The Word ‘Noor’: Tracing a Long Journey through Translation and Adaptation from Classical Arabic to Contemporary Punjabi/Hindi Pop Songs

In contemporary India, through popular Punjabi, Bollywood songs, we often come across the word “Noor” (tere chehre ka noor etc.) in reference to a female beauty most of the times. We have become so familiar with the word that we almost forgot that the Arabic original word gained its immortal significance when it is mentioned in the Quran in association with the God. The exact and a fixed meaning of the of word “Noor” is not given in the Quran and perhaps, that gives an opportunity which enabled the word to travel worldwide in different languages with different significance attached to it, from spiritual Sufi literature to sensational pop music. This paper will attempt to show how the word Noor has been translated, transliterated, adopted not just literally but the spiritual and religious significances attached to it. This paper will argue that the word Noor itself has not gone through so much of translation apart from transliteration but the significance associated with it have gone through tremendous translations in different languages and cultures. The paper will also argue that the journey of the word through different linguistic and cultural spheres have lost some of its significance as well gained significances through the process of translation.