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vaqfah : 'A stopping; retarding; choking; —a stop, pause; a halt; —delay; respite, reprieve; vacancy; an interval, interlude; an adjournment'. (Platts p.1197)
hārnā : 'To be defeated, be worsted, be overcome, be unsuccessful; to lose (in play, or in battle, &c.); to fail; —to be fatigued, or tired out; to become dispirited'. (Platts p.1215)
māñḍnā (of which māñdnā is a variant): 'To rub; to press down, to flatten; to tread or trample on, to crush'. (Platts p.985)
FWP:
SETS == MIDPOINTS
MOTIFS == LIFE/DEATH; ROAD
NAMES
TERMSIt's surprising to see a sophisticated literary analyst like SRF conflate metaphor and vocabulary as he does at the end of his discussion. The interesting question of kal as meaning both 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow' is a peculiar thing; in Hindi/Urdu, it is still accompanied by parsoñ (for the day before yesterday, and the day after tomorrow) and used to be joined even by the now rarer narsoñ or tarsoñ (for the day three days ago, and the day three days ahead). This is something that linguists can help us explore; but it can't meaningfully be compared to the use of the journey metaphor for both life and death. Besides, in the present verse it seems that life is a journey, while death is not a journey but a 'pause' or interval or temporary break in the journey (associated with the metaphor of sleep); after we have had our brief sleep, we will presumably rise and continue the journey.
The use of dam , moments or literally 'breaths', for death provides another brilliant twist. To use measure the sleep of death as 'a few breaths' is so paradoxical, and in such a poignant and melancholy way.
Note for meter fans: Somehow I dislike the way the quasi-caesura falls between ham and log , because it's so clear both in idiomatic speech and in context that these form a tightly bonded pair. That's a sort of rational complaint. But I also really dislike the sheer sound, the very rhythm, of log koʾī , and especially the scansion of koʾī as short-long. To my ear it's just not harmonious. At least I can have the satisfaction of complaining about it here.