“Ho talo talo”(Song Review)
“Ho talo talo!,tho che da gwasthy tho gulen Mehrjan a nadesth” is a Balochi traditional song sung by Arif Baloch and written by Omar Kelkhore.
The song is entirely based on a conversation between a girl and a boy. In this song, the poet characterizes the boy as a shepherd and the girl as the owner of the folk. Poet shares a love tale in a song as the poet narrates his thoughts when the shepherd is urging his sheep then he meets the girl in the way.
When the girl is stuck on rocks at the beginning of the story, she asks the boy,” Take me down from here.”
“ What if I take you down from the rocks, what will I get in return?”, the boy replies.
She offered, “The necklace of my neck and the bangles of my hands”.
The boy utters,” What will I do with your necklace and bangles? I want to have your newly emerging blossoms from your chest?”
The girl bursts with great anger,” Don’t wish to have those, the shepherd of my Dad.”
Here the poet draws the imaginations well that the girl is terribly young and she attracts the boy and he never wants her cheap metallics but to reach her chest and touch her legs.
Then the girl replies, How dare you think about my body? The ragged dirty shepherd. You are with musty sheep and goats for years and a lifetime and smell like the worst of your animals. Can you think of these?”
The girl tells him if he tries to have me then she will be a piece of rice and will fall into clay and tiny sands and will be the tiniest among them.
The boy says, “I will be a blue pigeon of the sky and will find you and pick you up like a pigeon from the clay and sands.”
She again argues replying,” But I will be a rocky rabbit and wander in rocks as fast as them.”
He elaborates,” I will be the shepherd of your herd and feed you.”
The poet continues the tale and the girl gives a lot of excuses to avoid the boy’s desires but she gradually fails to do so because he never stops and finds a solution for her impossible myths.
The girl expresses a cultural myth that she would become a twig of Zamur ( a tree) and would grow from an edge of rocks.
He again solidifies the myth that he will be a wild goat and nap on her meadow swath and take her newly emerged twigs.
She replies that she will be a tiny cloud and be in the infinite sky and fall smoothly on the Earth like a drop of rain.
He again tries to convince that he will be a thirsty wild deer and drinks your water of fallen drops and tastes your newly emerged water.
The girl exclaims that she will be a Sheep ( a small fish that comes with new rain and is an expert at tricking people and can’t be caught easily) but he replies that he will trick her like a Sheep.
He says that he will be a needle and will catch her from the water.
She supposes that she will be a tiny snake.
He replies that he will be a snake catcher and will bring her with his magical tricks.
At the end of the story, the boy expresses well that he is the key to her any locked myths and will owe her at any cost.
Finally, she agrees to fall for him and says that she is glad to be the bride of his life longings and will be his one forever.
The shepherd, fortunately, gets her along with her love and tastes the life and sweetness of the feelings.