S. R. Faruqi:

For several verses of this kind on the theme of body and spirit, see

{1123,5}

and

{1620,3}.

As I've already said, on this theme Mir has always brought out one new aspect after another. Here too, some aspects are entirely fresh. Both lines are insha'iyah. The second line has two meanings: (1) perhaps that pleasure might be in some pure spirit; (1) perhaps such pleasure might or might not be in some pure spirit-- it cannot be in any body. The wordplay of lut̤f and lat̤āfat is also fine.

The use of jān-e pāk in the sense of 'spirit, soul' is neither in bahār-e ʿajam nor in farhang-e ānand-raj , although Sa'adi has versified it [in Persian] in the Gulistan:

'When the jān-e pāk would have a desire to go,
Then to die on a throne, or on the bare ground-- what does it matter?'

In the urdū luġhāt of the Taraqqi Urdu Board, Karachi, a verse by Mir Hasan has been cited and jān-e pāk has been said to refer to the Prophet of God. Mir Hasan's verse contains a very remote possibility of this, but in Mir's verse there's no need at all to make guesses about this meaning. Since the spirit's attribute has also been said to be 'sinlessness' (in the ānand-raj ), for jān-e pāk only/emphatically the meaning of 'spirit' is proper and appropriate.

Because kyā kahiye is insha'iyah, it has several possibilities of meaning: (1) What can I say-- I can find no proper words, no appropriate expression; (2) It's not something that is to be spoken of; (2) Whatever one might say, it's proper. On such occasions, Mir has made great use of this style. From the fourth divan [{1462,3}]:

hāʾe lat̤āfat jism kī us ke mar hī gayā hūñ pūchho mat
jab se tan-e nāzuk vuh dekhā tab se mujh meñ jān nahīñ

[alas, the refinement of her body! -- I have died!-- don't ask!
since I saw that delicate body, there has been no life/spirit in me]

From the second divan:

{1039,5}

From the second divan:

{1041,1}

From the first divan:

{584,3}

In these verses, the insha'iyah interrogative style, especially of pūchho mat , kuchh nah pūchho , kyā jāniʾe , kyā ... hai , nah kuchh pūchho , kyā kahiye , creates an abundance of force and meaning in the poetry. Not every poet can arrive at a style like this, and nobody has such an abundance of it as Mir.

For example, Mus'hafi has an extremely excellent verse:

ik bijlī kī kond ham ne dekhī
aur log kaheñ haiñ vuh badan thā

[a single bolt of lightning, we saw
other people say that was a body]

In Intizar Husain's novel 'Basti', Zakir by mistake opens the bathroom door when Sabirah is bathing, and something like lightning flashes before his eyes. In both cases the images and the 'dramaticness' are fine. But the lack of an insha'iyah style makes itself felt. In Intizar Husain's case it wouldn't have been easy, after all, since that was an expression in prose; but in verse it certainly ought to become possible, for in such a theme it's clear that only weakness of the pen can inhibit the poet.

Janab 'Abd ul-Rashid has, on the strength of the diḳhudā [dictionary], maintained that the meaning of jān-e pāk is 'a pure spirit'; and he has also cited verses by Vajdi Dakani and Yakru Dihlavi in which jān-e pāk has been used, but in neither of these verses has jān-e pāk been used to mean 'a pure spirit'. On the contrary: Yakru's verse uses jān-e pāk to mean only 'life' or 'spirit':

ā milo mihrbāñ ho yakrū señ
kuchh nahīñ us meñ jān-e pāk payā

[come, meet him, be gracious to Yakru
nothing is left of the spirit/life in him]

And in Mir's verse, too, there's not a trace of jān-e pāk as meaning 'a pure spirit'.

FWP:

SETS == KYA
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == INSHA'IYAH; THEME

The 'kya effect' is of course elegantly present in the first line: we can read an affirmative exclamation ('How you will speak...!'), a scornful repudiation ('What! As if you'll speak...!'), or a genuine question ('Will you speak...?').

The shāyad here, as compared to the English 'perhaps', seems to have a more negative flavor: 'perhaps' the same thing can be found elsewhere-- but perhaps not, with strong overtones of 'probably not'. In short, 'don't count on it'. The English 'perhaps' sounds a bit more hopeful: 'perhaps the same thing can be found somewhere else' sounds like a suggestion that it might well be sought for. In English, to get an equally negative flavor we might say 'the thing will hardly be found anywhere else' or 'otherwise the thing can be found only with great difficulty'. So not only does the beloved's delicate, refined body offer a pleasure so subtle that no other body can provide it-- her body offers a pleasure that very possibly not even any spirit can provide.