===
1437,
4
===

 

{1437,4}

sair-e ;xayaal junuu;N kaa kariye .sarf kare;N taa ham par sab
patthar aap galii-kuucho;N me;N ;Dher kiye hai;N laa laa ham

1) take a look/'stroll' through the thought of madness-- so that they would expend all on us,
2) we ourself have heaped up stones in the streets and alleys, {having 'brought and brought' them / oh 'Lala'}

 

Notes:

sair karnaa : ' To take the air, to stroll, ramble, perambulate; to take amusement, to enjoy sights, to view or contemplate a beautiful landscape; to make an excursion, &c.; to read, peruse'. (Platts p.711)

 

;xayaal : 'Thought, opinion, surmise, suspicion, conception, idea, notion, fancy, imagination, conceit. whim, chimera; consideration; regard, deference; apprehension; care, concern; —an imaginary form, apparition, vision, spectre, phantom, shadow, delusion'. (Platts p.497)

 

laalaa : 'Sir, master; a school-master; a grandee ...; a respectful term of address to a father, or a father-in-law; (for lallaa or lalaa , q.v.) dear boy, darling; —(in Persian) the chief (or an upper) servant (intrusted with the education of his master's sons); a major domo; —a slave'. (Platts p.946)

S. R. Faruqi:

sair kariye = please look
aap = ourself

The theme of this verse is new, and in it the use of laa laa is devastating. For laalaa means 'boy' and 'servant'. Since it's boys who do the task of throwing stones, the word laalaa is exceedingly appropriate-- or rather, its use on this occasion ranks as a miracle.

The theme of boys' throwing stones, Sayyid Husain Khalis has versified well [in Persian]:

'The madman goes on his way, and the boys on theirs.
Oh people! In this city of yours, are there no stones?'

In our time Bani gave to Mir's theme quite a different twist, and composed a remarkably 'tumult-arousing' verse:

lo saare shahr ke patthar same;T laa))e hai;N
kahaa;N hai ham ko shab-o-roz tolne-vaalaa

[there-- we have collected and brought the stones from the whole city
where is there anyone, night and day, to heft them upon us?]

For the meaning of laalaa as 'servant', see the 'Masnavi' of Maulana-e Rum (second daftar):

'Fortitude is like a sword-bridge, with paradise on the far side.
With every beautiful one is an ugly servant [laalaa].
As long as you flee from the ugly servant, there will be no union.
Because between the ugly servant and the beloved there's no distance.'

If we look attentively, then Maulana's theme is a kind of commentary or addendum on Mir's verse. To be stoned is equal to that ugly servant who is with the beloved. If you flee from being stoned, then there will be no union (that is, the reality of passion will not be revealed).

Jur'at has well used the word laalaa with the meaning of the beloved:

us but se yih puuchhuu;Ngaa dikhaa siinah-e pur-daa;G
laale kii bahaar aisii kahii;N dekhii hai laalaa

[I will ask that idol, having shown my breast full of wounds,
'have you ever anywhere seen such a flourishing of tulips, Lala?']

Mir has versified his own theme a second time in the fifth divan [{1611,4}]:

;Dhuu;N;Dte taa i:tfaal phire;N nah un ke junuu;N kii .ziyaafat me;N
bhar rakkhii hai;N shahr kii galyaa;N patthar ham ne laa laa kar

[so that the children wouldn't wander around searching, in their entertainment of madness
we have 'brought and brought' and collected, in the streets of the city, stones]

There are also several meanings for ham par sab : (1) so that all the stones would be expended on us; (2) so that all the people would expend those stones on us; (3) so that all the boys would expend those stones on us.

FWP:

SETS == DOUBLE ACTIVATION
MOTIFS == MADNESS
NAMES
TERMS == TUMULT-AROUSING

SRF doesn't even bother to point out the primary meaning of laa laa as short for laa laa kar 'having brought and brought'. That's because he considers it so obvious that he counts on us to recognize it at once, as we surely do. And of course he makes sure of our understanding by citing {1611,4}, in which the verbal use is paramount.

Thus he can devote his energies to showing us the other senses of laalaa , which we might or might not know. And the doubly activated word- and meaning-play is indeed irresistible. Compare also the strikingly similar use of the title 'Baba' in the next verse, {1437,5}.

It's also piquant that we are invited to 'contemplate' or 'take a stroll'-- such a different form of progress than that of a madman who is either laboriously collecting stones, or else being pursued by stone-throwing urchins. And our stroll is to be through junuu;N kaa ;xayaal , the 'thought' of 'madness'. And what exactly is this? The way madness thinks? A kind of thought, perhaps in an observer's head, which is about madness? A thought that is itself madness? The speaker seems to be lucidly, or even perhaps wittily, calling our attention to his own madness.