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परदेसी बालम धन अकेली मेरा बिदेसी घर आवना

Pardesi Balam Dhan Akeli Mera Bidesi Ghar Aavana

1 min read 1 versesSeparation Yamuna Ganga

1 verses · ~1 min

परदेसी बालम धन अकेली मेरा बिदेसी घर आवना। बिर का दुख बहुत कठिन है प्रीतम अब आजावना। इस पार जमुना उस पार गंगा बीच चंदन का पेड़ ना। इस पेड़ ऊपर कागा बोले कागा का बचन सुहावना।

इति

Rasa: Karuna
Stanzas: 1
Lines: 4
Reading time: ~1 min
Rhyme: AABB

The atmosphere is one of profound, melancholic yearning, capturing the raw ache of viraha as a woman waits in solitary confinement for her distant lover. The scene depicts a desolate riverbank landscape where a lone figure stands amidst the rushing currents of the Yamuna and Ganga, with a solitary sandalwood tree rising between them like a bridge to nowhere. A dark crow perches on a branch, its voice serving as both a mournful omen and a harbinger of hope, symbolizing the agonizing threshold between physical isolation and the phantom promise of reunion. The overall tone is one of fragile, devotional longing, transmuting the sharpness of absence into a quiet, meditative tragedy that emphasizes the vast, elemental distance between the lover and the beloved.

परदेसी बालम धन अकेली मेरा बिदेसी घर आवना (Pardesi Balam Dhan Akeli Mera Bidesi Ghar Aavana), by Amir Khusrow runs to 4 lines, set as Four lines of verse.. Its governing rasa is Karuna, shaded by Shringara. Rhyme falls as AABB.

It belongs to the 1253 · 1325 span of Amir Khusrow's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for विरह की कठिन अवस्था and प्रिय के परदेस जाने का दुख. 3 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Untitled (Disappointed): Steeped in a poignant and heavy atmosphere of melancholy, the portrait depicts a young woman in a traditional sari standing in a deeply pensive pose against the trunk of a great tree. She is accompanied by a silent…

Words worth pausing on

बालम: प्रियतम
बिर: विरह
कागा: कौआ

Threads

Separation Yamuna Ganga Love

The Poet

अमीर खुसरो

Amir Khusrow

1253 · 1325

Amir Khusrow lived and breathed a syncretic culture centuries before the modern world even possessed the vocabulary for it. Born in 1253 in Patiyali, Uttar Pradesh, he served as a scholar, a musician, and a poet under the Delhi Sultanate. Despite his royal appointments, his true allegiance remained with his spiritual master, Nizamuddin Auliya. He is widely recognized as the father of Qawwali and is traditionally credited with the invention of the sitar and tabla. His most profound contribution, however, lay in language. He took the formal Persian of the royal courts and merged it with the everyday Hindavi spoken on the streets. His riddles, verses, and ghazals are entirely alive today, still sung at shrines and in courtyards across the Indian subcontinent. Khusrow did not merely write poetry. He shaped the cultural identity of North India, proving that authentic devotion bypasses all borders of language and religion.