Faiz' was every road of mine, and it's entirety, my destination,
that wherever we went, we arrived triumphant.
..............
