0012_05

{12,5}

baḥr kam-z̤arf hai bah sān-e ḥabāb
kāsah-līs ab huʾā hai tū jis kā

1) the sea is small-capacitied, with the likeness of a bubble,
2) of which you have now become the parasite/flatterer/'bowl-licker'

Notes:

z̤arf : 'Capacity, capability; a receptacle, vessel'. (Platts p.755)

sān : 'Likeness, similitude'. (Platts p.628)

kāsah-līs : '(plate-licker) A glutton, a parasite, a feast-hunter; a flatterer; a beggar; a miser; a mean, low fellow'. Steingass p.1005)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

This and the following verse are a verse-set [qit̤ʿah-band]. The interesting thing about them is that here Mir has alluded to a scientific truth: that the water in a cloud is in reality sea water that through the heating of the sun has turned into vapor and assumes the form of a cloud. Ghalib too has versified this point:

G{48,5}.

In this smallish and apparently simple verse-set of Mir's there are also a number of verbal excellences. The dictionary meaning of kāsah-līs is 'bowl-licker'. And since the sea is very much lower than the level of the land, its shape is like a bowl. Then there's the affinity of 'sea' and 'bubble', and of 'bowl' and 'bubble' (a bubble is like an inverted bowl).

[The discussion is continued in {12,6}.]

FWP:

SETS == WORDPLAY
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == VERSE-SET

This and the following verse, {12,6}, constitute a small but strongly bonded 'verse-set' [qit̤ʿah]. This first verse can be made to stand on its own in grammatical terms, but hardly makes any real semantic sense. We're driven strongly toward the second verse.

Why the 'now'? It's inexplicable-- except that it points us toward the next verse for an explanation. In the second verse we learn that the addressee is a cloud, looking to add to its store of water.