1548_09

{1548,9}

chitvan be-ḍhab āñkheñ phirī haiñ palkoñ se bhī naz̤ar chhūṭī
ʿishq abhī kyā jāniye ham ko kyā kyā mīr dikhāvegā

1) the appearance/look is ungainly/wild; the eyes, averted/wandering; the gaze has departed even/also from the eyelashes
2) no telling what-all, Mir, passion will still/now show us

Notes:

chitvan : 'Sight, look, glance; appearance, aspect'. (Platts p.424)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

The theme of palkoñ se bhī naz̤ar chhuṭī , Ghalib has directly taken up:

G{111,10}.

For many people it's difficult to understand the interpretation of this verse of Ghalib's. If Mir's verse had been before them, then this difficulty wouldn't have been there. Ghalib has, as is his custom, given the theme a new coloration, and created in it his special dramaticness and complex extent. But the honor of primacy is Mir's.

In Mir's verse the ambiguity of dikhāvegā , and its affinity with 'eyes', 'eyelashes,' and 'gaze' in the first line, is very fine.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == EYES; GAZE
NAMES
TERMS

And of course, if the lover's eyes are now so thoroughly dysfunctional, how will passion be able to 'show' him anything at all?

Note for translation fans: The clumsy 'what-all' is my attempt to show the pluralness of kyā kyā , which is otherwise almost impossible to convey in English.