1312_11

{1312,11}

ġhairat se tang āʾe ġhairoñ se laṛ mareñge
āge bhī mīr saiyid karte gaʾe haiñ sākā

1) having become vexed/irritated through honor/pride/shame, we will fight to the death with the Others
2) even/also previously, Mir, the Sayyids have gone on doing epoch-making [heroism]

Notes:

ġhairat : 'Jealousy, source or cause of jealousy; care of what is sacred or inviolable; a nice sense of honour; honour; courage, spirit; modesty, bashfulness, shame; —envy, emulation; disdain, indignation; enmity'. (Platts p.774)

sākā : 'Era, epoch (generally applied to the era of Sālivāhan, reckoning from about 78 ¼ of the Christian era): —sākā karnā , v.n. To establish an era; (met.) to distinguish oneself by heroic actions'. (Platts p.625)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

sākā karnā = to establish one's word, to win prestige by some act of courage, to make war

As many meanings as I've given for sākā , they are all in this verse completely effective. The wordplay of ġhairat and ġhairoñ is also fine. Although sākā karnā has the meanings of 'to perform a successful task' and 'to establish one's word', it's usually used in the sense of 'to make war', and this sense also contains the veiled suggestion that the one making war will establish his reputation for bravery, but he himself will no longer be alive.

By speaking of the historical and ancestral story of the Sayyids' performing sākā karnā , Mir has also alluded to the fighting and martyrdom of Imam Husain. The enjoyable thing is that in the tone there's no kind of drama or tension; rather, there's a dignity and grandeur. Nor is there any self-exaltation either-- he knows that the outcome can only be defeat. About this there's no fear/dread or heroic grandeur; there's only a description of reality. He's composed a fine verse.

[See also {1494,2}.]

FWP:

SETS == GRANDIOSITY
MOTIFS
NAMES == OTHER; SAYYID
TERMS == 'MEANING-PLAY'

Why has the speaker now decided to fight to the death? Because he's grown vexed or annoyed through ġhairat , a sense of 'jealousy, honor, shame, indignation' (see the definition above). It's an internal emotion that is often provoked or exacerbated by the behavior of others. The speaker's ġhairat has driven him to challenge his enemy, the 'Other' [ġhair], to something like a duel or a personal combat. Thus the relationship between ġhairat and ġhairoñ is not just that of wordplay, but constitutes a 'meaning-play' as well. The two concepts are partly opposite (internal vs. external), but also partly similar (both, for the lover, involve jealousy, pride, and rivalry).

For 'Mir' to announce himself as a fighter, a heroic warrior, even (almost sacrilegiously) a sacred martyr, and to proclaim his own martial qualities before showing them on the battlefield-- what is this if not a form of grandiosity? That second line, in my view, drips with pompous self-glorification. The only way I can at all enjoy the verse is to read it as self-deflatingly satirical or humorous; as so often, nothing in the verse encourages (or discourages) such a reading. This verse thus becomes another example of problems of 'tone'; for discussion, see {724,2}.