===
0064,
7
===

 

{64,7}

vuh dil kih shaam-o-sa;har jaise pakkaa pho;Raa thaa
vuh dil kih jis se hameshah jigar figaar rahaa

1) that heart, that night and day was like a ripened boil/blister
2) that heart, through which always the liver remained wounded

 

Notes:

pakkaa : 'Ripened, matured, mature, ripe; ready to discharge matter or to suppurate, ripe (as a boil), come to a head'. (Platts p.265)

 

pho;Raa : 'Boil, sore, tumour, abscess, imposthume, ulcer'. (Platts p.292)

S. R. Faruqi:

In the second verse [of the verse-set] is the scene of the heart's be-i;xtiyaarii . The image of a 'ripened boil/blister', and in encountering the heart (that is, because of the heart) the liver's being seen to be wounded, is a good example of 'theme-creation'. This image Mir has used once again in the first divan itself, but the mention of heart and liver in the same place, and the emphasis on evening and morning, have brought the present verse to a higher level. (It's said that a blister gives more pain at dawn and at night.) In any case, the other verse based on a 'ripened blister' is like this [{449,2}]:

thaa dil jo pakkaa pho;Raa bisyaarii-e alam se
dukhtaa gayaa do-chandaa;N juu;N juu;N davaa lagaa))ii

[the heart that was a ripened boil/blister, through the extensiveness of grief,
caused twofold pain whenever they applied medicine]

In the third divan too Mir has used this image; see

{1091,3}.

[For more praise of this verse, and more 'ripened boil/blister' examples, see {64,11}.

FWP:

SETS == GROTESQUERIE; PARALLELISM
MOTIFS == LIVER
NAMES
TERMS == THEME-CREATION; VERSE-SET

This verse is the second in a verse-set that consists of six verses, from {64,6} through {64,11}. The ones not selected for SSA appear on the ghazal index page, {64}.

This one is what might be called an extreme 'verse-set' verse: if it weren't a part of a verse-set, in terms of imagery and (most importantly) grammar it would be unable to stand on its own-- unlike {64,6}, which needn't be part of a verse-set at all to be enjoyed. This verse provides a kind of amplified double evocation of a grammatical subject (the heart) with no finite verbs, while {64,10} provides a kind of amplified double verb for this subject.

This is also a verse of what I call 'grotesquerie'. Do we really want to think of the heart as 'ready to discharge matter or to suppurate, ripe (as a boil)'? Can an eruption of pus be made part of a poetically effective vision? There's no reason in principle that it can't, and when I've discussed this question with SRF he has always maintained that my distaste is simply my own cultural conditioning, and that he himself doesn't share it. In fact, in his discussion of {64,11} SRF singles out the present verse, and this image, for special admiration, and adds more examples of 'ripened boil/blister' imagery. But still I enjoy entertaining the concept of grotesquerie, which I find to be something like 'too much information'-- and of too thoroughly unappetizing a kind.