ਥੈਲਾ ਬੋਰੀ / Bag
ਕਿੰਨਾ ਚੰਗਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ
ਥੈਲਾ ਬੋਰੀ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਬੰਦਾ
ਆਪਣੀ ਮਾਂ
ਪਤਨੀ ਭੈਣ ਨੂੰ ਆਖਦਾ
ਪੁੱਠਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਝਾੜਦੇ ਮੈਨੂੰ
ਕਿੰਨਾ ਕੁਝ ਖੱਲ੍ਹਾਂ ਖੂੰਝਿਆਂ ‘ਚ ਫਸਿਆ
ਤੰਗ ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ ਮੈਨੂੰ
ਮੈਂ ਥੈਲਾ ਬੋਰੀ ਨਹੀਂ।।
English Translation
it would have been great
had man been a bag
he would have asked
his mother or wife or sister
to turn me inside out
give me a shudder
there is so much
stuck inside layers and corners
that bothers me
but i am not a bag !
Another English Translation by Gurmel
Better it would have been,
Had the man been a gunny-sack,
He would have asked
His mother, wife OR sister,
To turn HIM inside out
So much in nooks and corners
Had been disturbing HIM.
Had he been a gunny sack!
Source: The original Gurmukhi text is here.Translation is done by me. The poem is written by poet Gurpreet .
Check his other poems in this blog
1. Maan Nu
2. Saahan Varga
3. Khiaal
Update: Gurmel pointed out: In 3rd stanza, instead of “upside down” the true translation would be “inside out”
9 comments so far
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ਫੁੱਲ ਕਾਇਮ,
vanilla flavor
both in English and ਪੰਜਾਬੀ;
well said….
ਜੇ ਪਿਉ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਕਹਿ ਲੈਂਦਾ ਤਾਂ ਵੀ ਕੀ ਸੀ ਜੀ?
ਰਤਾ ਹੋਰ ਲਾਭ ਲੈ ਲੈਂਦਾ !!!
Well said
In 3rd stanza, instead of “upside down” the true translation would be “inside out”.
@Harpreet
@Naserke
@Manpreet
Thanks all
@Gurmel
Special thanks, i have updated the post
Dear Jasdeep,
I welcome your effort. But sorry to intervene, once more. There is a grammatical mismatch in original Punjabi poem. At one place, the poet talks of the man, and in the next line he talks of ‘mainun’. It should have been either ‘main’ and ‘mainu’ or ‘usnu’ and ‘usnu’. (main thaila bori hunda, jharde mainu; banda thaila bori hunda, dhar dio usnu).The true translation of the said poem should run like this (inaccuracies capitalized ):
“Better it would have been,
Had the man been a gunny-sack,
He would have asked
His mother, wife OR sister,
To turn HIM inside out
So much in nooks and corners
Had been disturbing HIM.
Had he been a gunny sack!
As a translator , i wanted to keep poet’s words as it is, maybe grammatical mistake in the original text are by purpose .
i appreciate your intervention much though.
NOT “as it is” BUT “as it were”
.AND not may be grammatical mistake in the original text “ARE” but “IS” by purpose.
Ceaser should not rest upon his laurels!
Gurmel
hope its fine now.
By the way , many thanks for pointing these errors, I really like this.