A theme similar to this, he has versified in the fifth divan [{1685,9}]:
sar-raftah sun nah miir kaa gar qa.sd ;xvaab hai
niinde;N ucha;Ttiyaa;N hai;N
sune yih kahaaniyaa;N
[don't listen to Mir's life-story, if your goal is sleep
sleep departs, having heard these stories]
The present verse is enjoyable for several reasons. First of all, look at ;xvaab-laa . This is a translation of [the Persian] ;xvaab-aavar . There are many of these Urdu expressions made by translating from Persian examples. This one is a special instance of Mir's style of courageous usage.
Let's also consider other aspects of pleasure in this verse. Between sunaa thaa and fasaanah is the relationship of a zila. In the first line ;xvaab means 'sleep', but in the second line it can also mean 'dream'-- especially because at that time Mir used to use ;xvaab meaning 'sleep' as feminine.
After hearing the story, the friends' sleep might abandon them for several reasons (1) the life-story was so heart-captivating that people were unable to sleep; (2) the life-story was so interesting that people wouldn't stop listening to it; (3) the life-story was so full of good counsel that people couldn't sleep, they were all absorbed in receiving good counsel; (4) they all thought about their own affairs; (5) people stopped having dreams.
Proposed textual emendations of ;xvaab-laa : Janab Farid Ahmad Barkati does not agree [in his dictionary] that ;xvaab-laa has this meaning. His view is that it's really ;xvaab laa))e , and Mir has made it on the model of the use of jaa hai in place of jaa))e hai . As a 'warrant' for jaa hai he has given a number of verses by Mir, among which is this widely famous opening-verse [{1023,1}]:
jab nasiim-e sa;har udhar jaa hai
ek sannaa;h;Taa gu;zar jaa hai
[when the spring breeze goes that way
a single/particular/unique/excellent sinister-silence passes through]
Barkati Sahib also holds the view that constructions like ;xvaab-laa are not found in Mir; otherwise, [Nisar Ahmad] Faruqi Sahib would certainly have given examples. Nisar Ahmad Faruqi has read ;xvaab-zaa [short for ;xvaab-zaad], but there's no justification for that.
Barkati Sahib is certainly right that there's no justification for reading ;xvaab-zaa . But the rest of his claims require scrutiny. The first point is that if Mir had wanted to say ;xvaab laa))e hai , then he easily could have substituted ;xvaab laa))e for ;xvaab-laa hai ; and with regard to meaning, here ;xvaab laa))e and ;xvaab-laa hai are entirely the same. Thus Mir had no need to [make changes to suit the meter].
The second point is that examples of jaa hai meaning jaa))e hai do exist, but I know of no examples of laa hai , aa hai , khaa hai , etc., meaning laa))e hai , aa))e hai , khaa))e hai , etc.
It's true that in Mir's poetry no other translated construction like ;xvaab-laa has been seen. But the language itself is full of such examples. Urdu-knowers have translated from Persian and made current many such constructions; and many others have come about of themselves: [a number of examples are given]. Thus no matter how strange ;xvaab-laa may appear in its own right (and its strangeness itself is its beauty), there are also many familiar and customary phrases of the same kind.
