Mera Kuchh Saamaan

It is very difficult to translate Gulzar. He is prose personified. It only gets worse when an amateur like me attempts to do it. Yet inspite of the limitations of my knowledge of Gulzar and English I cannot resist the temptation to put my interpretation to his work.

This song is an expression of the female protagonist who is a very dear friend of the hero. In her thoughts she is gently prodding him to remember the times that they had shared. Every sentence is like she asking him,” Do you remember?” She knows her limitations of the relationship she shared with the hero and also understands that the compulsion, of his having to get into another relationship approved by society. She tries very hard to accept her position and control her fondness towards him. She expresses this as a metaphor when she refers to the “things”. The “things” are actually the moments that they have shared and the remembrances of those moments.

मेरा कुछ सामान, तुम्हारे पास पड़ा है

सावन के कुछ भीगे-भीगे दिन रखे हैं

और मेरे एक ख़त में लिपटी रात पड़ी है

वो रात बुझा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

There are some of my things are still lying with you -

Some very wet drenched monsoon days,

You will also find a night still clinging to one of my letters

(That night is still burning with desire) …. Extinguish it, and send all my things back to me

It is like her life has reached its Autumn. One by one the memories that she has been clinging to are falling off. Memoirs are personified as frail branches of a weakened tree. Those memories now seem to have drained out of life so much, that she now wears their frail sounds as jewelry and wishes that the last one too drops off and save her some agony of carrying the burden.

पतझड़ है कुछ, है ना?

पतझड़ में कुछ पत्तों के गिरने की आहट

कानों में एक बार पहन के लौटाई थी

पतझड़ की वो शाख अभी तक काँप रही है

वो शाख गिरा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

It is some sort of Autumn isn’t it? ....

I had adorned the sound of dried leaves in my ears and returned it to you

That memoir is still trembling like a branch with some life in autumn

Make that branch fall, and send my things back to me

These are best lines - In their relationship they had shared a lot of good and bad moments. She took the worse ones with her leaving behind only the good ones full of life for him. Her heart once so full of life, now saddened was still dawdling around him.

एक अकेली छतरी में जब आधे-आधे भीग रहे थे

आधे सूखे, आधे गीले, सूखा तो मैं ले आई थी

गीला मन शायद बिस्तर के पास पड़ा हो

वो भिजवा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

Sharing an umbrella we were both getting drenched,

Half the things were drenched. I only took the dried ones with me

But I probably left behind my rain-soaked heart beside the bed

Return it to me, along with the other things I've left behind

This says it best – They spent such a long period together. The intimacy is expressed so delicately when she says that the mole on his shoulder is a lot superior to a hundred moonlit nights.

एक सौ सोलह चाँद की रातें, एक तुम्हारे काँधे का तिल

गीली मेहँदी की खुशबू, झूठ-मूठ के शिकवे कुछ

झूठ-मूठ के वादे भी सब याद करा दूं

सब भिजवा दो, मेरा वो सामान लौटा दो

One hundred and sixteen night moonlit nights don’t compare to the that one mole on your shoulder

The fragrance of fresh henna, and those mocking complaints

Remember those false promises too

Return everything that's mine, but still lying with you

एक इजाज़त दे दो बस, जब इनको दफ़नाऊगी

मैं भी वहीँ सो जाऊंगी,

मैं भी वहीँ सो जाऊंगी

Just grant me this one wish,

That when I bury these things

And end all this,

Let me too rest there

Let me too rest there