===
1590,
10
===

 

{1590,10}

raat kaa pahnaa haar jo ab tak din ko utaaraa un ne nahii;N
shaayad miir jamaal-e gul bhii us ke gale kaa haar hai aaj

1) the garland that was put on last night, that up till now, in the day, she hasn't taken off--
2) perhaps, Mir, even/also the beauty of the rose is 'a garland on her neck', today

 

Notes:

gale kaa haar honaa : 'To be or become as a necklace (to), to hang round the neck (of a person)'. (Platts p.1215)

S. R. Faruqi:

For a garland of flowers to become something that 'hangs round her neck' is a subtle conceit. There's also the implication that since the lover knows that the beloved had put on the garland last night, the lover has achieved nearness to the beloved, or he is often admitted to her court; otherwise, how would he know that the garland the beloved is wearing in the day, is the same one that she had put on at night? That is, the lover has access both night and day.

Then, by saying jamaal-e gul bhii he has also created the implication that other things (for example, the lover himself) were also 'hanging around the neck' of the beloved in any case; now the beauty of the rose too has become a garland and has draped itself around her. This theme he has expressed in various ways. In the fourth divan [{1470,3}]:

tirii chhaatii se lagnaa haar kaa achchhaa nahii;N lagtaa
mubaad is vaj'h se gul-ruu gale kaa haar-e ((aashiq ho

[the placing of a garland on your breast doesn't please me
God forbid that for this reason the rose-faced one would be a 'garland on the neck' of a lover]

In the sixth divan [{1804,2}]:

shab kaa pahnaa jo din talak hai magar
haar us ke gale kaa haar hu))aa

[the one that had been put on at night, that is there until day-- perhaps
the garland became a 'garland on her neck']

It's clear that these verse don't have the scope of implication that the present verse does. See:

{313,7}.

FWP:

SETS == IDIOMS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

This ghazal is the second of a set of two about which SRF makes special claims for an over-all 'musical' effect; see {1589,1} for his discussion.

The idiom of becoming 'a garland on the neck' of someone seems to connote adoration and a degree of perhaps almost vexing adhesion; it seems that the garland can't readily be removed, but insists on staying wrapped around the adored one. Thus it might eventually be a burden rather than an adornment.

When I ask myself about the kind of over-all 'musical' effect that SRF sees in this ghazal and the previous one, I have to admit that I can't identify any such special effect. Mir has lots of ghazals that are pleasing to recite rapidly, but if you combined this ghazal with a bunch of randomly chosen ones and asked me which one SRF considered to have this special 'musicality', I'd be at a loss to say (except that these ghazals are unusually long). The other part of his claim is that none of the verses in these two ghazals are really all that good in themselves; there I'd mostly have to agree. I'll be careful to note any other ghazals about which SRF makes this claim, so that we can have more data if possible. Since the claim is a holistic, impressionistic one, you, dear reader, can thus form your own judgment.