S. R. Faruqi:

This verse has several interpretations. In the Qur'an it's said that all things praise God. If we look at it in this setting, then this verse is mystical and laudatory.

If we put 'passion' in a setting as a Sufistic term, then this verse becomes Sufistic and darvesh-like. By 'Sufistic term' I mean that image of passion in the light of which the cause of movement and of existence for all things is passion. As Ghalib has said,

G{138,2}.

The third interpretation is that the speaker of this verse is not some mystical-knower or person who has reached the Lord, but rather a common lover. Because of the dominance of passion, in everything in the world he sees only passion and more passion. Or he feels that whatever scenes there are in creation, all of them are somebody or other's lover or beloved. Yevtushenko has written, 'When I encounter some person whom I dislike-- that is, when I meet with some individual who doesn't please me-- then in order to arrest my displeasure I at once reflect that possibly even/also this person might be someone's beloved. And if he might probably be someone's beloved, then to his lover's eyes some good qualities must certainly be visible in him.' In Mir's verse, if the lover as speaker would see everywhere, everything influenced by the feeling of passion, then how is it strange?

Simplicity of expression, and with such a range of possibilities of meaning-- this is Mir's special style. He has composed this theme in other places as well. In the first divan [{300,3}]:

yaa rab ko))ii to vaas:tah sar-gashtagii kaa hai
yak ((ishq bhar rahaa hai tamaam aasmaan me;N

[oh Lord, is there after all some cause for stupefaction?
a single passion is filling up, in the whole sky]

In the third divan [{1158,5}]:

((ishq se jaa nahii;N ko))ii ;xaalii
dil se le ((arsh tak bharaa hai ((ishq

[there is no place empty of passion
from the heart to the heavens, is filled up with passion]

In {300,3} the tone of amazement and inquiry is very fine; the mention of a means of sar-gashtagii is an additional excellence. In {1158,5} there's a tone of revelation, but not the force of the present verse, since the first line of the present verse possesses a mood of both surprise and testimony. See

{1659,1}

and

{1417,1}.

FWP:

SETS == DOUBLE ACTIVATION
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

The clever duality of jahaa;N dekho is also enjoyable-- it can be either a relative clause ('wherever you look'), as in (1a), or else an imperative ('look at the world'), as in (1b). And needless to say, both senses work superbly with the second line, in a process that I call 'double activation'.

Note for translation fans-- It's really hard to exactly capture bharnaa . The Urdu literally says that passion is filling up 'in' the whole world. But how to put that exact sense across in English? 'Piling up'? 'Accumulating'?