Link to project file
Link to instrumental/off-vocal
Song Credits:
- Poem by Muhammad Iqbal
- Translation, music by IdioticBaka1824
Resource Credits:
- vocal synthesis software: https://dreamtonics.com/synthesiserv/
- voicebank: Eleanor Forte (Lite)
- midi editing/composition: Orgmaker (and Orgmid)
- music production: https://www.soundtrap.com/
- subtitling: https://aegisub.org/
Note
This poem was written in 1902 by Iqbal as a children's prayer, and has since found wide adoption as something to be sung in morning school assemblies across India and Pakistan.
Despite being around since forever and being so popular this whole time, I wasn't able to find a single English cover of it! Fascinating.
Lyrics:
Settle on my lips
all my heart's desires
in the shape of a prayer
Radiantly glowing,
oh God, may
my life be like a lantern
If I could just
wipe away all the darkness
embedded in the world1
Let my light
illuminate every corner
and crevice that there were
Just as how the flowers
that fill the garden
endow it with beauty
So the land I live in
may it be filled with
the beauty of my deeds2
May my life's journey
oh God, be like a
moth drawn to flame
And the lamp of
knowledge, with its love,
may my heart be set ablaze3
Toiling in support
of the poor and needy
my task eternal be4
Lending out a hand,
shoulder, or ear,5
for the grieving and weak
Heed my supplication,
oh my Lord,
let me not go astray
Lead me to the path
not of vice, but virtue,
and lose me not my way
Translation Notes:
1I'm using "embedded" to imply that darkness is fairly deeply set. But then you'd use a word like "uproot" to combat it, so why a verb like "wipe" used for surfaces? This is deliberate on my part, and meant to represent a naive but optimistic wordlview - this is a child speaking, after all.
2I went through several iterations to arrive at this line, to try and emphasise that the garden's beauty is due to its flowers - but not wanting to set up the comparison in a negative sense that it would be barren were it not for flowers. Also, the original is a tad more directly worded, but in English you have to put in a bit more effort to make it sound poetic. I think I managed fairly well to reinforce the imagery by repeating words without repeating phrases wholesale.
3Ablaze... because of the comparison to a lamp... get it? Haha. The original doesn't have this wordplay, I sneaked it in :D
4A nod to my alma mater's motto. the 'k' stands for 'quality' har har
5Again, this idiomatic phrasing isn't in the original (which only speaks of being caring), but I think it works well to bring together various English expressions of sympathy and help, which is what the following "grieving and weak" would need, respectively.
Original:
labb pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri
zindagi shamma ki suurat ho KHudaaya meri
duur duniya ka mere dam se andhera ho jaye
har jagah mere chamakne se ujaala ho jaye
ho mere dam se yuNhi mere vatan ki ziinat
jis tarha phuul se hoti hai chaman ki ziinat
zindagi ho meri parvaane ki suurat, ya rabb
ilm ki shamma se ho mujh ko muhabbat, ya rabb
ho mera kaam GHareebon ki himaayat karna
dardmandoN se zaiifoN se muhabbat karna
mere Allah! buraai se bachaana mujhko
nek jo raah ho, us reh pe chalaana mujhko
Dang, the whole thing doesn't have a single retroflex consonant in it! Never noticed. Interesting.