Remembering a traveller : remembering Bhupen Da

I wrote about Bhupen Hazarika a couple of months ago.  On his birth anniversary today  I want to share another masterpiece , Moi Eti Jajabor ('I'm a Traveller').

It's a lovely little song , all lilting melody and gentle rhythm , but most of all it's in here for the message. Now, I'm not a great one for 'message' usually myself, bleh,  but this one always gets me somehow , perhaps because  a lot of us can relate to it.   

It's a call to recognize with an open mind our broader identity  as human citizens of this planet first to be able to solve the real problems that our narrower, more confined worlds are faced with. 

A very relevant one I think for the current politics of our times when bigotry and intolerance is sought to be fought by bigotry and intolerance. 

There are no princesses to kiss us little frogs. The well has to be climbed out of - and seeing that well is as good a first step as any ! 

Here's an attempt at translation . Sadly, my Axomiya is nowhere near as good as it should be so this is with more than a little help from my friends - my parents,namely !

(Truth be told, my grouse with most of these songs is the language. It tends to be unnaturally highbrow. We don't talk  this language do we. Where's the everyday-language poetry ? But yeah that's a separate conversation...)    

Happy birthday Maestro ,  thanks for the inspiration ! 

I am a traveller     

CHORUS  : 

I'm a traveller, I'm a vagabond.

Flitting, floating, shifting , drifting

And never seeking a home. 

I'm a traveller, I'm a vagabond

VERSE 1 :
From the Luit* through the Mississippi 

I saw the beauty of Volga's face.

From Ottowa through Austria

I held Paris in embrace.

I carried the ancient glory of Ellora 

To the vast newness of  Chicago 

In Dushanber I heard Ghalib's verses

Ring in a minaret's echo

(* = the Brahmaputra river)

I spoke of Maxim Gorky 

Sitting by the tomb of Mark Twain.
And each time I found that strangers

Didn't for long strangers remain ! 

(CHORUS) 

BRIDGE : 

Many wanderers are aimless drifters

But I keep a goal in my sight

Wherever I see life's joyous colours 

I want to share the light.

VERSE 2:
I've seen the tall reach of 'scrapers kiss

The sky in their golden glow 

I've seen the homeless cower nearby

Blinded in the shadow. 

I've seen the fronts of a  few pretty homes

Filled with luxuriant green gardens 

And  I've also seen dead flowers fall 

Untended, withered and hardened.

And seeing all this all too often,  

I worry about it  as I roam :

Your own people are fast becoming

Strangers to you at home !

(CHORUS)