नूर (Noor)

When I visited the US last December I was cut off for a long time from all the latest music and cinema releases back in India, until a friend introduced me to the soundtrack of Delhi-6, the latest offering at the time from A R Rahman, already riding high on the wave of Slumdog Millionaire's success. I remember reacting to the music with mixed feelings back then, being thoroughly impressed by a few of them and not much moved by a couple others. In retrospect, my hunch proved right and after all this time I've grown to really love the tunes I'd begun to appreciate even then on the first few listens, counting at least two of them (Rehna Tu and Arziyaan) as being right up there among the classics in Rahman's repertoire.

I happened to be listening to the album again recently and, apart from the now-famous songs already overplayed on radio, was reminded of this resonantly baritonal rendition by Amitabh Bachchan of this poem that upon later viewing turned out to be the movie's recurring leitmotif. It is simply titled Noor, which is a beautiful Urdu word meaning light and may perhaps even be rendered more poetically as glow. It goes,

ज़र्रे-ज़र्रे में उसीका नूर है
झाँक खुद में, वो ना तुझसे दूर है.
इश्क़ है उससे तो सबसे इश्क़ कर
इस इबादत का यही दस्तूर है.
इसमें, उसमें, और उसमें है वो ही
यार मेरा हर तरफ़ भरपूर है.

In loose translation (based on my poor knowledge of the exact Urdu), Prasoon Joshi the poet is ruminating,

Every atom reflectest His Glow Divine,
Peer within--He isn't apart from thee!
If lovest thou Him, then all love,
For this is the law of divine love.
Hither, thither and yonder is He,
My Friend, my Lover--there's none but He!