54. Gatula Akh Wuchhum: Lall Dedh

گاٹلا اکھ وچھم بوچھ ستی مران

پن زن ہران پوہ نی واو لہہ۔

نیش بود اکھ وُچھم وازس ماران

تنہ لل بو پراران ژھينم نا پراه۔

Gatulah akh wuchhum bochhi seeit maraan,

Pann zann haraan pohni waawe lah.

Nesh-bod akh wuchum waazas maaraan,

Tanne Lall boh praraan chhenem na prah.

Vocabulary:

گاٹل: : Intelligent

ہران: shedding/fall

پوہ: Late autumn

لہہ: Gently/lightly

نیش بود : Unlettered (From Hindi ni-shabd)

پراہ: Possessed

Grierson's translation:

A wise man saw I a-dying of hunger,

As the leaves fall with even a gentle wind in the wintry month of Pausa.

And saw I also a fool beating his cook.

Since then, have I, Lalla, been waiting for the day when love for the world will be cut from me.

She has seen the injustice of this world, and longs for freedom from the desire for existence. A man's wisdom will not save him from starvation, or from liability to death from even the slightest cause; and a fool may be rich and prosperous, whose only sorrow is that his cook now and then does not sufficiently spice his food, and who securely acts as a tyrant to him in consequence.

Jiya Lal Koul's translation:

I have seen a learned man die of hunger,

A sere leaf drop in winter wind;

I have seen an utter fool beat his cook

(Who could not make a toothsome dish),

Since then, I, Lalla, anxiously await,

The day when the lure of the world will fall away.

Nand Lal Koul's translation:

میں نے اک دانا کو دیکھا بھوک سے مرتے ہوۓ

جیسے پتجھڑ میں ہوا سے گرتے ہے برگ شجر۔

ایک نادان شخص کو دیکھا کہ ہو کر ترش رو

پیٹتا تھا اپنے باورچی کو بے خوف و خطر۔

ہو کے بد دل منتظر رہتی ہوں اب اُس دن کی لل

چھوٹ جائیں مجھسے اِس دُنیا کے بندھن سر بسر۔

My translation:

I saw a learned man die of hunger,

Frail like a leaf that falls by gentle wind of late autumn.

Unlettered (unskilled) one I have seen thrashing a chef,

Since then, I, Lalla, am waiting the breaking of being possessed(by the world).

Explanation:

This Vaakh describes the fate as it plays in the world. The intelligent is starving despite being intelligent and an unlettered person (apparently stupid) thrashes a chef (apparently intelligent) for not preparing cuisines that may satisfy his standards (that apparently are worse than the chef, who is expert in his art). Because of these I have come to understand that I am being possessed by this world unnecessarily and I await the day when I am free of its possession.

Grierson as well as Jiya Lal Koul has translated Poh as winter. Poh is late autumn and runs from 16 October to 15 November).

Prah is neither love nor lure but the state of being possessed.