Everything the Stranger Saw

FolkPunjab shared a wonderful song based on Shiv Kumar Batalvi's Punjabi poem "Panchi Ho Javan" or "Wish I could be a bird."



Here's a translation of the original poem:

I wish that I could be a bird
That I could fly, and sing,
That I could touch untouchable peaks,
Forget the roads of this world,
And never return.

I would take luxurious baths;
Drink water in long sips.
By the shore of a great lake,
I would sing a broken song.

I would go sit in a flowering wilderness
To gulp the perfumed breeze.
Warm the peaks of mountains,
Numbed by centuries of freezing cold,
With a tight embrace.

I wish I could be a bird.

My nest would be among the mulberry trees,
On in the caper, the mesquite or the cypress.
In the cold eastern wind,
The jeweled branches would bend
As if playing, swaying,
With their hair flying in the wind.

One day, there would be such a storm
That all the twigs would scatter.
Nestless, I shall become.
Spend my life intoxicated with the nectar of sorrow.

I wish I could be a bird.

(Translation credit: http://www.apnaorg.com/suman/batalvi_poems.html)