S. R. Faruqi:

phir = after that, afterwards

The theme of separation as becoming a habit is novel. For a theme similar to this one, and for an equally superb verse, see

{296,1}.

In the present verse, he has said various things only through suggestion:

(1) Even now the beloved meets him-- but not graciously, but instead coldly, or with anger.

(2) The plea to meet graciously is made only before the separation would become a habit. The reason for it is that when she will keep on meeting him graciously, then the time of separation will somehow be endured, in the hope that when a meeting takes place, it will be with graciousness and favor. In this way, the habit of separation will slowly be acquired.

(3) In so tab talak there's also the suggestion that when separation will become a habit, then the necessity or desperation to meet the beloved will also not remain. Thus there's 'poetic trickery' [makr-e shāʿirānah] in it-- that 'After some days, you won't be obliged to meet with us and endure our company. Until then, if you just behave a bit graciously, then gradually we'll acquire the habit of separation. It's not even necessary to meet us day after day and behave graciously-- merely to meet us sometimes, but to meet us graciously, is enough.'

(4) In the set of small words go , ṭuk , phir , so , there is so much meaningfulness that the greater part of the theme of the verse is indebted to them.

On the theme of the enduring of separation, Shakebi Isfahani has composed [in Persian] an excellent verse:

'We endured the days of separation, and we are alive
We hadn't suspected our own tough-lifedness.'

A [Persian] verse of Ni'mat Khan Ali's, through the intensity of its effect and the supremacy of its theme, is beyond the present verse of Mir's. But in Mir's verse the theme of becoming habituated to separation, and the attractive use of this theme, establish Mir's status even in the presence of Ali's verse. Ali:

'Alas, that the hunter kept me for so long
In the cage, that the road to the garden left my memory!'

In separation (prison), the psychology of the separated one changes; this theme moves the heart, and is full of psychological truth. But in the present verse of Mir's, the style/nature of the affair too is powerful in its own way.

Similarly, Mir has composed the theme of endurance in a way that not even the best poets can think of-- not to speak of bringing out of it such a lucid verse. From the first divan [{53,2}]:

utnī gużrī jo tire hijr meñ so us ke sabab
ṣabr marḥūm ʿajab mūnis-e tanhāʾī thā

[so much that happened in separation from you-- thus because of it
the late 'Endurance' was an extraordinarily intimate friend of solitude]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

Note for grammar fans: The milā kar doesn't come from milānā , but from milnā ; it's an intimate imperative form of what I call the 'always construction', milā karnā .