===
1502,
4
===

 

{1502,4}

burā hai dil kā hamāre lagnā-lagānā ġhuṣṣe se ʿāshiqī ke
nichī jabīñ se galī meñ us kī ḳharāb-o-ḳhastah phirā kareñge

1) it's bad, the attachment of our heart; from the grief/anger/suffocation of lover-ship,
2) with a lowered forehead, in her street, wretched and worn-out, we will always wander

 

Notes:

ġhuṣṣah : 'Choking, strangulation, suffocation; —(choking) wrath, rage, anger, passion; —grief, disquietude of mind, anxiety'. (Platts p.771)

S. R. Faruqi:

Mir has used ġhuṣṣah in the sense of 'sorrow' elsewhere too; see

{1219,1}.

The meaning of lagnā-lagānā is only lagnā . The idiomatic usage of Urdu is that juxtaposing two intransitive verbs , or one intransitive and one transitive, creates powerful expression-- on condition that the second verb in the pair would be made from the first, and would have an extra alif , and that this extra alif would come before the infinitive ending . For example: paṛhnā-paṛhānā , likhnā-likhānā , khelnā-khilānā , ronā-rulānā , and so on. In all of these the second verb adds no meaning; rather, it gives additional force to the meaning of the first verb. Thus Shad Azimabadi has a verse,

banā chalā ḍher rākh kā to bujhā chalā apne dil kī lekin
bahut dinoñ tak dabī-dabāʾī yih āg ai kāravāñ rahegī

[since it has become a heap of ashes, the fire of your heart has gone out; but
for many days, suppressedly, this fire, oh caravan, will remain]

In order to makie clear the interpretation of the present verse, it's necessary to pause after lagānā . And before the beginning of the following phrase, something like 'because' should be assumed. That is, the attachment of our heart is bad, because if such a thing would take place, then... and so on.

In the first line se means kī vajah se , and in the second line se means ke sāth . For an example of the former usage by Mir, see {23,7} and {1174,7}.

For an example of the latter usage, see {111,3}.

Then, this use of se in two different meanings is indicative of Mir's poetic mastery; see also

{1502,1}.

Further, it's worth noting that the result of the sorrow of lover-ship is in fact three things-- not one thing alone, as the adroit structure of the second line makes one think for a moment: (1) the forehead will be lowered; (2) he will be wretched and worn-out; and (3) he will be a wanderer.

The image of the lowered forehead is very beautiful. It has not been made clear why the forehead (not the face or the breast, as is usual) has been lowered. But several answers are possible. For example: (1) In the beloved's street people prostrate themselves, as in the second line of

{7,6}.

(2) At the beloved's doorsill, they make many prostrations.

(3) Chains were bound around the head, the way madman or qalandars used to bind them. From the third divan [{1232,3}]:

mauqūf-e harzah-gardī nahīñ kuchh qalandarī
zanjīr-e sar utār ke zanjīr-e pā karo

[it is not at all dependent on nonsensical rambling, qalandar-ship
having removed the head-chains, make foot-chains]

FWP:

SETS == SE
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

Well, a 'lowered forehead' sounds to me like an averted face. The person with a lowered forehead is looking downward-- but not necessarily in humility or for the purpose of constant prostration. A person who has lowered his head in this way is not going to look around him, he's not going to meet anyone's eyes, he may be lost in his own thoughts and feelings.

Moreover, the suggestive word ġhuṣṣah (see the definition above) includes not only the grief or sorrow emphasized by SRF, but also wrath, passion, 'suffocation'. Why should these feelings too not be brought on by the 'bad' side of 'lover-ship'? The helplessly trapped lover, wretched and worn-out, doomed to wander forever in her street-- why should he not feel suffocated? Why should he not have to struggle with his own anger?

 

 
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