Triangular
(oehler/goedken)
Jindi mahi bajre diyan
Jindi mahi bajre diyan kaliyan
ek pal behi jana
ve ek pal behi jana mere kol
jindi mahi ambiyan
jindi mahi ambiyan te a gaya boor
ki jattiyan de murkhede
ki jattiyan de murkhede te varda noor
They tried to divide us,
tried to keep us apart
Didn’t want us together,
they fear what’s in my heart
Moving through the shadows
by the cover of night
With the walls around you
I’m coming to the light
Triangular
In all these cries
Triangular
Hidden in your eyes
Triangular
In every stride
Triangular
Helpless lost inside
All I ever wanted’s
long gone til we meet
Didn’t want us together
they’re looking in this heat
I’ve crossed the 5 rivers,
crossed the burning sand
With the moon on the city
I’m calling across the land
(chorus)
Aha! Haripa!
Triangular
In all these cries
Triangular
Hidden in your eyes
Triangular
In every stride
Triangular
Helpless lost inside
Triangular
In every stride
Triangular
Helpless lost inside
Triangular
Whisper your name
Triangular
A thousand burning flames
[EO] “Triangular” was my first serious attempt at writing a full-on bhangra track. It went through several iterations, as it was difficult for me to balance most of my traditional methods of composing melodies with the assertive (and multi-frequency) structures of the dhol rhythms.
I had originally recorded my own dholak loops to underscore this track, but in the end I liked the sound of the samples better than my own recording. I did however play all the tumbi parts myself, and hotrodded a $25 tumbi to accept a piezoelectric pickup so I could get a cleaner signal. I am still a terrible tumbi player, but I was able to get some good samples out of this
The opening is sung in (slightly fractured) Panjabi, very loosely adapted from a traditional folksong. My initial idea was to use basic phrasebook sentences like “where is the train station” and see if anyone noticed, but I decided to look up some folksongs instead. Jind Mahi itself means “love of my life” and is roughly the bhangra equivalent of “baby” in a song.
Translation:
“Baby, the buds of grain are here
sit with me for a moment.
Baby, the ambi trees are budding
The faces of the girls are beginning to glow”
It’s basically a big paen to the renewal of spring, a man’s fancy turning to thoughts of, etc.
The reference to the “five rivers” is a reference to the Panjab, which directly translated means, um, “five rivers.” While I’ve not (yet) actually been to the Panjab, it is somewhat of a bhangra convention to make reference to the genre’s homeland, so out of deference to the style I worked it in to Dr. Goedken’s lyrics.
Stunningly enough this actually got some airplay in India. Not…much, but some.