AWARA

("The Vagabond")
(1951), B&W, Hindi, 170 min.
Directed by Raj Kapoor. Lyrics by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri.
Music by Shankar-Jaikishen.

This much-discussed film was Kapoor’s first to feature his trademark Chaplinesque character "Raj/Raju" ("little Raj," though the homage to Chaplin is less pronounced than in the sunnier SHRI 420), here a hapless "vagabond" (avaaraa) who, as the film opens, is on trial for the attempted murder of a pillar of society, Judge Raghunath (brilliantly played by Prithviraj Kapoor, R. K.’s real-life father). He is defended by a beautiful young lawyer, Rita (Nargis), an orphan who also happens to be the Judge’s ward. Her interrogation of the latter leads to a long flashback that occupies most of the film. Its opening segment evokes the Ramayana, with Judge Raghunath (an epithet of Rama) abandoning his pregnant wife Leela (Leela Chitnis) because he wrongly believes she has been raped during a brief abduction by the robber Jagga (K. N. Singh), and the Judge’s conviction that the "seed" of a criminal necessarily seals the fate of his offspring (ironically, we learn that Jagga only became an outlaw after being wrongly convicted of rape by the same Judge). Leela raises her son in the Bombay slums, slaving to send him to school so that he may become a lawyer and judge like his father, but with Jagga always hovering in the background, intent on luring him into a life of crime. As a schoolboy, Raj falls in love with the carefree Rita, despite the class gulf between them, but Judge Raghunath (a friend of Rita’s father who takes an instinctive dislike to the "wayward" boy) contrives to separate them. Jagga and the Judge’s struggle for Raj’s soul – a variation on the nature-vs.-nurture debate, with resonances of caste ideology – continues when Raj and Rita reconnect after twelve years.
The film, generally considered one of Kapoor's finest, is notable for its darkly surreal sets, especially the Judge’s baroque-deco mansion, and for its remarkable dream sequence, which echoes this architecture in an evocation of heaven and hell. Despite its ultimate vindication of patriarchy and capitalism, the film became an enormous hit in the U.S.S.R. and, thanks to Chairman Mao’s reputed fondness for it, in China (to this day, millions of middle-aged Chinese can hum its title song).

  (Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon) - 2
Aawaara hoon
Gharbaar nahin, sansaar nahin
Mujhse kisi ko pyaar nahin - 2
Us paar kisi se milne ka ikraar nahin
Mujhse kisi ko pyaar nahin - 2
Sunsaan nagar anjaan dagar ka pyaara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon
Aawaara hoon
Aabaad nahin barbaad sahi
Gaata hoon khushi ke geet magar - 2
Zakhmon se bhara seena hai mera
Hansti hai magar yeh mast nazar
Duniya
Duniya mein tere teer ka ya taqdeer ka maara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon

Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon) - 2
Aawaara hoon
Gharbaar nahin, sansaar nahin
Mujhse kisi ko pyaar nahin - 2
Us paar kisi se milne ka ikraar nahin
Mujhse kisi ko pyaar nahin - 2
Sunsaan nagar anjaan dagar ka pyaara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon
Aawaara hoon
Aabaad nahin barbaad sahi
Gaata hoon khushi ke geet magar - 2
Zakhmon se bhara seena hai mera
Hansti hai magar yeh mast nazar
Duniya
Duniya mein tere teer ka ya taqdeer ka maara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon

You wanted a translation, so here goes!

A vagabond am I , A vagabond am I.

or am I in the horizon, a star in the sky.

A vagabond am I.

No home nor hearth, not a roof above.

I do not have anyone to love

No wish to meet anyone on the other Side

I do not have anyone to love

of a desolate city and a unknown road, the beloved am I

A vagabond am I......

If I have prospered not, destroyed I'd rather be

Yet I sing the songs full of happiness and glee

I do have a wonded soul and body

But a smile in my  twinkling eyes you can see

World!

World I am slain by thy slings or the arrows of outrageous Fortune!!!!

A vagabone am I.

I hope you like the translation. I am not a poetess but whatt to do I am like thatt only!

Andy

I'm taking singing lessons from tomorrow if the teacher shows up-I've a sinking feeling that after hearing me sing a few lines he made up his mind never to return.

What is your favourite old Hindi song, Andy?

And a big for the translation - it's rather good actually.

There's this site http://www.bollywoodlyrics.com/index.asp which has some hilarious translations but it's great because you can get the lyrics for so many songs.

Gita

Golly, lady, tis cafe and sending messages to and fro. My favourite oldies are Aa chal ke tujhe, main le ke chaloon ik aise gagan ke tale. Come along with me, let me take you under another sky... And Zindagi ek safar aur chal. Come life, lets go on another journey together!

Seriously speaking, here are all ye IQ 130+out there , honest injun scientists say that that is what is needed to become a translator. Why do we not get together, supply the old lovelies and translate them for the rest of the world?There must be a publisher out there who does not think that Indians are still evolving from mud huts and muddy ditches.

And Im supposed to be researching on some assignment on Universities in Canada for our  official database...

But then we do everyfing except solid work, what? Quite!

Adios, lady.