Friday, September 19, 2014

Jami: Naseema, Janib e Bat'ha Guzar Kun

Jami, the greatest of Persian/Tajik Sufi poets, was born in Jam (Ghor, Afghanistan) c. 1414. He describes how he came to take his pen-name:

My birthplace is Jam, my pen
Has drunk from Shaykh-ul-Islam Jam
Hence in the books of poetry
My name is Jami for reasons two.

Interestingly, Jami remained a staunch Sunni in his Sufism and the center of his passion became not the personage of Beloved but rather the spirituality of prophet Muhammad.

Manzoor  Niazi Qawwal performs Jami:



Naseema, Janib e Bat'ha Guzar Kun
Zey Ahwalam Muhammad Ra Khabar Kun

O Breeze! whenever you go to Bat'ha (i.e. Medina)
Give news of me to Muhammad there

Tu'ee Sultan e Alam Ya Muhammad
Ze Ru e Lutf Su e Mann Nazar Kun

You are the King of all world O Muhammad
Look at me with your sweet beautiful gaze

Bey Bareen Jan e Mushtaqan Dar'a Ja
Fida e Roza e Khair-ul-Bashar Kun

Approach me. I, your follower, helpless perish
At your mausoleum, O Best of Men

Musharraf Garchey Shud Jami Zey Lutfash
Khudara Ee Karam Bar-e-Jigar Kun.

Jami has been blessed by You
But for God's sake bless him again.

Another version by Molvi Haider Hassan Akhtar Qawwal,  with more of a contemprary naat-texture is below (notwithstanding exuberant mashing-in of Khusrau past minute 8):



Having worked and taught in Samarkand, Jami passed his last days in Herat. His epitaph reads:

When your face is turned from me
like the moon hidden on a dark night,
I shed stars of tears; yet my night stays dark
even with all those shining stars.


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