There's a phrase in my language that literally translates into "communal loneliness/melancholy", I think :D
It's when you feel nostalgic/ lonely/ melancholy for no particular reason and you miss... no one in particular. I don't really know how to render the exact phrase into English. 'Khawtlang lunglen' does not connote alone-ness but rather a sense of wistfulness for an elusive...something.
It's when you feel nostalgic/ lonely/ melancholy for no particular reason and you miss... no one in particular. I don't really know how to render the exact phrase into English. 'Khawtlang lunglen' does not connote alone-ness but rather a sense of wistfulness for an elusive...something.
It's the stuff that feeds poetry and music. Its what makes lonely bachelors compose songs, it makes lonely old maids like yours truly here stare out of their windows wistfully into a misty crescent moon...
It's what I feel everytime I listen to the radio and some old, obscure Mizo song comes up with it's tinny recording. It's what I feel when there's a power cut and the neighborhood boys dust off their guitars and sing old Mizo songs and old English country songs.
Khawtlang lunglen is not sad...
It's what I feel everytime I listen to the radio and some old, obscure Mizo song comes up with it's tinny recording. It's what I feel when there's a power cut and the neighborhood boys dust off their guitars and sing old Mizo songs and old English country songs.
Khawtlang lunglen is not sad...
Just really, really difficult to capture what it means...
Yeah so, I'm feeling it again tonight. In my part of the world, Its cold and misty and there's a power cut conveniently, and I'm staring at the distant, mist-obscured Reiek Hills...
Friend Alan commented that he too was interested in researching the etymology of a collective memory, and that kinda killed the buzz right there. Why drag academics into it? I told him to do the research and I'll do the feeling..
So yes, I'm channeling that feeling once again.
I don't miss anyone or anything in particular. I'm just reveling in the beauty of the feeling- no lights, no academics, no theories. Just me, some blues music, and my trusty laptop that refuses to churn out the appropriate bluesy vocabulary to suit my mood. Damn!
So instead here's Alison Kraus and Robert Plant's cover of Roly Salley's "Killing the blues"
Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H48TJA_vSk0. We don't wanna get sued do we?
17 comments:
siani while at it why not switch off your lp tp n everything the computr age is bringing as welln just delight in the raw beauty of nature, if u really wanna be in the mood i feel it blurs the true "khawtlang lunglen" feeling not that i enjoy kl in particulr cos to me it feels like "melancholy" n i usually feel a pang of loneliness when kl strikes even when im in a crowded place...witout these gadgets im a loner i wont survive anymore...4 instance i stare out a window n see a full moon n makes me miss my bf then wat??i take out my phone n call him...simple!!muahhaaaahaaa
Sweetheart, you hate music. thats why you won't understand what KL really means :D
It's not about feeling sad but more about imbibing the collective emotions of humanity,and empathising with them...weinch3, I sound positively spiritual.
And I thought you don't have A bf anymore, what did I miss? :P :D A rukin inlo ni leh toh mi a?
Hla chu a va mawi ve. Mr Plant has mellowed down a lot since his Led Zep days, I must say. Wonder if he ever feels KL.
the idea of khawtlang lunglen is one of the things that convinces me mizos are naturally and collectively poetic. i like to explain it to non-mizos as 'my heart wandering in the hills', lol. fairly literal, actually, but they seem to get it.
Khawtlang lunglen is the most beautiful feeling in the world. It's sad but in a really romantic way. Back in Mizoram, I would sit out on the balcony at night, watch the distant villages twinkling in the night, and my heart would be wrenched with beautiful 'lunglenna'...sigh Somehow out here in the busy city, it seems such feelings are very difficult to come by.
There's this Longfellow poem that always makes me think he was 'khawtlang lungleng' when he wrote it.
"I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain"
I think this is a perfect description. It IS a feeling of sadness and longing, but it is not really pain nor sorrow...
@Dr. Feelgood: I still get goosebumps everytime I watch the 'Stairway to heaven' vid. He's def'ly mellowed, and I bet he KL's a lot nowadays. Thanks for dropping in :)
@Fed: "Heart wandering in the hills"- that is such a perfect description. Somehow conveys everything that the phrase Khawtlang Lunglen means to say.
@Jerusha: Longfellow was def'ly KL-ing when he wrote the poem. Beautiful.. Guess the feeling's pretty universal, especially among people who have spent time among nature. Here in Aizawl, caught between the old and the new, it seems like the feeling's intensified.
Kan lung a leng tlang a niang :)
Khawtlang lunglen--i get it a lot. When i was young i used to actually cry of it. And the song is so charming.
^Its my khawtlang lunglen song-
"Somebody said they saw me
swingin' the world by the tail,
bouncin' over a white cloud,
killing the blues" :))
I cry over Khawtlang Lunglen too, 'specially when I'm ..er.. PMS-ing, heheh..
Isn't KL simply missing the past? Nothing in specific, but longing to relive them again? I'm not a very lungleng person, but for once, what I would really love to do, is lie on the greenery of a hill, with light rain falling on my face and simply watching the world passing me by, with no care in the world, even if only for that brief moment... hmm..
Black, romantic loh hmel thei bik treng2 :P
Yeap, there's a definite feeling of nostalgia, but whether that's connected to wishing to relive them- i cant say..i guess its different for different people. What I love most is the unspecific-ness of the emotion.. Okays, you really need to do a..err..whats that movie...boy renouncing the world and..oh yeah, you need to do an "into the wild" move.
Lunglen tuarin tlaini eng ka thlir... han ti dawn ila tlai ni tla ka hmu ngai bawk si lo (zing ni chhuak lah chuti bawk). "How do I get you alone" tih te ngaithla mai mai ila ni mai.
Haha, Aduh, i ve che vampire awm ve, tlai leh zing nichhuak i hmuh ngailoh chuan :D
Heart- lung an tileng, hla hlui ho hi an hlu bik emawni, tunlai chu keipawh ka ngaithla nasa tak2 ani
Hnamdang thriante'n khawtlang lunglen an man pha si lo han explain hi a buaithlak teh e. Engti paw'n sawi ila, a rilna kan phawk chhuak thei si lo hi.
Khawtlang lunglen hi chu ka nei zing. Engemaw changin office tukverh atrangin ka han hawi chhuak a, khawthiang tak ka hmuhte hian ka lungleng ngawih ngawih zel. Ruahsur ni paw'n a ni tho.
hei i awmloh laiin kan lo lungleng vung2 anih hi.Min kawm duh tawhlo emaw te kan lo ti hman asin, ilo damlo daih sia.. Lo dam zel ang che..
KL mood a awmlai hi chuan ee, engpawh hian lung a len. Thlawhtheina a ka chuan apiangin ka awm ngei2 ziah, no matter where am going.
dont accuse me of dragging everything into academics. im intuitively curious.
Nia...ka booty ka zuah buk pawh dawl zawrin a zawr :) Nithum chaw ei loh chu a lo chauh theih ngei mai.
I video khi a va luangliam nasa ve. Ka bulah hian thru la zirtir che ka va'n chak tak.
@-K" aLAN? Alan, is that you??? but you do drag everything into acads, you brainiac you. welcome to my blog. Ilo blog ve alo? heheh..will check urs out..ka va rel sual teuh che ve a.
@Lucy: Min zirtir tak2 theila ka va ti emmmm..ka thiam theilo raaapthlak mahse hetiang lam hi.. phuahchop theihloh hi chu ka thiamlo ani top.
Post a Comment