0877_01

S. R. Faruqi:

The word dhañsaknā has not appeared in any dictionary-- so much so that even Farid Ahmad Barkati in his farhang-e mīr has overlooked it. He has certainly entered dhasaknā , on the basis of this verse in the second divan [{803,6}]

go dil dhasak hī jāve āñkheñ ubal hī āveñ
sab ūñch nīch kī hai ham-vār terī ḳhāt̤ir

[although the heart might indeed sink, the eyes might indeed boil over,
everything of high and low, is smooth/controlled for your sake]

In the āṣifiyah and the nūr ul-luġhāt too, it doesn't appear. Platts, Fallon, Duncan Forbes have included dhasaknā , and given more or less the same meaning: to move from its place, to fall, etc. It's possible to think that in the present verse dhañsaknā is a scribal error, and the original reading will be dhasaknā . But in all the trustworthy manuscripts, {803,6} is written with dhasaknā and the present verse with dhañsaknā . Thus it's necessary to assume that dhasaknā and dhañsaknā are both correct.

Or else it's possible that here Mir might have combined dhañsnā and khasaknā and made the new word dhañsaknā . But there's also the point that in former times this word wasn't dhañsnā , but rather dhasnā . Thus Abd ul-Vasi Hansavi in his ġharāʾib ul-luġhāt has written dhasnā and has given the meaning as 'for the ground to sink'; to this, Khan-e Arzu in navādir ul-alfāz̤ has objected that dhasnā means only 'to sit down, to fall, etc.', and not particularly for the ground to sink. Since Khan-e Arzu too hasn't written dhañsnā , the idea is reinforced that at that time the word was dhasnā . Thus the possibility increases that dhañsaknā was an established word, and that Mir did not invent it by combining dhañsnā and khasaknā .

Now however all that may be, the freshness and rareness of dhañsaknā is sufficiently proved by the fact that the word doesn't appear in common dictionaries. In the present verse, with regard to harmony of sound too, it's not necessary to say what an affinity dhañskā has. In the first line there's nothing special, but the second line he has unquestionably composed in a peerless way.

This ghazal is in a 'ground' of Vali's, and to a great extent it seems to be a 'reply' to Vali. But Vali has two or three verses such that Mir hasn't been able to approach them. Vali's opening-verse is:

ḳhūbī-e ějāz-e ḥusn-e yār agar inshā karūñ
be-takalluf ṣafḥah-e kāġhaż yad-e baiẓā karūñ

[if I would write the excellence of the miracle of the beloved's beauty
putting aside formality, I would make the page of paper a 'white hand' [as in Moses's miracle]]

Mir was not able to create an opening-verse equal to this one; nor indeed was Mir able to use the rhyme-word inshā with such an eloquent theme. Mir contented himself with doing only this much [{877,2}]:

lohū rotā hūñ maiñ har ik ḥarf-e ḳhat̤ par ham-damāñ
aur bhī rangīn jaisā tum kaho inshā karūñ

[I weep blood at every letter of the script, oh friends
As you would say/command, I would create even more colorful belles-lettres]

Though indeed, the following three verses included in the present intikhab are so lofty and fresh, that all Vali's ustad-ship becomes colorless when compared to them.

{877,1}

Notes:

S. R. Faruqi:

FWP: