===
1352,
2
===

 

{1352,2}

mareñge ġhāʾib hazār yūñ to naz̤ar meñ hargiz nah lāvegā tū
kareñge ẓāʾiʿ ham āp hī ko bah tang ho kar tire ḥuẓūr ab

1) if a thousand {people / times we} will die hiddenly, {casually / like this}, then you will absolutely not bring it into view/attention
2) we will waste/destroy only/emphatically ourself, having become vexed, in your presence, now

 

Notes:

ġhāʾib : 'Absent; hidden, concealed, unapparant, invisible; vanished; lost'. (Platts p.769)

 

yūñ to : 'In this case; —generally speaking'. (Platts p.1253)

 

ẓāʾiʿ : 'Perishing, becoming lost or destroyed; lost, wasted, fruitless, abortive'. (Platts p.748)

 

tang : 'Contracted, straitened, confined, strait, narrow, tight; wanting, scarce, scanty, stinted, barren; distressed, poor, badly off; distracted, troubled, vexed; dejected, sad, sick (at heart)'. (Platts p.340)

S. R. Faruqi:

The sense of naz̤ar meñ lānā is 'to pay attention to, to give importance to'. Here Mir has used it in the idiomatic and the dictionary meanings both. And mareñge ġhāʾib hazār has two meanings. The first is that 'if we would die a thousand times in secret, or would die with however much trouble/pain'. The second is that 'even if a thousand people would die in secret'.

The psychological excellence in the verse is that the lover's longing is only that he may somehow come into the beloved's view/attention. In order to achieve this purpose, he is ready to commit suicide in front of the beloved, so that then the beloved would notice him. If we would depart from this life, and would receive no benefit from the beloved's attention, then so what? She will, one time, know us individually.

In modern times, some murderers and terrorists have manifested this very psychology. They say that they are doing all this so that somehow they would come into society's view/attention. Mir's psychological insight is worthy of praise, in that this theme occurred to him.

FWP:

SETS == MIDPOINTS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

The yūñ to is an intriguing 'midpoint' case. It can be read with the preceding clause: 'if a thousand {people / times we} will die hiddenly, {casually / like this}, then...'. Or it can be read with the following clause: '...{in this case / in general} you will absolutely not bring it into view/attention (see the definition of yūñ to above). In addition, the double possibilities of explanation ('like this'), or refusal of explanation ('casually, by happenstance'), of yūñ itself are both also activated by the second line.

Similarly, bah tang ho kar can be read as part either of 'we will destroy ourselves, having become vexed', or of 'having become vexed in your presence'.

 

 
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