Wednesday, July 27, 2011

An Urdu song in memory of those killed in Norway on July 22, 2011

Patta patta,  boota boota: Drama Mirza Ghalib


Editor’s comment: On the sad occasion of the mass  killings  in Norway and the bombing of the  official buildings by a Norwegian fascist, who stands against social  democracy,  democratic values and is a committed crusader against Muslims and the Muslim world while being a devotee of Zionist world-view and Israeli policies, I reproduce the following  you tube video.

The setting of the scene is in the mid-nineteenth century  Delhi. It was just before the British took possession of the whole of India. The major revolt against the  farangi rule (common name for the British foreigners then) took place in 1857. The British prevailed and the atrocities they committed defy description. 

The minstrel here is singing a poem by the great Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810). The greatest Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869, in white robes in the drama) acknowledges the poetic genius of Mir.

It is a  sad lyric. Only those who know Urdu or Hindi will know the deep pain it conveys in a poetic form.

My own personal agony and the pain I have felt on the massacres in Norway are best represented in this poem.


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