I am opening this topic for sharing what I´ve been doing for a large number of years , namely transcribing some songs in the south-asian languages , which I unfortunately don´t know : Hindi , Urdu , Bengali , Punjabi , Telugu , Sanskrit .
Though I once begun to study Sanskrit in my local university , I did only stay for a couple of months and got out quickly .
But somehow the urge to get into the actual lyrics ( knowing the meaning is the icing of the cake ... ) of some favorite songs has remained .

Most of these songs will be bhajans ( mainly vaishnava ) , qawwalis , some khayal bandishes and maybe also film songs .
Considering my leanings , the moderatoring gremium should feel free to move this to the devotional sub-forum or to put it in quarantane somewhere ; but anyway there will be some mixing of focus in the lyrics , not only vaishnava , even though this my primary interest .

In one word , corrections or insights ( ... translations ... ) into the lyrics are welcome .

Ok . so here is the first one :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4lidttllYs

My attempt :

" Ek hai Ram nam adhar
Ram nam jap se hota hai , papon ka parihar .
Ram rup me Narayan me , liya manuj avatar .
Satya dharm vrat , ajna palana ha jivan ka sar . "

Facts : Some words I did recognize on the spot and others I had to google if they actually exist . I tried also to google some short phrases , to see if these combinations of words go together . I could also find the translation of some words , some others were already known to me , and for the rest I tought it would entangle me too much ...

Now a very raw attempt of translating some parts ( The here residing pundits are requiring not to laugh ... ) :

Ek hai Ram nam adhar = The name of Ram is the basis of everything ???
Ram nam jap se hota hai = recommending the chanting of Ram´s name ??
papon ka parihar = the deliverer of the sins ?
Ram rup me Narayan me = The form of Ram comes from ( or through ) Narayan ?
liya manuj avatar = he descended as a human being ?
Satya dharm vrat = the vow of truthfulness and religiosity
ajna palana ha jivan ka sar = He who obeys the commands , is the sum ( or ocean ) of/among the living entities ?

Nb : The raag might be Lalit , Kaam Ranjani or Gauri Todi , depending on where one hears " Sa " ; not that I know it , rather trying to find it out ; but that is another difficult field I am working on ...

The next one is a ghazal .
Ghazal has its roots in a kind of persian/arabic/turkish love song , which has been imported to the indian subcontinent .
But often , it is more than just a worldly love song . It can also have a double layer meaning - namely when you take the adressed lover to mean God . Then it means that you are offering a love song to God , and the singer/poet is yearning to come closer to God .

With this particular ghazal , I am glad to have found the words ( not sure everything is correct - I searched for the tidbits and short phrases here and there until I had the complete text ) . What helped me , was that there exists an almost identical old song from Mohammed Rafi , from which I found the text - So I was able to cover 60 % of the text .
Unfortunately however , I don´t have much idea about the meaning , as I recognize only few words as this ghazal seems to be in Urdu .
And for the moment I am not so inspired to go to an online dictionary and struggle my way through some words I may find . Maybe in the future .



" Das na jaaye mujhko zulfe kaliya " by Ahmed and Mohammad Hussain :

" Das na jaaye mujhko zulfe kaliya
Khub tune nagine ye paliya

Tere rukhsaro ko aksar chumkar
jhum jati hai sunehri baliya

Tum agar gulshan me jana chhod do
Bhul jayenge lachakna daliya

Agaye tum kyu chaman me benaqab
Ur gayi phulon ke rukh se laliya

Ek nazar dekhi nasha sa chagaya
Teri ankhe hai na shedi pyaliya "

Nb : The raag might be " Miyan ki Todi " or another raag belonging to Todi Thaat .

A chota khayal in raag Yaman , madhya laya Teentaal .
The language is probably Hindi or one of its precursors like Khariboli , Awadhi , Bhojpuri or Brijbhasha .



My attempt at transcribing :

" Bolo Ram nam
purat sab kam

Anga Sudhama ke sohe dhanush manu

Raghukul ki mukut mani

Praja vatsala shiromani

Manava udhar kare joi nam "