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dil pahlū meñ nā-tavāñ bahut hai
bīmār mirā girāñ bahut hai
1a) the heart {in the side/flank / in utility/trickery} is very weak/powerless
1b) the heart, {in the side/flank / in utility/trickery}, weak-- it's enough/plenty
2a) my sick one is very {important / burdensome / precious / gravely ill}
2b)
my sick one, {important / burdensome / precious / gravely ill}-- it's enough/plenty
pahlū : A side; flank, wing; a facet; —utility; profit, advantage; indirect or crooked expedient, dishonourable or fraudulent means'. (Platts p.289)
girāñ : 'Heavy, weighty, ponderous; great, important, momentous; difficult; burdensome, grievous; —precious, valuable'. (Platts p.901)
FWP:
SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == METERHere's an example of a 'short meter' [chhoṭī baḥr] very cleverly used. Here is a little verse of eleven words-- and even then, with four of them constrained by the needs of the refrain-- in which the very brevity and simplicity of the language are made to open up a wide range of poetic possibilities.
The excellent versatility of girāñ is particularly notable, even apart from the special idiomatic 'gravely ill' usage discussed by SRF. For girāñ is positioned in the key place-- in the rhyme-word slot, at the last possible moment before the verse ends with the final refrain. (The nā-tavāñ , which is similarly placed in the first line, is not nearly as conspicuous or emphatic-feeling.) The meanings of girāñ include 'important, momentous' (the lover often prizes his heart more than his life), 'grievous, burdensome' (taking care of such a weak invalid is of course demanding), and 'precious, valuable' (the lover knows his cherished heart to be the one truly valuable thing he owns).
SRF has pointed to the contrast between the physical lightness of a 'weak' person, who is assumed to have lost weight, and the 'heavy' quality of the heart (in the literal meaning of girāñ ). The contrast can be extended further: the 'weak' and 'sick' heart is not a useless invalid as one might expect, but is 'important', it is 'precious, valuable'. What is the relationship of this importance and value to the fact that the sick heart is (still?) located in the speaker's 'side'? Might the heart otherwise run off to the beloved, or might it die? Or is its being in the speaker's side connected with its sickness-- might it be happy and thriving if it could reach the beloved?
And then there are the idiomatic possibilities of bahut hai that SRF has discussed, which are shown in (1b) and (2b). It's really an embarrassment of riches, isn't it?
Note for translation fans: Any sensible translator would normally prefer to use 'breast' or 'chest' for pahlū , because the literal 'side' in English extends too readily into metaphorical territory (a 'side' in an argument, etc.); and especially because in English the heart is not in one's 'side' but in one's chest or breast or body. Intriguingly, however, pahlū does basically the same thing in Urdu-- it readily extends out to mean 'facet' or 'aspect', as well as 'utility, profit, advantage' and various kinds of skulduggery (see the definition above). I wanted to keep this breadth of range-- partly because of my policy of ruthlessly twisting English to bring us as close as possible to the Urdu, and partly because one could thus generate a new reading of the first line (as I have shown above). That is, the speaker's poor weak heart is quite unable to maneuver to his advantage. And here's a whole new possible pahlū of this tiny little verse.