Anda Jonim Qoldi Mening

We sit on a tapchan in a chaikhana at the center of Andijon, eating potato-samosas in the sun, talking about the Kyrgyz-Uzbek conflict that has displaced a hundred thousand ethnic Uzbeks across the border. Osh lies scarcely 35 miles to the SE across the low hills we see in the middle distance. Talk turns to expatriation. Ferghana also exports her sons; millions find work away from the densely populated Valley in other cities of Uzbekistan, and also in Kazakhstan, in Russia, or beyond. Here someone's friend works as a waiter in a Tokyo restaurant, there someone's brother is a cabbie in Sydney.

The exile's anthem is Anda Jonim Qoldi Mening (Over There Remains This Soul of Mine), a play on Andijonim (My Andijon), and sung from the perspective of that most famous of exported sons, Babur Mirza. The lyrics are by the contemporary poet Latif, incorporating some verse originally penned by Babur himself (source text here). The verse of Babur's segment follows the meter of the complex syllable-length-based aruz system, the rest of the song is based on the more common barmaq. Aruz is a Persian-Arab prosodic meter based on alternate long and short syllables; it is ill suited to Turkic languages, you can see from the Chagatai original the different feel of Babur's verse compared to the contemporary Uzbek words.

After his descent into the plains of India, Babur never saw his beloved Andijon again. In 1528-29, towards the end of his days (he was 45 years old), Babur ordered a great festival, or tamasha. Nobles gathered from different regions of his empire, along with anyone who could claim descent from Timur or Genghis Khan. Groups of peasants from Ferghana who had befriended and aided the fugitive Babur before he was an emperor, were invited and given places of honor. He gave away gifts in a final accounting, almost emptying out his treasury (after his death his soliders were asked to return a third of their pay); by this time, he was coughing blood, bleeding from his ears, and smoking hashish to bear the pain.

Humayun (then about 20), fearing the succession might be tampered with, rushed back to Agra, but fell seriously ill on arrival. Babur is said to have circled the sick-bed, praying to God to take his life instead of his son's. Tradition says that following this prayer, every day Humayun got a little better, and Babur became more and more ill with a fever. Babur Mirza died at age 47 in 1531, his last words apparently being to Humayun, "Do nothing against your brothers, even though they might deserve it."

Babur was first buried in Agra; when Sher Shah temporarily defeated Humayun, the remains were banished to Kabul courtesy of the Suris. Some years ago, Uzbek delegations dug up earth from both the graves, and reburied the clods on a hillside overlooking Andijon, behind a little monument that now houses a small museum, a statue of a pensive Babur at the front.

Anda Jonim Qoldi Mening was recorded by Sherali Jurayev, a well-known Uzbek singer. You can see him below singing the song -- in two parts -- to a gathering of Uzbek bigwigs (who can presumably identify with Babur Mirza's confession of 'many hundred black deeds.') The book he flips seems to be the English hardcover edition of Wheeler M. Thackston's Baburnama. Karimov found some lyrics in Jurayev's other works objectionable, and the singer's hobnobbing with the activist British Ambassador Craig Murray did not go down well; these have apparently earned Jurayev a ban from Uzbek radio and TV, but he is still said to be able to perform in private.


Anda Jonim Qoldi Mening

Padarimni yutib ketgan
Jarda jonim qoldi mening
Qalbim torin tortib chertgan
Jarda jonim qoldi mening
Qalam birlan shamshir tutgan
Jarda jonim qoldi mening

Shaboblikda shabgir eigan
Jarda jonim qoldi mening
Anda jonim olib qolg'on
Andijonim qoldi mening

Nodirimsan Andijonim
Qalbim hargiz tark etmayin
Habibimsan Andijonim
Yoddin hargiz trak etmayin

Ilhomchisan Andijonim shirin
Hargiz tark etmayin
Andan onim boqiy etgan
Andijonim qoldi mening

Bobir-i-man fatva bergan
Yurtim hargiz tark etmayin
Andan onim boqiy etgan
Andijonim qoldi mening.

Bog'ishamol nasib etgan
kuygan dilim zor aylabon.
Riolikni rafiq bilgan
Raqiblar ozor aylabon.

Diyorimda muqumlikni
zamonam dushman aylabon
Furqatiga ehtimolim
Afg'onga istiqbol aylabon
Farzandini mehmon eigan
Andijonim qoldi mening


by Babur:


Har yong'aki azm estam
yonimda borur mexhat
Har soriki yuzlansam
O'trumda kelur qayg'y.
Yuz jabry sitam ko'rgan
Ming mexnaty g'am ko'rgan.
Osoyishe kam ko'rgan
Mendek yana bir bormy?
Tole' o'qi jonimg'a baloliq bo'ldi
O'z yerni qo'yib
Hind sori yuzlandim
Yo Rab, netayin,
ne yuz qaroliq bo'ldi.


In the ravine that swallowed my father
Over there remains this soul of mine
With the friend who plucked the strings of my heart,
Over there remains this soul of mine.
In the place where the pen is wielded like a sword
Over there remains this soul of mine.

In my youth they attacked by night, but
Over there remains this soul of mine
There they made me heartless; but
In my Andijon remains this soul of mine.

You are my precious, my Andijon,
May my heart never leave you.
You are my beloved, my Andijon,
May your memory never leave me.

You are my inspiration, Andijon my sweet,
May I never leave you.
Away from you my moments stretch out forever
In my Andijon remains this soul of mine.

As Babur-mine beseeched
May I never lose my homeland
Away from you my moments stretch out forever
In my Andijon remains this soul of mine.

My burning heart, which has had the fortune
to visit Bog'ishamol, suffers bitterly,
I have been a friend to the learned,
And a havoc-raising enemy for my opponents.

Long life in my own land
My times antagonised
And a future of separation
Brought me to the Afghan
You treat your own son as a guest, but
In my Andijon remains this soul of mine.

by Babur:

Whatever course I resolve upon,
trouble travels at my side.
Whichever direction I turn
I run into heartache.
I have seen a hundred burdens
A thousand troubles and woes.
I have seen so little peace
Is there any other one like me?
Destiny's arrow has become my soul's calamity.
Putting my homeland behind me,
I turned my face toward Hind.
Oh, Lord, why did I do it? How many
Hundred black deeds have there been.