Heritage: "Give me a sign.."

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

How shall I please you, how shall I redeem myself?
                  Give me a sign!

Shall I be a Muslim, pure and devout in prayer
   If that is what meets your approval
Prostrating and putting my forehead to the ground?

How shall I please you, how shall I redeem myself?
                  Give me a sign!

Shall I be a Hindu, worshipping in a temple
   Kashi, Dwarka or bathing in the Ganges
Wearing the sacred chord, putting 'red dots' on my forehead?

How shall I please you, how shall I redeem myself?
                  Give me a sign!

Shall I be a dancer, presenting my acts
   With drums, cymbals, flutes and harmonies
Expressing my love with my movements

How shall I please you, how shall I redeem myself?
                  Give me a sign!

Come Love, let us be together
    With 'Sulemaanu' make peace
Though I am not deserving, I believe I am yours!

How shall I please you, how shall I redeem myself?
                  Give me a sign!

   --- Suleyman (modern Sindhi poet)
  'kien riijhayaan, tokhe kiien parchayaan
         ddassu ko ddaaun'

(the translation of the poem is my attempt.)

This morning I was listening to this famous song on a newly released
cassette of 'Mohan Bhaggat aen Saathi' which I obtained from the World
Sindhi Institute at the Samellan.  The bhagat and his group are fakirs
of Shah Latif's shrine.  [I learned from Qurban Fakir of Shah's
shrine, who visited the U.S. with some fakirs last year, that the
Bhagat passed away a few years ago but his sons are still there and
carrying on the family tradition].

One of the bhagat's cassettes can be heard on:

http://yangtze.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali/sindh/music/

The music is sung forcefully in a distinctive style of group harmony
which is a common form of Sindhi folk music.

Anyway, I was inspired to translate the above poem on this cassette.
It is a popular poem by 'Suleman', a relatively Sindhi contemporary
poet about whom I do not know much.  I have heard various recordings
of it, including one by Professor Ram Punjwani issued by Tips
Cassettes in Mumbai.  At the last Samellan, Fakir Mazhar Hussain, a
student of the late Ustaad (Master) Manzuur Ali, had the audience
literally 'rocking' to a rendition of it.

haku mojuudu [the truth abides],

Gul Agha