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ORCID
N/A
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Comparative Literature
Degree Type
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2016
Month Degree Awarded
September
Abstract
Abdullah Shah (1680-1757) was the birth name of the boy who would later become one of the most eminent Sufi poets of South Asia, and the master of Sufi lyrics in Punjabi—Bulleh Shah. Living during times of strife and major conflict between the Sikhs and the crumbling Mughal Empire, Bulleh Shah wrote poetry with an underlying humanist and tolerant philosophy that challenged the turmoil of his times. Blind to the bounds of religion and caste in an increasingly divided India, Bullah’s spiritual philosophy and his message of equality found voice in his kafis—a genre of poetry indigenous to the Indian subcontinent that can be seen as a form of folk ballad.
This project offers translations of 15 kafis from his identifiable corpus, preceded by a substantial introductionFurthermore, the project is accompanied. Each kafi is presented in three translations—literal, functional, and oral. The selected kafis draw on the three dominant themes in his work—Ishq, rebellion, and freedom. Scans of the original kafis in Shahmuki script Punjabi have been provided. Furthermore, the project is accompanied by an interpretive composition of the translated kafi “What Times, What Strange Times,” which was a collaboration between the author of the thesis, Akshaya Tucker, and Jacob Scharfman.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/8984355
First Advisor
Edwin Gentzler
Second Advisor
Joseph Black
Third Advisor
Nigar J. Khan
Fourth Advisor
Moira Inghilleri
Shahmukhi Punjabi Kafi Scans
What Times What Strange Times.mp3 (2388 kB)
Original Musical Composition
Recommended Citation
Sattar, Zainab, "Songs of Ishq, Freedom and Rebellion: Selected Kafis of Bulleh Shah in Translation" (2016). Masters Theses. 444.
https://doi.org/10.7275/8984355
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/444
Included in
Music Performance Commons, Other Classics Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, Other Music Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Poetry Commons, Reading and Language Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Translation Studies Commons