Nagumomu Ganaleni

Raga Aabheri, 22 karaharapriya janya
Aa: S G2 M1 P N2 S Av: S N2 D2 P M1 G2 R2 S
Taalam: Adi

Lyrics: Pallavi: nagumōmu ganalēni nā jāli telisi nanu brōvaga rādā śrī raghuvara nī Anupallavi: nagarājadhara nīdu parivārulella ogi bōdhana jēsē-vāralu gārē yiṭu luṇḍudurē Charanam: khagarāju nī yānati vini vēga canalēdō gaganāni kilaku bahu dūrambanināḍō jagamēlē paramātma evaritō moraliḍudu vaga jūpaku tāḷanu nannēlukōra tyāgarājanuta nī

English verse: Knowing that bereft of Your smiling face, Distraught is my state, Foremost of the Raghus, won't You Come to me, to alleviate? Bearer of the king of mounts! The members of Your retinue, They who give good counsel, Could they fail to remind You? Does not the king of birds Hasten to do Your bidding? Or did he find, Heaven to Earth, A distance too forbidding? O Supreme Self who rules over all, Who else but You, can I invoke! Elude and leave me not in a pall, Take your bard under Your yoke.

---

Notes:
Nagaraaja is frequently interpreted as the Govardhana hill of the Krishnaavatara. But Govardhana is only described as a hill. Nagaraaja literally means king of mountains. So, Mount Mandara, which is one of the 7 major mountains, and can be called the king of mountains, is more appropriate. Vishnu in the Kurmavatara, as the Great Tortoise, supported Mandara on his back, when it was used to churn the Ksheera Saagara or ocean of milk. The king of the birds is Garuda. Also, there are more references to Vishnu and Heaven in the kriti, like retinue, Garuda's abode in the heavens etc, than to Krishna and Earth. So, Mandara is again more consistent. Rather than give the literal but convoluted, "one praised by Tyagaraja" for the last line, I have given the much nicer "bard". I have similarly varied my rendition of his "mudra" or lyrical stamp, in the remaining kritis too.

---

A retouched translation:
The verse translation given above is constrained by our adherence to "word for word" correspondence. As explained in the introductory pages, we adhere to such correspondence for the benefit of those not familiar with Indian languages, or perhaps even Indian culture, and to remain close to Tyagaraja's original expression. The following is a plainer and simpler translation that captures the gist.

.

Lost am I,

Vexed am I,

O Valiant Prince,

Sans Thy smiling face!

Grant Thy saving grace!

.

In the days of yore,

My Lord, 

A mountain bore,

For the hosts of 

Heaven and Hell.

Needeth He, 

His council's tell?

.

Does not the king of birds
Hasten to do Thy bidding?
Or did he find, Heaven to Earth,
A distance too forbidding?

.

Lord of All, my sole refuge,

Forsake me not, by subterfuge!

---

Word for word meaning:
Several readers have asked for a word-for-word presentation of this song. However, we have pointed out two things, viz., the word-for-word meanings are already embedded in the verse translation and that, this song, as it is among the first few in this site/book, represented our old approach to this work, and we did not want to alter it for historical reasons. Nevertheless, for the sake of these readers, given below is a word-map from the Telugu lyrics to the English verse, that roughly shows the word-by-word correspondence between the two. Note that these are not the word-for-word meanings, but approximations. The interested reader can easily pick out the literal word-for-word meanings where they differ from our own turn of phrase. Sufficient information is contained in our verses and elsewhere in this work, for this to be done quickly. Just click on the image below to see it in a large size. The usual color coding is used again. Also, we emphasize in this site that the lyrical beauty in these songs is best brought out by similar verse. In the comments thread below is given a "plain language" translation by Pappu Venugopala Rao, who leads the Academic Council of the Music Academy of Madras. It appeared in their journal some years ago. We couldn't include it along with our main text here purely for want of space, but please take a look just for the contrast from our verses.

/\