===
0544,
1
===
 

{544,1}

shab gaʾe the bāġh meñ ham z̤ulm ke māre huʾe
jān ko apnī gul-e mahtāb angāre huʾe

1) last night we had gone into the garden, stricken by tyranny/cruelty
2) to our spirit/life, the 'roses of moonlight' became glowing coals

 

Notes:

gul-e māh-tāb : 'The shadow falling in moonlight from the leaves of trees; a rose blooming at night (in India)'. (Steingass p.1093)

 

angārā : 'Heated charcoal, a live coal, fire, firebrand, a bit of fire, cinder, spark; burning matter'. (Platts p.96)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

The opening-verse is by way of introduction, and is devoid of pleasure. A gul-e mahtāb or gul-e chāñdnī is a strongly-scented thick-petalled white flower that opens/blooms on a bush with thick shining leaves. Since it blooms abundantly, if lots of flowers would be open on the bush, then it seems that here and there lamps are burning. Mir has used this flower as a metaphor for the beloved in a much better verse in the first divan itself [{446,7}]:

us mah ke jalve se kuchh tā mīr yād deve
ab ke gharoñ meñ ham ne sab chāñdnī hai boʾī

[from the radiance/appearance of that moon, Miir, so that it would be a reminder,
now in the houses we have everywhere sown 'moonlight']

In Platts' dictionary the meaning of gul-e chāñdnī has been given correctly, but gul-e mahtāb has not been entered. [Further reports on dictionaries.] For additional discussion, see {757,3}.

In the present verse, a subtle kind of pleasure is that both the moonlight and the 'rose of moonlight' are particularly cool, but here they have been called 'glowing coals'.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

I have nothing special to add.

 

 
-- urdu script -- devanagari -- diacritics -- plain roman -- more information --