Chann kithain guzaari aayi raat vay
Roopinder Singh

Songs Remembered: Folk Songs of Punjab
by Shan Gurdev Singh. Illustrations by Tito Singh Metge. Flying Fig, Two Lions, USA. Pages 95. Rs 595.

FOLK songs of Punjab, made practically omnipresent by new singers who are more of performers, have a rich heritage to draw from. It goes back centuries and folk songs are expressions of felt experiences of the community and the individuals who form it. The folk songs reflect the robustness of the Punjabis, the tenderness of love, the pangs of separation, the sorrow of losing a loved one, and barbs that accompany certain relationships like those of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the naughty rapport between sister-in-law and her younger, often unmarried brother-in-law.

Who does not remember the song, made so memorable by the rendering of Parkash Kaur and Surinder Kaur:

Translated it reads:

Where did you spend the night, my moon?

A thousand thoughts have crossed my mind!

It would come as a bit of surprise to certain young readers that the songs belted out by the likes of Malkiat Singh, Daler Mehndi, Gurdas Mann and Gursewak Mann, to name a few, owe so much to the folk songs sung by their parents and grandparents. Did you realise that the following song dates back to antiquity:

Translated it reads:

My passion for you has destroyed me.

Oh tell me what to do.

What have I gained by loving you?

Oh tell me what to do?

Often the metaphor of the language is such that the traditional songs escape the very young. They need to be explained certain words, certain phases and at times things have to be put in context for them.

Translated, it reads:

Walking by the roadside,

O lovely young girl,

A thorn pricked your foot,

O dazzling one.

Shan Gurdev Singh is known for her mellifluous voice, to those who were privileged enough to attend marriages or other such ceremonies where she would sing for the family. Part of the elite, daughter-in-law of the late Justice Teja Singh, she sang so well that the very mention of her name rings in recollections that bring a smile to many elders even now.

This book is a collection of songs, many of them from the Punjab that is now in Pakistan. Such songs may not be familiar to readers of this part of Punjab. Of course, there are a number of them which are familiar and have been made much more accessible by the format. Every page has two columns where the book has a Gurmukhi version of the song and its English transliteration. The next page has the translation of the song.

While critics have rued that there is no standardised format which transliteration can follow, what is given in the book is workable, though it could be improved. A CD of songs that feature in the book would have also helped to preserve the soul of the folk songs, unadulterated by modern influences and the demands of commercialisation.

This book is obviously a labour of love that spans generations. The author’s daughter, Tito Singh Metge, an established artist based in New York, has drawn beautiful, full-colour illustrations that interpret the songs in a contemporary fashion. The book will be of great interest to readers interested in grasping those aspects of Punjabi folk life that seem to get drowned by the new, louder, more popular music.

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