S. R. Faruqi:

This verse, with regard to theme and style both, is peerless. The beloved's coldness [sard-mihrī] is clear to everyone, but it's not clear right now whether she also has rancor toward the speaker. 'As far as coldness goes it's all very well, for why would we expect that the beloved would express any warm feelings toward us? But if in her heart there would be rancor toward us, and if this fact would be revealed, then among our peers we would be much dishonored.' Thus the speaker expresses a longing: 'May our friends and companions (or Rivals) not attempt to search out the state of the beloved's heart! Because if they search her heart, then it's possible that they would learn that she is not only cold, but rather is also hot with rancor toward me-- that is, she has rancor in both behavior and mind.

Another aspect is that as yet the speaker himself is not sure whether the beloved has rancor in her heart toward him. The speaker doesn't know the state of the beloved's heart, but he fears that just as the beloved is cold toward him, similarly she might also be hot with rancor. That is, more than the beloved, this is a sore/ulcer in the heart of the lover himself, which is piercing like a thorn in his heart.

Whether with regard to the theme, or with regard to the power of expression, or with regard to realisticness, or with regard to psychological scrutiny of the lover, this verse is peerless among its kind. This kind of imagination isn't found even in Ghalib-- not to even mention others.

Mir has called the beloved hot with rancor in other places as well. For example [{1547,9}]:

ik ʿumr mihr-varzī jin ke sabab se kī thī
pāte haiñ mīr us ko sar-garm-e kīñ hamārā

[she for whom we had done a whole lifetime of affection-exercising
we find her, Mir, eager/'hot-headed' with rancor toward us]

But this verse isn't at all equal to the present verse, because in it there isn't any kind of mysteriousness, or any inner tension. In [the Persian dictionary] bahār-e ʿajam it says that garm-kīñ implies 'a powerful enemy', and as a 'warrant' a verse by Amir Khusrau has been recorded. In the light of this meaning, the rank of {1547,9} becomes higher, and the beauty of the present verse is of course increased. But the expression 'affection-exercising' [mihr-varzī] is undoubtedly very fresh and interesting. And there's a zila with mihr in the sense of 'sun'.

[See also {1296,2}.]

FWP:

SETS == OPPOSITES; WORDPLAY
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == INSHA'IYAH; WARRANT

Why would it be such a disaster if the speaker's 'friends' were to psychoanalyze the beloved, presumably with the best of intentions, and discover what was in her heart? SRF thinks it's because it would cause him 'great dishonor' [baṛī be-ʿizzatī] in his friends' eyes. That really isn't giving the lover much credit; it makes him seem rather shallow. Surely at least as plausible is the lover's fear that he would then learn a very painful truth that he would rather not know.

As long as he doesn't know, he can hope-- perhaps her 'coldness' toward him is really just coolness, perhaps there might be ways to warm it up in the future. Perhaps it might even be just 'apparent', just an 'outward' show (see the definition of z̤āhir above), while the inner reality might be different. But if once he learned that her rancor and spite were truly 'hot' against him, how could he bear the loss of all hope?

The reason the 'friends' [yār] are brought into the verse is that apparently the beloved doesn't let the speaker visit her or converse with her-- this is an obvious mark of her 'coldness', and the coldness is manifest, it's clear to everybody. So if any further exploration of the beloved's emotions-- any 'groping' in her heart-- is to be done, it can only be done by others. The speaker's wistful protest ('Oh, if only they wouldn't...!) gives a clear impression that they in fact would, and probably will, undertake such 'groping'-- very probably with the best intentions toward their poor friend the lover. Perhaps their aim is to soften her stony heart; perhaps it is to encourage, or discourage, the lover. Perhaps they are alarmed by his crazed infatuation, and are ready, in good conscience, to override his protests and substitute their judgment for his.

This is the only Insha'iyah verse I can recall in which both lines are expressions of fear. In the first line, the speaker dreads a causal process: 'Oh, may they not search!' In the second line, he also dreads the result of it: 'Oh, may they not find (what I fear they would find)!' The common kāsh kih (in a negated form) is varied in the second line with the less common mabādā . The latter is hard to translate (see the definitions above); but that's only a problem of English idiomatic expression; the sense is not in doubt.