Baba Bulleh Shah was a Punjabi Sufi poet of the Qadiri order, writing in the early 18th century as Mughal power waned. His chosen form was the kāfī — a short lyric made to be sung. His most beloved poem opens with a question and then answers it only by negation: I am not this, I am not that, until the self being described simply dissolves. That dissolution is the heart of the Sufi idea of fanā.
The verses
The refrain
Original
ਬੁੱਲ੍ਹਾ ਕੀ ਜਾਣਾ ਮੈਂ ਕੌਣ
بُلھا کی جاݨاں میں کون
Transliteration
Bullā kī jāṇā maiṅ kaun
Literal
Bulleh — what know I — I, who?
Natural English
Bulleh, what do I know of who I am?
What's happening here
This single line anchors the whole poem. It returns after every stanza like a bell, and it is never resolved — the question is the point. By addressing himself in the third person ("Bulleh"), the poet already splits the self he is about to dismantle.
- Refrain
- Rhetorical question
- Sufi fanā
Verse
Original
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਮੋਮਿਨ ਵਿਚ ਮਸੀਤਾਂ,
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਵਿਚ ਕੁਫ਼ਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਰੀਤਾਂ
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਪਾਕਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਪਲੀਤਾਂ,
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਮੂਸਾ ਨਾ ਫ਼ਿਰਊਨ
نہ میں مومن وچ مسیتاں،
نہ میں وچ کفر دیاں ریتاں
نہ میں پاکاں وچ پلیتاں،
نہ میں موسیٰ نہ فرعون
Transliteration
Nā maiṅ momin vich masītāṅ,
nā maiṅ vich kufar diyāṅ rītāṅ
Nā maiṅ pākāṅ vich palītāṅ,
nā maiṅ Mūsā nā Firaun
Literal
Not I a believer in the mosques,
not I in the rites of unbelief
Not I among the pure or impure,
not I Moses, nor Pharaoh
Natural English
I'm no believer in the mosque, nor do I follow the ways of unbelief; I am neither the pure nor the polluted — neither Moses nor Pharaoh.
What's happening here
He rejects orthodoxy and its opposite in the same breath, then the holy and the profane, then even the archetypes of prophet and tyrant. To say what he is, he first refuses every category others would sort him into.
- Anaphora (“Nā maiṅ…”)
- Antithesis
- Apophasis (via negativa)
Verse
Original
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਅੰਦਰ ਵੇਦ ਕਿਤਾਬਾਂ,
ਨਾ ਵਿਚ ਭੰਗ ਨਾ ਸ਼ਰਾਬਾਂ
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਰਿੰਦਾ ਮਸਤ ਖ਼ਰਾਬਾਂ,
ਨਾ ਵਿਚ ਜਾਗਣ ਨਾ ਵਿਚ ਸੌਣ
نہ میں اندر وید کتاباں،
نہ وچ بھنگ نہ شراباں
نہ میں رِند مست خراباں،
نہ وچ جاگݨ نہ وچ سوݨ
Transliteration
Nā maiṅ andar ved kitābāṅ,
nā vich bhang nā sharābāṅ
Nā maiṅ rindā mast kharābāṅ,
nā vich jāgaṇ nā vich saun
Literal
Not I within the Vedas and books,
not in bhang nor wines
Not I the reveller, drunk and ruined,
not in waking nor in sleep
Natural English
I am not in the Vedas or the scriptures, nor in intoxicants and wine; I am not the reckless drunkard — nor am I in waking, nor in sleep.
What's happening here
The negations widen to take in scripture and intoxication together — the sober scholar and the ecstatic drunkard alike — and then even consciousness itself. Naming both waking and sleep is a way of saying every state: he is in none of them.
- Anaphora
- Merism (waking / sleep = all states)
- Apophasis
Verse
Original
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਅਰਬੀ ਨਾ ਲਾਹੌਰੀ,
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਹਿੰਦੀ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਨਗੌਰੀ
ਨਾ ਹਿੰਦੂ ਨਾ ਤੁਰਕ ਪਿਸ਼ਾਵਰੀ,
ਨਾ ਮੈਂ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਵਿਚ ਨਦੌਨ
نہ میں عربی نہ لاہوری،
نہ میں ہندی شہر نگوری
نہ ہندو نہ ترک پشاوری،
نہ میں رہندا وچ ندون
Transliteration
Nā maiṅ arabī nā lāhorī,
nā maiṅ hindī shahr Nagaurī
Nā Hindū nā Turak Peshāwarī,
nā maiṅ rahndā vich Nadaun
Literal
Not I Arab nor Lahori,
not I Indian of the city Nagaur
Not Hindu nor Turk of Peshawar,
not I dwelling in Nadaun
Natural English
I am no Arab, nor a man of Lahore; no Indian from the town of Nagaur; neither Hindu nor Muslim of Peshawar — nor do I make my home in Nadaun.
What's happening here
Finally he dissolves nation, city, and religion at once — the very labels people fight and die over. For a reader in the diaspora, whose sense of origin is already complicated, this refusal of any fixed homeland can land with unexpected force.
- Anaphora
- Catalogue of places
- Apophasis
Meaning & legacy
Two and a half centuries on, the poem is still sung — at Sufi shrines by qawwals, and on modern stages by musicians who have set it to new melodies. Its central question travels effortlessly across every border it names, which is perhaps why it has never stopped being asked.