===
0601,
7
===

 

{601,7}

ab ke haatho;N me;N shauq ke tere
daaman-e baadiyah kaa aa;Nchal hai

1) this time, in the hands of ardor for you
2) is the garment-hem of the skirt/border of the wilderness

 

Notes:

daaman : 'Skirt (of a garment), petticoat; sheet (of a sail); foot, or declivity (of a mountain)'. (Platts p.502)

 

baadiyah :'Desert, wilderness; forest, jungle'. (Platts p.119)

 

aa;Nchal : 'The border or hem of a cloak, veil, shawl, or mantle; a kind of sheet or wrapper'. (Platts p.89)

S. R. Faruqi:

In some manuscripts, this verse and the following one [{601,8}] are entered as a verse-set, although there's no occasion for it.

The theme and the image are interesting. When it's necessary to sweep or reverse some rug, or mat, or carpet, etc., then one or more men gather around its border and lift it. In the present verse, the enjoyable thing is that the plan is to reverse or turn over the whole desert-- thus in the hands of intensity of ardor is the border of the skirt of the desert.

Mir has used daaman kaa aa;Nchal in another place as well, but the meaning isn't entirely developed. In the sixth divan [{1878,9}]:

aa;Nchal us daaman kaa haath aataa nahii;N
miir daryaa kaa saa us kaa pher hai

[the border of that skirt doesn't come to hand
Mir, its circumference is like that of the ocean]

Thus apparently the intention is the same-- Mir has called the hem of the skirt the aa;Nchal of the skirt. This meaning of aa;Nchal is given in various dictionaries, but the entries are so full of confusion/uncertainty that one can tell that the dictionary-writers don't have full confidence. [Some examples and discussion.]

Another possibility is that in modern Hindi both aanchal and anchal mean can have the meaning of 'region, province'. For example, puurv aanchal meaning 'the eastern region' and aanchalik meaning 'related to one specific region'. But this meaning is not found in any ancient dictionary. If the meaning was known in Mir's time, then probably Mir would have here used aa;Nchal in this sense. In any case, the verse is novel/rare.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == CLOTHING/NAKEDNESS; DESERT
NAMES
TERMS == VERSE-SET

Why 'this time'? Is the speaker's madness increasing? He himself calls it not madness but 'ardor'-- but then, he would. Perhaps on previous occasions he would take out his energy by beating and scrubbing the available sheets or rugs, but now he's moved on to more desperate expedients. In any case, perhaps he is going to pick up the edge of the whole broad 'sheet' of the desert, give it (at least) a vigorous shaking, and then flap it in the air so that it settles down in some new place or manner of his choice.

Or could he be desperately clutching the garment-hem of the desert, since he cannot clutch the garment-hem of the beloved? For discussion of this possibility see {102,3}, with its citation of Momin's perfect verse on the subject.

Note for grammar fans: In English, 'your ardor' would be something felt by the 'you'. But remember that in Urdu, tere shauq can be used for both 'ardor of you' ('your ardor', felt by you) and 'ardor for you' (felt by me).