===
0293,
7
===
 

{293,7}

dil-;xvaah jalaa ab tuu mujhe ai shab-e hijraa;N
mai;N so;xtah bhii munta:zir-e roz-e jazaa huu;N

1) now burn me to your heart's content, oh night of separation!
2) even/also I, the burnt/kindling one, await the 'Day of Recompense'

 

Notes:

so;xtah : 'Burnt, scorched ... ; —s.m. A slow match; tinder; a brand, torch; firewood, fuel'. (Platts p.695)

 

jazaa : 'Repayment, requital, return, retaliation, satisfaction, compensation, amends; reward, recompence'. (Platts p.381)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

dil-;xvaah = to the heart's content

In this verse is a strange kind of qalandar-like dignity. And there are aspects to the meaning as well. First of all, consider the address to the 'night of separation'. He's spoken as if the night of separation is some intelligent, aware being, and as if it's deliberately burning the speaker.

Then, in the second line, the so;xtah has both a verbal and a meaningful attraction. With regard to the 'burning' in the first line, it has a verbal affinity. But it can also mean 'cold, grieved', 'extinguished', 'withered', as in Dard's peerless verse:

jald mujh so;xtah ke paas se jaanaa kyaa thaa
aag lene magar aa))e the yih aanaa kyaa thaa

[why did you go away quickly from me, the burnt-out one?
perhaps you had come to take fire-- why did you come?]

Then, so;xtah can also mean 'kindling wood' (see 'Tilism-e hoshruba' vol. 6, p. 878, and 'Baqiyah-e tilism-e hoshrub'a vol. 1, p. 190; both are by Ahmad Husain Qamar). It's clear that this meaning too is appropriate: that the speaker is burning in such a way, or is being burnt in such a way, as if he would be firewood; or again that the speaker is a log of wood which the fire of separation would blow into flame. (For firewood [ii;Ndhan], see {15,9}.) And so;xtah can mean a coal, or some kind of thing that quickly catches fire and that is used to light a cooking-grill; this meaning too is suitable.

Now please consider the second line with regard to the roz-e jazaa . Here too there are two meanings. The speaker is waiting for the 'Day of Recompense' because on that day there will be compensation for the cruelties he has endured at the hands of the night of separation. But the 'Day of Recompense' can also be awaited because then the 'night of separation' would be punished for them: 'today let it burn me to its heart's content, but tomorrow it will get due punishment.'

The affinity between 'night' and 'day' is also fine. Between dil and so;xtah is the pleasure of a zila ( dil-so;xtah , so;xtah-dil , etc.). The power of the word bhii is worth noticing.

FWP:

SETS == BHI
MOTIFS == DOOMSDAY; NIGHT/DAY; PERSONIFICATIONS
NAMES
TERMS

SRF has pointed out the small elegant touches: the two possibilities of requital ('vengeance' on the aggressor vs. 'compensation' to the victim), the opposition of 'night' and 'day', the multivalence of so;xtah ('burnt', 'burnt-out', 'kindling', 'firewood'), the possibilities of bhii .

What leaps out is that 'now'. Why 'now'? Now that the lover is so doomed and wretched already that he won't last long? Now that the beloved is irrevocably gone? Now that the lover has nothing left to lose?