Sunday, June 28, 2015

Aa~su Bahaanewaale—आँसू बहानेवाले—آنسو بهانےوالے —Those Who Shed Tears

 
This is in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), in the Devanagari and Urdu (modified Perso-Arabic) scripts.  In writing both of these versions, I was greatly aided by the script and translation facilities at http://google.com/translate.

A translation into English is at the end (just before the note on my Romanization).

I would welcome suggestions and corrections, especially in verb endings and in the possessives ka/ki/ke, but also in whatever else is noticed.  My Hindi is very weak, to put it mildly, and my Urdu is no better.  My apologies for venturing where I perhaps should not.

As for Romanization, I have included, first,  the machine output, also kindly provided by http://google.com/translate. The Roman transcription is between the Devanagari and Urdu pieces.

 The only (almost unavoidable) fault I found with Google's machine transcription was that it included the short "a" (without the bar on top that lengthens vowels) where it is no longer pronounced (or, in the case of  some loan words from Arabic and Farsi, never was).  This is the schwa vowel (as in standard British English "but" and "fur") that is so frequent in the languages of northern Europe, and in those of the subcontinent*.

I have edited the machine transcription to delete the unneeded short "a" letters. I have also changed "v" to "w" in some words.

Following this standard academic Romanization provided by Google (and lightly edited by me as explained above),  I have also included also my own Romanization, which follows a scheme similar to that which I have been using for Bengali.  (See the note added at the end of the post.)

* The schwa vowel is absent in standard Italian and Spanish, and also in the Indic languages of eastern India. In the latter, it has been replaced by one or the other of the two distinct rounded vowels (disregarding length and dipthongization) that are represented, in standard British English, by the Roman letter o.  
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आँसू बहानेवाले
 
अमरीका मे एक शहर की
सड़क पर चलते हुए,
मैं एक आदमी से मिला था,
जिनके साथ मेरी पहले
कुछ पह्चान थी।
 
मैंने उनसे पुछा,
"बहुत दिन के बाद मुलाक़ात हुई।
आप कहीं गये थे, क्या?"

उन्होने जवाब दिया,
"हाँ, मैं कुछ महीने के लिए
वहाँ लौटा था,
जहाँ अभी तक
हमारे लिए
आँसू बहानेवाले हैं।"
 
रविवार, २८ जून, 
ब्रुक्लिन, निउ यॉर्क
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Ām̐sū Bahānēwālē

Amrīkā mē ēk śahar kī
saṛak par caltē hu'ē,
maiṁ ēk ādmī sē milā thā,
jinkē sāth mērī pahalē
kuch pahcān thī.

Mainnē unsē puchā,
"Bahut din kē bād mulāqāt hu'ī.
Āp kahīṁ gayē thē, kyā?"

Unhōnē jawāb diyā,
"Hām̐, maiṁ kuch mahīnē kē li'ē
wahām̐ lauṭā thā,
jahām̐ abhī tak
hamārē li'ē
ām̐sū bahānēwālē haiṁ."

Ravivār, 28 Jūn, 
Bruklin, Ni'u Yŏrk 
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Aa~su Bahaanewale

Amriika me ek s'ahar ki
sar'ak par calte hu-e,
me`~ ek aadmi se mila tha,
jinke saath meri pehle
kuch pehcaan thi.

Me`~ne unse pucha,
"Bahut din ke baad mulaaqaat hui.
Aap kahii~ gaye the, kya?"

 Unhone jawaab diya,
"Haa~, me`~ kuch mahiine ke lie
waha~ lo`t'a tha,
jaha~ abhi tak
hamare lie
aa~su bahaane waale he`~.

Ravivaar/Itvaar, 28 Jun

Bruklin, Niu Yo`rk
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آنسو بهانےوالے

امریکہ میں ایک شہر کی
،سڑک پر چلتے ہوئے
،میں ایک آدمی سے ملا تھا
جن کے ساتھ میری پہلے
.کچھ پهچان تھی

،میں نے ان سے پوچھا
.بہت دن کے بعد ملاقات ہوئی"
"آپ کہیں گئے تھے، کیا؟ 

انہوں نے جواب دیا

جی ہاں، میں کچھ ماہ کے لئے"
،وہاں لوٹا تھا
جہاں ابھی تک
ہمارے لئے
".آنسو بهانےوالے ہیں
  
اتوار، ۲۸ جون
بركلن، نیویارک

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Those Who Shed Their Tears
   
While walking on the streets
of a city in the U.S.A.,
I met a person whom I’d known 
for quite a while.
   
I said, “I haven’t seen you for so long!
Were you out of town?”
  
“Yes.” he said, “For a few months,
I had returned to where
there still are those,
who shed their tears for us.”
  
Sunday, June 28th,
Brooklyn, New York
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Note on my Romanization for Hindi-Urdu

The letters for the consonants represent the sounds they most commonly do in English, except that c stands for the (unaspirated) ch cluster in English, and that t and d are dentals, pronounced while touching the tip of the tongue to the back of the front teeth, as in most of the Latin languages, while t,' and d' are circumflex, pronounced by curling the tongue up and and back and so that the back of the tongue-tip touches the roof of the mouth, in the region of the hard palate. Note the use of the apostrophe (') to indicate the circumflex form of a consonant.

A similar distinction holds for n and n', r and r', and s and s', except that the tongue's contact area for the first sound in each pair is more the (upper) gum ridge than the back of the front teeth.

The letter h is used to add aspiration (a puff of air) to a consonant, as in the second member of the pairs k, kh,   g, gh,   c, ch,   j, jh,   t, th,   d, dh,   t', t'h,   d', d'h  and   r', r'h.  

The vowels a, e, i, o, u are pronounced as in Italian and Spanish, except that a stands for the schwa vowel that is absent in those languages, while the long form, aa,  is pronounced as a long a would be in those tongues. The long forms of i and u are indicated by doubling: ii and uu.

The e and o have only one (phonemic) version, which, for those coming from languages that make a distinction, is usually closer to long than it is to short.

If a word ends in a long vowel, however, the length of the vowel is often shortened, especially in frequently occurring monosyllabic words, such as ka/ki/ke, which are used to indicate relations between words, and in common verb-endings.  So I have used the short forms a and i  instead of the long forms aa and ii in such cases. The terminal a, however, is not a shwa, but rather a clear short a.

Each vowel in a dipthong should be pronounced clearly. The dipthongs ai and au, however, seem to have been changing into ae and ao, and thence into the single open vowels e` and  o` (as in English tram and ball). So I have used e` ad o` for these.

The tilde (~) after a vowel indicates nasalization of the vowel.  In Hindu-Urdu, this nasalization is usually stronger than in standard Bengali.
   

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