English translation

Bulleh—how should I know?

• 1. “Momin” = devout Muslim; “mosque” signals orthodox worship. The line negates confessional identity.
• 2. “Kufr” = unbelief/heresy; “rites” stresses outward practice. Paired with “momin,” it forms a polarity the poem refuses.
• 3. “Pak/palīt” = ritually pure/impure across South Asian religious codes; the verse rejects ritual status.
• 4. Moses vs. Pharaoh: prophet vs. tyrant—archetypal moral-political opposites being negated.
• 5. “Bulleh” is the poet Bulleh Shah in vocative; the refrain enacts self-address and inquiry.
• 6. “Vedas” symbolize scriptural authority (Hindu/Sikh contexts); “books” generalizes to canon.
• 7. “Bhang” = cannabis drink; “sharāb” = alcohol; “rind mast-kharāb” = Sufi “libertines” in ecstatic inebriation—both piety and antinomian excess are set aside.
• 8. States of consciousness; Sufi–bhakti discourse points beyond both.
• 9. Lifecycle rites; the poem moves beyond social roles and ceremonies.
• 10. Classical four elements; negation of material categories.
• 11. Ethnicities and place-names across the region; the list dissolves ethnic/territorial identity.
• 12. Abrahamic genealogy; denial of fixed lineage/origin.
• 13. Non-dual realization: only the Self is to be known; the variant line that follows (“who is it that eats?”) questions agency in ordinary acts.