S. R. Faruqi:

He has composed this theme a number of times. See

{743,2}.

But in the present verse, the lightness/swiftness of expression is a marvel, and outranks a thousand exaggerations. Humans have been forced, under coercion, to come into the world. This coercion is of two kinds. One is that ancient and primal coercion, human sin, because of which Hazrat Adam was forced to leave Paradise. The second is that common coercion that after Hazrat Adam (and because of him) is the destiny of every human-- that is, to be born, so that the spirit is forced to come from the [Sufistic] 'world of spirits' into the 'world of water and earth'. These two grand, glorious, and melancholy realities he has captured in a phrase as ambiguous, meaningful, and apparently superficial as asbaab pa;Re yuu;N .

Then, a human is here for an extended period, but this period is less than the period when he was in the 'world of the spirits' (because its beginning had taken place on roz-e alast , the day of 'Am I not' [when God said, 'Am I not your Lord', Qur'an 7:172], and the time since that beginning is very small indeed, in which the spirit has been in the finite world. Thus in comparison with those long ages the history of the human species is very short, and to construe it as only 'a few days' is masterful meaning-generation and a limit case of eloquence [balaa;Gat].

In the verse, there's a tone of melancholy and fatigue/lassitude and separation/forlornness [mahjuurii]. But since any human's lifespan is very little compared to the whole history of the human species, there's also a slight ray of hope that this separation/forlornness won't last very long.

It's possible that Mir might have taken his verse from [the Persian of] Hafiz:

'I am a bird of the garden of Paradise, how can I give an account of separation,
For in this net-place of events, I became trapped.'

Unquestionably Mir has nothing to equal Hafiz's powerful 'net-place of events' [daam-gah-e ;haadi;sah]. But in Mir's verse the depth/layeredness is greater. Both verses, in their respective ways, are peerless.

In Mir's verse, in the first line the collection of qualities and the abundance of Persian and Arabic words-- and in opposition to this, the simplicity of the second line-- are very fine. There's also an aspect of meaning in it: that the elaborate and formal words of the first line are the opulence of the 'world of spirits', and the simple words of the second line are symbols of the speaker's poverty and helplessness in the 'world of water and earth'.

[See also {1480,3}.]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

For SRF's detailed discussion of the relevant Sufi views, see {743,2}. The second line emphasizes the 'here', as opposed to the implicit Sufistic 'there' of the first line.

I tend to think of asbaab as some bunch of physical things, like saamaan . This is Platts's sense of the term as a noun (see the definition above). And this is definitely how Mir has used it in the famous {11,3} and most of the other times it appears in his ghazals. I had a whole interpretation worked out in which the qualities named in the first line would be the 'baggage' that the speaker had brought into this world-- and then had neglected.

But that interpretation didn't feel persuasive enough enough to counter SRF's reading, which was also supported by my friend Zahra Sabri. So I've given it up (having noted it down just to show my lingering regret). But abandoning it does have the great advantage of allowing the second line to float freely in the winds of ambiguity.

Oh, the powerful vagueness and suggestiveness of that second line! The idiomatic 'things simply fell out that way' is, after all, not the worst counterpart for asbaab pa;Re . Plainly the speaker doesn't want to offer any real explanation of how or why he has come to be 'here'. Because he's ashamed of his sinfulness? Because he doesn't want to complain against God's cruelty? Because he thinks the addressee shouldn't hear the story? Because it's such a long story, and he simply doesn't want to go into it? Because it's 'just one of those things' ( yuu;N )? The range of possible tones for such an understated line is as wide as what we think about life.