0007_11

{7,11}

ṣubḥ chaman meñ us ko kahīñ taklīf-e havā le āʾī thī
ruḳh se gul ko mol liyā qāmat se sarv ġhulām kiyā

1) in the morning, somehow the ceremony/trouble of taking the air had brought her into the garden
2) with her cheek she bought the rose; with her stature she enslaved the cypress

Notes:

taklīf : 'Ceremony; the imposition of a burthen (upon); burden, difficulty, trouble, distress, inconvenience; molestation, injury, annoyance, hardship, grievance; suffering, ailment, affliction'. (Platts p.332)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

[This verse does not appear in SSA.]

Well, I don't blame SRF for omitting this one. I think it's by quite a margin the least enjoyable verse in the ghazal. The only point of any interest at all that I can find it is the emphasis in the first line on how casually, carelessly, even perhaps grudgingly the beloved somehow ends up taking the air in the garden. Nevertheless, the smallest glimpse of her cheek suffices to 'buy', or win the heart of, the rose, since its own cheek is so much less 'rosy' by comparison. Similarly, a look at her tall, slender stature 'enslaves' the cypress, since her lofty, swaying gait is superior to its own graceful form.

But all that is so conventional, so uncompelling! We know the beloved is beautiful, the effects she has on the rose and the cypress have been worn into mental grooves by many hundreds of verses. So what else is going on here? Nothing that I can see. Verses like this must have been easy to omit when SRF made his selection for SSA.

For SRF's discussion of the idiomatic flavor of taklīf , see {321,6}.