When I shared this song titled, "Tumi je Amarey Chao Ami Shey Jaani" (That You desire me, I know) I received queries from visitors about this song, as they were touched by the beauty of the song and it reached their heart. All credit and praise is His.
Following is an approximate translation of the song in English. The original lyrics in Bengali is italized, followed by their translation.
Tumi je amarey chao
- Ami shey jaani.
Keno je morey kadao,
- Ami shey jaani.
The truth
that You desire me,
that You long for me
in the heart of my heart
- this intimate secret now I know.
Why You make me cry,
- this intimate secret now I know.
E alokey e adharey
Keno Tumi Aponarey
Chaya khani diye chao,
- ami shey jaani.
In this act of light and shadow
why You play hide and seek
in the heart of my heart
- this intimate secret now I know.
Shara din nana kajey
keno tumi nana shajey
Koto shurey daak dao
- ami shey jaani.
All day amidst myriads actions,
in infinite disguises
You keep beckoning me
why so - this intimate secret now I know.
Shara holey deya neya
Dinantero shesh kheya
Kon dik pane bao
- ami shey jaani.
After all the transactions are finished,
where You navigate this last boat away
- this intimate secret now I know.
Tumi je amarey chao
- Ami shey jaani.
The truth
that You desire me,
in the heart of my heart
- this intimate secret now I know.
[+] You may download a copy of this song in mp3 from Facebook Page of Technology of the Heart (link expires after few days)
The Symbolism and Interpretation of the Song:The subject matter of this song can be interpreted both as as a song offering for the earthly human lover as well as for God, the Ultimate Beloved. The second shade of interpretation is more appropriate in the song since the greater meanings attached to the words used point closer to the Divine reality than an earthly beloved.
The song is sung from the point of view of a seeker who has arrived at the summit of realization when the mysteries of God are being unveiled one after another and the seeker begin to see through every veil, every apparent paradox of reality.
The primary theme of the song is the realization that in the beginning of the path it appears that the seeker is seeking God, but when the seeker's realization mature, then he come to understand the deeper truth that from time immemorial, from pre-eternity, it is God who is desiring the seeker, the lover who loves God.
On the tongue of the blessed Messenger we are informed that God says, "I was a hidden Treasure and I longed to be known, hence I manifested the creation." This longing of God to be known, God's desire and will that He be known is the secret of creation.
After arriving at his higher station of realization, a Great Sufi Master Bayazid Bistami said,
At the beginning I was mistaken in four ways. I sought to remember God, to know Him, and to seek Him. When I had come to the end, I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him, that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him, His love toward me had existed before my love to Him, and He had sought me before I sought Him.
Also Rumi tells us:
Not a single lover would seek union
if the Beloved Himself were not seeking it.
So this song as a offering to God attempts to convey similar truth. Primarily here the poet mentions that now the veils are lifted from his heart and he come to know that it is God who desires him. Progressively he also expresses that he also understood the secret of sorrow. It is through pain, through separation, through the breaking of heart that God draws a seeker to Him. The poet says that now this is also unveiled to his heart why God makes him lament for God, makes him cry out for God.
For example in the language of mystics,
Pain and happiness have the same shape in this world:
You may call the rose an open heart, or a broken heart.
~ Dard
You have to keep breaking your heart
unitl it opens.
~ Rumi
For those who have faith in God and His Judgment, even sickness, troubles are hidden blessings. The Divine Informer informed us thus:
When a faithful servant of Allah falls ill, his compensation is that his minor sins are obliterated just as leaves tall (in autumn).
Fever was mentioned in the presence of Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) and when a man reviled it the Prophet said, "Do not revile it, for it removes sins as fire removes the dross of iron."
"Whenever a Muslim is afflicted with a hardship, sickness, sadness, worry, harm, or depression --even a thorn's prick, Allah expiates his sins because of it."
"Expect good, because Allah makes a believer's sickness an expiation (for his sins) and a period of repose. As for a disbeliever falling sick, he is like a camel whose owner ties it and then lets it loose --it does not understand why it was tied, nor why it was freed."
God does not charge a soul with more than it can bear.
~ Qur'an
I am with those whose hearts are broken for my sake.
~ Hadith Qudsi
Then in the song the poet also expresses that through every action, through every face how he can see the call of God.
This is precisely why in some of the most mystical verses of the Final Testament talks about seeking Wajh-Allah, the Face of Allah and whereosever one turns one sees the Face of God. This is the summit of realization when unveiling begin to happen, not intellectually, not with the mind, but with the Heart and with realization of the Great Presence.
Muhasibi said, to one whom God has placed in the rank of His lovers, He gives the vision of Himself, for He has sworn, saying, “By My Glory, I will show him My Face and I will heal his soul by the Vision of Myself.”
In memory of the Beloved we drank a wine that made
us drunk before the creation of the vine.
~ Ibnul Farid
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you
Not knowing how blind I was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
~ Rumi
And finally the poet says that when this drama is over at the end of our time here on earth, when His giving and taking is over, God as it's sovereign captain will steer the last ship to an unknown destination. But this destination is now clear to the poet. That land of no land is nowhere but the Kingdom, to the Presence within the Greatest Presence.
Thy Kingdom Comes. To Him belongs everything between the Heaven and Earth and He is al-Warith, the Supreme Inheritor and we are His and to Him is the final return. It is because He desired us in the pre-eternity, He draws us back to His Presence in the post-eternity. Tumi je amarey chao - ami shey jaani.
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