0007_05

{7,5}

sāre rind aubāsh jahāñ ke tujh se sujūd meñ rahte haiñ
bāñke ṭeṛhe tirchhe tīkhe sab kā tujh ko imām kiyā

1) all the libertines and profligates of the world remain in prostration toward/like you
2) the crooked, the bent, the perverse, the sharp/racy-- they've made you the {exemplar / spiritual guide / prayer-leader} of them all

Notes:

rind : 'A sceptic; a knave, rogue; a lewd fellow, reprobate, drunkard, debauchee, blackguard, profligate, libertine, rake'. (Platts p.600)

aubāsh : 'A mixed company or crowd of people (especially of the meanest sort), mob; canaille; --a bad character, dissolute fellow, profligate, debauchee, rake, libertine'. (Platts p.101)

bāñkā : 'Crooked in disposition, cunning, fraudulent; malevolent, refractory, rebellious; --foppish, coxcombish, dashing, showy, smart, gay, coquettish, wanton; fine; spirited; --a fop, beau, buck, dandy; bravo, bully; dissolute fellow, rake'. (Platts p. 127)

ṭeṛhā : 'Crooked, bent, distorted, awry, askew; deformed, hump-backed, bow-legged, &c.; offended, displeased, cranky; froward, obstinate; untoward, unfavourable, contrary, opposing, obstructive'. (Platts p.367)

tirchhā : 'Across, athwart, planting, oblique, crosswise, crooked, bent, awry, askant; perverse; foolish; affected, foppish'. (Platts p.317)

tīkhā : 'Sharp, hot, pungent, ... ; piercing, keen; bright, sparkling; comely, graceful; piquant, smart, lively sprightly; spruce, dapper; spicy, racy'. (Platts p.352)

imām : 'One who is followed or imitated; exemplar, guide, leader, head, head of a religion (and especially of the Mohammadan religion), patriarch; priest; minister or reader of a mosque'. (Platts p.79)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

FWP:

SETS == HUMOR; MUSHAIRAH
MOTIFS == ISLAMIC
NAMES
TERMS

[This verse does not appear in SSA.]

This one has always been a real favorite with my students, and I enjoy it too. It's a delightful way to abuse the beloved-- it's so over-the-top that she is surely meant to laugh when she hears it, and to feel backhandedly complimented rather than offended. And what a great tongue-twisting, mouth-exercising series of epithets!

The first line describes the 'libertines' and 'profligates' of the world as engaged in 'prostration' of the kind used in Muslim prayers, and tells us that the reason for their behavior is the beloved. She thus seems to be their general examplar or guide or role model: they all constantly bow down to her because they admire her ideally degenerate qualities and respect her authority over them (we take the se to mean 'toward, with, because of').

Not until the second line-- and under mushairah performance conditions, after as long a delay as is conveniently possible-- do we hear a remarkable series of epithets that not only include the metaphorical sense of 'crooked' in a moral or ethical way, but also offer a literal sense of 'bent' (in three of the four cases, which is probably the most that could be managed)-- and since prostration requires bending, the wordplay becomes truly delectable. Not until the last possible moment do we hear the crucial punch-word 'imam' and realize that the beloved might even literally be their prayer-leader in (something like?) a mosque: in that case, they would all do their namaz in rows behind her, and following her, as Muslims do when they are praying behind a prayer-leader (on this reading, the se would be short for jaise ).

For more explicit (though less enjoyable) abuse of the beloved, and further discussion, see

{1161,2}.