{"id":2008,"date":"2007-07-30T12:02:38","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T19:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2007\/07\/30\/the-power-of-a-song\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:39:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:39:56","slug":"the-power-of-a-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2007\/07\/30\/the-power-of-a-song\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of a Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is updated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The song, Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint<\/em>, was in the Spike Lee movie, Inside Man<\/a> (a well done caper movie). This music raises the tempo of my heart, tickles my legs to start dancing, and makes my soul feel light and happy. I could listen to it every day as a substitute for my morning cup of coffee. Before I saw the video I had an image of a train — no wonder! It’s been too long since I danced, or since I heard a song that physically pulled me, like an eager man grabbing my hand pulling me to the dance floor. (That did happen, by the way, when I went to a Moroccan restaurant a few months ago. They had belly dancers, and one was a male and female pair. The man pulled me and my friend up to dance along with other women in the center of the room. I felt such joy!) I need to explore other Bollywood<\/a> music; if the songs are similarly energizing, a CD or two is in order!<\/p>\n

If the embedded video isn’t working you can see it here<\/a>.
\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/center>
\nUpdate:<\/em> The English translation lyrics are available below (click below).
\n\t<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHe whose head is in the shadow of love
\nwill have heaven beneath his feet.
\nWhose head is in the shadow of love…
\nWalk in the shadow.
\nWalk in heaven, walk in the shadow.<\/p>\n

There’s a friend who is like a sweet fragrance,
\nwhose words are like poetry (lit. Urdu, the language of poetry),
\nwho is my evening, my night, my existence.
\nThat friend is my beloved!<\/p>\n

Chorus \t <\/p>\n

Sometimes (my beloved) flirts like a flower,
\nso fragrantly that you may see her scent.
\nHaving made it into an charm, I will wear it.
\nShe shall be obtained as a miracle is obtained.
\nShe is my song, my declaration of faith
\n(kalama: the Muslim confession of faith, as in, “la ilaaha il allaah” – “there is no God but Allah”).
\n(My friend is like a priest to me.)
\nMy song… my declaration of faith…
\nShe moves like the dew.
\nShe walks with the garden of heaven beneath her feet,
\nsometimes through the branches, sometimes amidst the leaves.
\nI shall search the wind for her trail! <\/p>\n

Chorus \t <\/p>\n

trade in her beauty.
\nFickle, she flits shamelessly from sun to shade.
\nShe changes her bright colors;
\nI negotiate that as well.<\/p>\n

Chorus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is updated. The song, Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint, was in the Spike Lee movie, Inside Man (a well done caper movie). This music raises the tempo of my heart, tickles my legs to start dancing, and makes my soul feel light and happy. I could listen to it every day as a substitute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,27,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-recreation","category-social-science"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11304,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/11304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}