AVE المغرب القانون المشرق النور و من KAISAR-I-HIND, 1893 ! -11 Persian Invocation. [Chronogram.] عید قیصر هند دائم مبارك باد با نام ويكتوريا ابدأ مبارك باد Transliteration. I'd-i-Qaisar-i-Hind dáim mubárik bád! Ba-nám Victôriá abdan mubárik bád! Translation. May the festival-day of the Kaisar-i-Hind ever be blessed! Remarks. The numerical value of all the letters together in the Persian verse make up the date of 1893, of which the first day of January is the anniversary of Her Majesty's assumption of the Imperial Title of "Kaisar-i-Hind," at Delhi, on the 1st of January, 1877. The name of "Victoria" is spelt with an "i" in the first syllable, although this is generally omitted in Urdu. Arabic Invocation. [Chronogram.] فكتوريا منصوره هي قيصر الهند ليدم اقبالها دائماً Transliteration. Victoria, Mansûra, Hiyye Qaisar-ul-Hind, liyedum iqbáluha dáiman. Translation. Victoria,1 helped by God,2 is the Kaisar of India, 1 The letter "v" is often rendered in modern Arabic with a three-dotted or "f" pronounced as "v." 2 The Arabic equivalent for "Victoria" is "Mansura," or "one who is helped" by God, and, therefore, "Victorious." 3 The combined numerical value of all the letters of this invocation in Arabic give the date of the 17th anniversary of Her Majesty's proclamation of the Imperial title of " Kaisar-i-Hind," "1893." Brîtanîá alkubra, lakum watanun á'la Watanun yakádu li-Mulkihi lá Hadda, iz Victoria, yadû' leha sh-sharqu bilá Literal Translation. Ist verse. (The men of Great Britain.) Britannia, the Great, is your Home (country), exceeding Her young men in intelligence are like her old men, 2nd verse. (The Queen and Greater Britain.) A Home, to its dominion there is scarcely a limit, since 3rd verse. (Victoria and the East.) Victoria, Her invokes the East without Ceasing, and verily willingly submit the two Wests. Oh! that She would revive the science of the East before it sinks, (in the West), For the West and it (the East) indeed are brothers! 93 66 "Malaka" The three words in italics render various meanings of the root = he possessed; namely the words "dominion,' 'possession," and "Queen." 2 Here a simile is drawn between the "two sciences" and the "two worlds," "namely, "i'lmán "="the two sciences," and “á'lemán,”="the two worlds." It is also an allusion to the Oriental and Occidental knowledge possessed by Her Majesty, the Queen-Empress, and to the Arabic Sub-Classification of Science or Learning, being two-fold, namely, spiritual and temporal; although all science, according to Muhammadan writers, is essentially ONE, because leading to the better knowledge of the Creator, the division into the above two branches being merely technical. 3 Here there is a play on the words "rising" and "East,” from “sharaqa,” on the one hand, and "setting" and "West," from "gharaba," on the other. In other words, as the sun does not set on the British Empire, so the learning of the East, which symbolizes the sun, should not be allowed to set in its dominions. QAISARI" [IN URDU]. WITH SUPPLEMENTARY STANZAS FOR INDIA, TRANSLATED INTO URDU BY GANDA SINGH, AN ACCOUNTANT IN THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, PUNJAB. THE following is the retranslation of the Urdu version of the "National O LORD, Our GOD! arise; And make them fall, Bid strife and discord cease.- Filling our homes with Peace, 1 This should be "dáim" the active participle of "dáma "to last. "Kaisar" or "Caesar" for Her Imperial Majesty of India is quite correct, but it would be well to state the whole title of "Kaisar-i-Hind"; otherwise "Kaisar" might stand in Muhammadan eyes for the Sultan, one of whose designations is "Kaisar-iRûm" Kaisar of (Eastern) Rome or Constantinople, if not for "Kaisar-i-Rûs"= the "Czar of Russia" or the Kaisar of Central Asia. 3 This should be "qáim " the active participle of "qáma”= to stand. "Haqq "the Right, certainly is applied to the Deity. It would, however, have been better to have begun with the invocation "O God" and to have used for that name the word "Khuda" which is less distinctively Muhammadan than "Haqq." I doubt whether this line and words like "Dávar" for "Sovereign God" would be generally intelligible to any, but educated, Persian scholars. The first condition of an Urdu version of the National Anthem should be its immediate intelligibility to both the Muhammadan and Hindu Urdu-knowing masses. |