===
1533,
1
===
 

{1533,1}

aaj hame;N betaabii sii hai .sabr kii dil se ru;x.sat thii
chaaro;N or nigah karne me;N ((aalam ((aalam ;hasrat thii

1) today we have something like restlessness/agitation-- there was the leave-taking of endurance/patience from the heart
2) in looking around in all four directions, 'world upon world' was longing/sorrow

 

Notes:

be-taabii : 'Faintness; agitation, restlessness, uneasiness, impatience'. (Platts p.202)

 

((aalam : 'The world, the universe; men, people, creatures; regions; ... —age, period, time, season; state, condition, case, circumstances'. (Platts p.757)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

The opening-verse is by way of introduction. But ((aalam ((aalam (meaning 'extremely much') is interesting and fresh. Mir has often used this kind of repetition. See

{938,1},

{938,4}.

In addition, see

{1740,1}.

FWP:

SETS == MULTIVALENT WORDS ( ((aalam ); REPETITION
MOTIFS == GAZE
NAMES
TERMS

No doubt ((aalam ((aalam can mean 'extremely much', as SRF says, but let's not lose sight of the rest of the line. The speaker is in the process of 'looking around in all four directions' , and nigah karnaa suggests a more deliberate activity than merely dekhnaa . As he looks around (with his crazed and/or mystical vision) through all the 'worlds', he sees that ((aalam after ((aalam consists entirely of ;hasrat . (Or else he sees that 'in' world after world there is ;hasrat .) Furthermore, 'world' is just a place-holder-- ((aalam is an extraordinarily protean world (see the definition above).

For a similar but more powerful use of ((aalam ((aalam see

{1740,1}.

Paying attention to the full range of ((aalam ((aalam makes for a much more striking observation than the speaker's merely seeing 'extremely much' longing/sorrow. (This still doesn't make the verse very exciting, but it's better than nothing.)