Hothon Se Chulo Tum English Translation

Hothon se chulo tum mera geet amar kar do, translates to English as, touch these words upon your lips and make my song live forever. It was sung by Jagjit Singh, and released in the 1981 movie Prem Geet (Love Song). His genius and talent in the music industry, and the joy he brought to billions of his fans throughout the world was a great loss. If it were up to me, I would award him The Nobel for this song alone. At the very least he should receive the Bharat Ratna award (posthumously) for his service in the music industry. I was listening to this song on LP record thinking how amazing it was that his voice is captured within the groove for all time thereby making him immortal (amar). His voice will echo into the future, when ours will have long become dust in the distant past. Of course, nobody is ever really gone; our lives are etched like a groove into the fabric of time and space, and we too are played like a record over and over...

This song is moving because of the sorrowful nature of the lyrics and the sad tone that he sings it in. Unfortunately nobody comes out of life unscathed. When I play this record, for a short duration at least, he does come to life, and in some small way he has become immortal.

He identified two main axioms that anyone could relate to. 1. Nobody really gets what they want in life, and if they do, then this world has a way of taking it away from them. That fancy big house you worked hard for eventually has to be sold, your fancy car turns into scrap, your wife and child snatched in the 9/11 tragedy, your pet dies, your savings become devalued, and you lose your job... I speak from experience of course. Little by little, life takes everything away from you (cheena) until the only thing you have left is life itself. Then eventually, God takes that away as well! Is it HIS reminder that you are not supposed to remain here forever? 2. If you live long enough, you realise that every victory (jeet) you ever had in life was actually a loss (haar), because it is not just the winning that is important, but how you win. There are some beautiful ideas in this song, where he mentions that those who really love see only the soul, and nothing superficial matters. There is no colour, cast, nationality, or borders... Hence, this should be the way to live life.

These lyrics are so wonderfully crafted that they flow really well, and even the meaning in the translation flows smoothly from one line to the next. In this one, it is best to keep the words simple so that the reader can focus on the deeper meaning; hence I tried to keep it simple and elegant.

Meaning and Context

Amar, immortal, live forever is more poetic

Meet, friend

Preet, love, affection

Seema, separation

Suna, lonely, or bareness in this context sounds better

Bhandhan, bonds

Keval, only

Aakash, sky, space or heavens is the old meaning which is much better

Mun, soul

Saanse, breath, or the old meaning is life

Sangeet, music, pattern of sounds, tune is the old meaning

Cheena, loot, stole, deprive, snatched, took away, is the old meaning

Jeet, win , success

Paayal, otherwise known as ghungroo (in Gujarati), are anklet bells that make that chhaan-chhaan sound people like to hear, hence chhanakati, approximates to making that sound. The word has feminine gender, which makes me think that he might be singing this message to the woman he always loved. Paayal is usually worn by professional women dancers and the sound is made by their fast feet movement during dancing.

Although, sangeet amar kar do translates directly as, make my music live forever, the bigger meaning is, to give life to my tune with your breath by singing it.

English Translation

Hothon se, chulo tum,

Touch (these words) upon your lips,

mera geet amar kar do.

and make my song live forever.

Ban jao meet mere,

Become my friend,

meri preet amar kar do.

make my love live forever.

Na umr ki seema ho,

There are no age separations,

There is no age requirement,

na janam ka ho bhandhan.

nor any bonds of life (required).

Jab pyaar kare koi,

When anyone (really) loves,

to dekhe keval mun.

they see only the soul.

Nayi reet chala kar tum,

Make this a new way to live,

ye reet amar kar do.

make this way immortal.

Aakash ka suna pan,

Even the barrenness of the heavens,

mere tanha mun mein.

exists in my lonely soul.

Payal chhanakati tum,

Dance, making the payal ring,

aajao jeevan mein.

and bring me into life.

Saanse dekar apni,

Give me your breath,

sangeet amar kar do,

and give life to my tune,

mera geet amar kar do.

and make my song live forever.

Jag ne cheena mujhse,

The world took away from me,

mujhe jo bhi lagaa pyara,

everything that I loved,

sab jeeta kiye mujhse,

everyone said to me I won,

main har dum hi hara.

(yet) I had completely lost every time.

Tum har ke dil apna,

You learn from the loss in my heart,

meri jeet amar kar do...

(and) make my success live forever...

The last two lines are usually difficult for most people to understand, however, my impression; back when I was a college student was the following.

The terms jeet(win), and haar(lose) refer to a much bigger picture, that refers to his successes (jeet) and failures (haar) in life. Everyone usually has a little of both, and personal development speakers will tell you that the failures are the most important because you learn more from those. If you are clever, you can learn from other people’s failures as well.

The meaning I extract from the last two lines is that he is telling you to learn from his failures because it will help you to become successful. And when you become successful, your success becomes his success, and through that, his success lives forever (amar). This therefore makes more sense to me, because if your breath makes his song live forever, then surely your success (from his loss), makes his success live forever...