Urdu, Hindi: jaan aajaan

[MonsieurGonzalito]

Friends,

Is "jaan aajaan" an idiomatic expression into itself (something like "oblivious of life"), or it must be translated word-by-word?

Example from the qalam "na to kaarvaaN kii talaash hai" (also known as "yah ishq isqh"), from the Indian movie "barsaat kii raat"

jab-jab krSHNR kii baNsii baajii
niklii raadhaa saj ke
jaan ajaan kaa dhyaan bhulaa ke

Is she "oblivious of life", "oblivious of the consideration (due to) life", or what exactly?
Translations sites propose "oblivious of all that she was taught".

[Sample Youtube: BQRHuMBtOYY at 9:47 approx]
Thanks in advance.

 

[aevynn]

I think here jaan refers to people/things that are known and ajaan refers to people/things that are not known (cf. the more common word, anjaan).

There's probably some flexibility in how to interpret the entire line, but... Given that the next line is lok laaj ko taj ke, the way I'm tempted to interpret things is that jaan-ajaan is a dvandva compound referring to people that she knows and that she doesn't know, ie, it's referring to everyone. In other words, Radha is not paying any attention to what anyone might think (whether it's someone that she knows or that she doesn't know).

EDIT: I might also point out that the verb here is bhulaanaa, rather than bhuulnaa. The implication is that maybe she's not just passively oblivious of this consideration, that maybe she's actually actively "obliviating" the consideration...!

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

Ah! it is like "gaane sune ansune" or something

 

[Qureshpor]

I think here jaan refers to people/things that are known and ajaan refers to people/things that are not known (cf. the more common word, anjaan).

There's probably some flexibility in how to interpret the entire line, but... Given that the next line is lok laaj ko taj ke, the way I'm tempted to interpret things is that jaan-ajaan is a dvandva compound referring to people that she knows and that she doesn't know, ie, it's referring to everyone. In other words, Radha is not paying any attention to what anyone might think (whether it's someone that she knows or that she doesn't know).

EDIT: I might also point out that the verb here is bhulaanaa, rather than bhuulnaa. The implication is that maybe she's not just passively oblivious of this consideration, that maybe she's actually actively "obliviating" the consideration...!

aevynn Jii, your interpretation is the most likely one.

Let me offer an unlikely explanation, just for the sake of a remote possibility.

Knowing that Radha was no ordinary person, I am also inclined to think of "jaan-ajaan" as "jaan-daar" and "be-jaan". In other words the living (humans and other creatures) as well as the non-living , the inanimate.

jab jab Krishn kii bansii baajii, niklii Radha saj ke
jaan-ajaan kaa dhyaan bhulaa ke, lok-laaj ko taj ke

Whenever Krishn played his flute, Radha in full adornement, out she came
Oblivious to animate and inanimate and abandoning all the worldly shame

 

[MonsieurGonzalito]

I wouldn't know, but, based on a quick Internet search, the alluring power of Krishna's flute "on both animate and inanimate beings" (like, shrubs, or a river) seems to be a known, set topic in Hindu imagery.