===
0543,
7
===

 

{543,7}

aaluudah us galii kii jo ho;N ;xaak se to miir
aab-e ;hayaat se bhii nah ve paa))o;N dho))iye

1) since they might/would be stained/smeared with the dust of that street, Mir
2) even with the 'Water of Life'-- please don't wash those feet!

 

Notes:

aaluudah : 'Defiled, polluted, sullied, soiled, stained, spoiled; smeared, immersed, covered; loaded (with), overwhelmed'. (Platts p.78)

S. R. Faruqi:

The dust of the beloved's street, or of the homeland, is better than anything-- even than gold and jewels; this theme too is common. Hazrat Shah Abd ul-Alim Asi has taken this theme to the limit of accomplishment:

ay kih go))ii taabish-e har ;zarrah az taab ;xor ast
ma:tla((-e nuur-e ;xudaa hai har .sanam-;xaane kii ;xaak

[that is to say, the radiance of every sand-grain is, through splendor, the eastern sun
the dust of every idol-temple is the rising of the light of the Lord]

But Mir has used his special style, and has brought the theme close to everyday life. If the feet would be dust-covered, then the natural thing is to wash them. From this Mir creates the theme that if the feet would be covered with the dust of the beloved's street, then he would not wash them even with the 'Water of Life'. The idea of washing the feet with the 'Water of Life' is new in its own right; the image too is fine-- that the 'Water of Life' is not vouchsafed to people even for drinking, and here he speaks of washing his feet with it!

Now let's consider some additional points. For dho))iye there are two meanings. One is that he is addressing himself ('we would not wash'), and the other is that he is giving advice to someone else: 'please don't wash your feet even with the Water of Life'.

A second point is that in the feet's being dust-covered there is the implication that no shoes are on the feet-- as though it's a commonplace thing for people to wander around barefoot from street to street. And the lover, in particular, goes barefoot into the beloved's street.

A third meaning is that he is expressing a matter of principle: that those feet that would be covered with the dust of the beloved's street are not washed even with the Water of Life-- not to speak of washing them with ordinary water. The whole verse has an extraordinary longing-filled 'mood'. Fundamentally the verse is one of 'mood', but it also has layers of meaning. He's composed a fine verse.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == ROAD
NAMES
TERMS == MOOD

Note for script fans: The spelling of ve rather than vuh is presumably meant to add emphasis and enforce pluralization, since the meter requires a long syllable and the context too requires stress: 'those feet!'.