shah abdul latif bhitai poetry in sindhi with english translation

While a sur is understood to be the way a particular raga or scale is sung, in the Risalo, the surs are mostly named after the theme that the majority of the verses deal with.

The verses or lyrics in the Risalo are grouped under thirty surs. Risalo, Shah Abdul Latif, Christopher Shackle (ed, trans) (Harvard University Press, January 2018) Latif’s Risalo speaks of love and the beloved and incorporates metaphors of wine and yogic practices, highlighting traditions that belie Islam’s characterization as a monolithic faith. In Sindhi, the Sufi message is seen at its subtlest and most powerful in the words of Latif. The language has more recently been political: there was a row in the Victorian colonial period about which script to write it in and more recently about its lack of status as an “official” language”. The Sindhi language’s relation with Islam goes back to at least the 9th century when tradition has it that Quran was first translated in Sindhi. The movement spread to South Asia with the Muslim conquest its literary express came with the consequent contact with Persian literature.

Sufism, or tasawwuf, is a mystical tradition of Islam often quite different from what might be considered “orthodox” practices. It also comes at a special moment: at a time when Sindhi language is fast disappearing from even the isolated pockets of several Indian cities where the Sindhis live, and when the schools teaching in Sindhi are shutting down, the Risalo stands as a revived icon of the esteem and the heritage of the community.Ī word about Sufism and the language would be in order here.

Latif is hailed as Shakespeare of Sindhi literature.Ĭhristopher Shackle’s edition of Risalo-Latif’s collection of his songs the title means “the message- forms part of the respected Murty Classical Library of India published by the Harvard University Press and is an easily accessible bilingual edition of the entirety of Latif’s works in Sindhi original and English translation. An ancestor of his, Shah Karim, is considered to be one of the earliest poets writing/composing in Sindhi. Very little is known about Latif, except that he was a pir, or a holy man, and his title Shah hints at his possible direct descent from the prophet Muhammad. The Sindhi diaspora, whether in India or around the world, have a warm spot for the name Shah Abdul Latif, an 18th-century Sufi poet from Sindh, Pakistan, and a contemporary of the better known Punjabi Sufi poet Bulle Shah.

Shah abdul latif bhitai poetry in sindhi with english translation