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kab se āne kahte haiñ tashrīf nahīñ lāte haiñ hanūz
āñkheñ mundīñ ab jā chuke ham ve dekho to āte haiñ hanūz
1) for how long has she said that she will come?! --she does not deign to come, still/now
2) our eyes have closed, now, we have already gone; take a look, (whether) she comes, still/now!
FWP:
SETS == HANUZ
MOTIFS == DEAD LOVER SPEAKS
NAMES
TERMSThis is one of only a handful of ghazals to which SRF has paid tribute by selecting every single verse for inclusion in his commentary.
Perhaps the dying lover exaggerates when he says he's already died [ab jā chuke ham], and he's really just hamming it up in the hope that someone will run and fetch her. But perhaps he actually means it, and he's already dead. In this case there are two piquant possibilities: One is the sarcastic one envisioned by SRF: it would be just like the beloved to (deliberately? indifferently?) come when it's too late and her lover is already dead. But the other is an actual serious inquiry: even though the lover is already dead, he can't stop wishing for the beloved to come to his bedside.
Note for grammar fans: In the first line, kab se āne [ ko ] kahte haiñ would literally be 'since when does she say 'to come''. The grammar of Urdu and English swing far apart here, so I've just gotten the point across without my usual clunky literalness.
Note for translation fans: How to convey the sarcastic (?) formality of tashrīf lānā ? The closest thing I could think of was 'deign to come'. It's not ideal, but at least it provides an appropriate contrast to the ordinary ānā earlier in the line.