Ghani Baba's "Mula Jaan Wayi Azal Ke" - English Translation

One of my most favoritest songs of all time is called "Mula Jaan Wayi Azal Ke" (The Mullah [preacher] tells me that from the very beginning ...), written by the ever-incredible Ghani Baba and sung by the ever-amazing Sardar Ali Takkar (P.S. Did I ever tell you about that email that I received from Takkar in response to my poem "Weeping at Ghani's Grave"? :D Yeah!!! A couple of years ago. It was such a wonderful feeling!)

Anyway, so I'm pasting this translation from another blog I came across while looking for this song on the net and discovering to my shock and disappointment that it hasn't been uploaded to Youtube... at least not as far as my search went. So I decided to upload it myself. The translation of the lyrics was originally posted on this blog called Ghani Khan Poetry (I have made a few slight changes to the lyrics, k?). Enjoy the song and the translated lyrics! (Maybe one day when I feel like it, I will transcribe the Pashto lyrics.) ... and you wonder why I so deeply love Ghani Baba's miracles!!

I'll post the song (Pashto) first and the English translation below it.



Translation

Mullah jan says that you (God) have written everything in the beginning
One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

Your fate in every moment, every hair of yours is responsible
To one there's a flower, to the other, a beloved
To one there's fire, to the other, a burning coal

One will be without means - hungry, thirsty and worried
One spoiled (chosen) will be sleeping on silk, the other in a desert.

One will be bitter like a dog's bark, the other biting like a snake
One will be pretty like a fairy, the other will be scary like Toraban (name of a Pashto Folk Deo/Giant)

Mullah jan says o God, you are responsible for every bloodshed
All this cruelty you have written, it's the curse of your fingers
These cruel calamities and all these useless blessings
Sword on the throat of Hussain, and Yazid is the ruler of the country

Mullah Jan says that you have a book in the sky,
In which you have written everything for every human being

*Mullah jan says (to God), that you have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

The way this system is, oh my just God, why are you asking me, I don't have any control or power
Where do I have that much energy? To erase what you have written in my future?

You are the Lord of gold and power, and I am your helpless, poor slave
No matter if I cry or laugh, none of your words will change
These idols are of your fingers, this disbelief and your revelations

How will be these transactions? And what will be the questions answers for?
Every glass I have drank, it is the kindness of your fingers
Mullah Jan says even the Saaqi (bartender) is made out of fate's fingers
Mullah Jan says that this beauty, you have made it all.

*Mullah jan says that you (God) have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

*Mullah jan says, that you (God) have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

Saaqi's (the bartender's) eyes have taken my from the grave
Very white, very high, in the sky like a Full Moon
Someone have wounded me in the trap of intoxication and light
Somewhere someone mixed laugh in the glass (of wine)
And she was visible as a lit candle
I went crazy like a moth on the flame of candle
In which law, are you giving me the punishment
You wrote it in the sky, I have done that on the earth
If I have the power, my beloved (God), what sin and whose sin
I can see Mullah Jan, he has gone astray
If its law or its a custom, or sense or philosophy
All this sin is yours, O' fate.
If its in my power, I am sinful, if its in my power, I won't sin
It's a matter of how much you can take in your hands - that makes you good at everythin

*Mullah jan says, that you (God) have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

Say, say, O'Mullah jan, if I get power, I lose luck.
With luck, I lose all relaxations and comfort
The luck written on my forehead erases away, then man is the owner of himself
If he goes in the garden of comfort or to the path of troubles
Then perhaps only then can be done, the transactions of rewards and gratitude
Then man can go to good and bad within his capacity and will
But when the story is of luck, then Mullah jan I am free

I'll go on that path, on which the luck takes me
It (fate) is a driver of the car, wherever it takes me
Whether its a masjid (mosque) or a bar, whether it's an orchid or a desert
And if the car falls in the pit, it's not the fault of the car
And whatever the punishment, it's the fault of the driver

*Mullah jan says (to God), that you have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers

Whether it's sin or reward, I am powerless in both
Mullah jan, it's book, that speaks two languages
I powerlessly commit sin, other powerlessly earns the reward
Which of these two the luck will take to the burning hell?

My unfaithfulness is gone, but the other still have some room
In this world all his life, he lived happily
From one helpless fire, it takes me to another helpless fire
What this book says about it, explain me this Mullah Jan
Or come start digging, or sit quietly off the sky
Whether it's not a scale, or it's a twisted minaret of Masjid
Or this latram patram has been invented by you
Or you are putting in someones hands, whether it's right or wrong
Fire & pain & snakes will be wrapped around me

*Mullah jan says (to God), that you have written everything in the beginning
*One has brightness in his eyes, and the other has a city without flowers