A Tajik love song
Noziya Karomatullo (born 1988) is a Tajikistani singer who sings in Persian, Tajik, and has done Hindi songs too. Tragically, Noziya’s father, Karomatullo Qurbonov, famous in his twenties as a singer and composer, was murdered at the age of 30 when Noziya was just four years old.
Noziya’s love song, called Har shab dar lab, has great balance between hope, expectation, and fear of loss. For readers from the Indosphere the most remarkable thing is the vocabulary that will be familiar to nearly all. This is due to the influence of Persian but there is also a deeper and direct connection with Sanskrit.
The Tajiks speak a variety of Persian, and they are concentrated in the Amu Darya River basin, the Fergana valley, the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan, and northeastern Afghanistan (Badakhshan). They are also the majority population of the ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The Amu Darya River, called the Oxus in Latin, and the Vakṣu (वक्षु) in Sanskrit texts, is formed by the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers. South of the Amu Darya lies the region of Bactria, which is known in ancient Sanskrit texts as बाह्लीक or Bāhlīka, and it finds mention in the Atharvaveda, Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa, and the Purāṇas.
My interest in the Tajiks goes back to my study of Saka and other Central Asian languages, some of which I have described in my book The Idea of India.
Here is Noziya’s song:
Har shab dar lab kalomi oshiqona
dar dil matlab baroi on yagona
amo otashi ishq ba on dil shuda xamush
maro karda faromush
Every night, romantic words on the lips
door of the heart has as object that “only one”
but the fires of love, have gone out on that happiness
(he) has forgotten me
Lahzai bo man dami bo digari
marhami gohi gahi dardi sari
otash uv obi vu tufoni nigohat
rahzani rohi biyo jodugari
a moment you’re with me, later with someone else
sometimes a soothing remedy, sometimes troubles
sometimes fire, sometimes water, a tornado at moments
a robber of the heart, and a magician
Man gurezoni tu vu juyoi tu
man sari vaqi sar u ruyoyi tu
man buridam az tamomi hastiyam
to ki bosham zarrai dunyoi tu
I’m running from you, also seeking you
I’m a presence to you, and others are your dream
I am fed up with all my existence
until when will I be just a tiny particle of your world?
Notes:
Stanza 1: सर्व, sarva => har; क्षप, ksapa, night=> shab; dhar=> dar; लप्, lap=> lab; kalam (Arabic for speech); oshiqona (from ishk for love); dil (हृद्); matlab (Arabic for subject or object); baroi, vāra, for; ama, Tajik “but”; otisha (atisha, fire); dil shuda, from dil+shad, शात; karda, karta, done: प्रमुष, pramush, taken away or forgotten => faromush, फ़रामोशفراموش, forgetful. Is xamush like svar+मुष, sound stolen, silence => ख़मोशخموش, slient?
Stanza 2. lahzai, moment, लवशस्; man, me; dam, moment (as in ek-dam); digar, other; marham, मरहमمرہم, ointment; dard-sari, दर्द-सरी•دَرْد سَری, troubles; otish, āśira, fire; ab, अप्, water; तूफ़ाँ•طوفاں, storm (Arabic); nigohat, netra, glance; rahzan. रहज़नرہزن. robber, highwayman; rohi, ruhi, hearts; jadugar, जादू-गरجادو گرmagician.
Stanza 3. man, me; گريزان gurezān, taking flight; juyoi, seeking; vaqi, واقعی, real; roya, dream; buridam, fed up; taamom, all; hastiyam, अस्तिता, existence; zarra, dust particle; dunya, world.
As we see from the list above, nearly eighty percent of the words have Sanskrit cognates and the percentage goes up if the Persian loanwords in Hindi are also considerd. Therefore, with some effort, most people from the Indosphere can understand the song.
