S. R. Faruqi:

In this verse the meaning is nothing special, but there's certainly a powerful 'mood'. Nevertheless, in the second line there are three layers. One is that the speaker is offering a prayer: ;Oh Lord, on Doomsday, don't add up my account!'. The second meaning is that after death, before the Recording Angels (or perhaps before the Lord himself) he is directly saying, 'Don't add up my account'.

In the third meaning, the line is based on speaking to oneself, and the meaning is one of doubt/suspicion. That is, suddenly, or on some occasion, with regard to some utterance or action the fear or doubt has arisen-- 'Oh Lord (in a tone of astonishment or anxiety)-- in the Day of Reckoning, would my words and deeds not somehow begin to be counted up? My deeds and words are so numerous that they are beyond counting. Now if my accounts would begin to be made, then there will be no end of it!'

For Doomsday, to use 'the Day of Reckoning' is very beautiful here, because it has an affinity with ḥad-o-ḥisāb and ḥisāb . The repetition of kahā kiyā and kahe kiye is superb, because through the regular abundance of deeds and words the meaning is strengthened.

There's also a suggestion that instead of an accounting of my words and deeds, it would be better if there would be an accounting of my longings and desires-- for they are still less numerous than my words and deeds. The ambiguity of kahā is also enjoyable, since in it are include both poetry and ordinary conversation, as well as blessings and curses.

Mir has expressed this theme a number of times, but not as well as he did in the present verse. From the second divan [{668,4}]:

anvāʿ-e jurm mere phir be-shumār-o-be-ḥad
roz-e ḥisāb leñge mujh se ḥisāb kyā kyā

[the kinds of my sins-- well, countless and limitless
on the Day of Reckoning, what-all account will they take from me!]

From the fifth divan [{1613,7}]:

jurm-o-żunūb to haiñ be-ḥadd-o-ḥaṣr yā rab
roz-e ḥisāb leñge mujh se ḥisāb kyūñ-kar

[the sins and faults are limitless and uncircumscribable, oh Lord
on the Day of Reckoning, how will they take an account from me?]

From the fifth divan [{1694,5}]:

ronā roz-e shumār kā mujh ko āṭh pahar ab rahtā hai
yaʿnī mere gunāhoñ ko kuchh ḥadd-o-ḥaṣr-o-ḥisāb nahīñ

[weeping over the Day of Reckoning-- now I keep doing it day and night
that is, of my sins, there's no limit or circumscription or account]

It's interesting that if we include the present verse, then in the fifth divan he's versified this theme three times. And the second line of {668,4} is almost entirely identical to that of {1613,7}. Poetry is such a difficult art that in it the imaginative power of even a poet like Mir can, even if only one time in a thousand), prove unsuccessful.

FWP:

SETS == REPETITION
MOTIFS == DOOMSDAY
NAMES == LORD
TERMS == MOOD; THEME

I just don't care for this verse, in any of its little cookie-cutter variants. It feels so minor and conventional. Ghalib has two similar ones, and I don't care for them either. For discussion see

G{79,2}.

Note for meter fans: The feet ka-haa ki- in the first line, and ka-he ki- in the second line, are both scanned short-long-short instead of the normal long-short-short. This syncopation is a permissible variant in this meter.