S. R. Faruqi:

The addressee of the verse can be the beloved, or some ordinary person, or some authority figure (for example, some ruler, etc.). Because of the ambiguity of the second line, various meanings are possible:

(1) 'There is one more favorable (person) who confronts me.' Here mihrbāñ is sarcastic; and mirī or honā too can be sarcastic in the same way. Or again, it can be a translation [into Hindi?] of 'to be beside' [t̤araf honā], of which two meanings are suitable: (a) 'to oppose, to confront, to fight'; and (b) its usual meaning, 'to be with, to agree with'. Then, for ik mihrbāñ aur hai as well, two meanings are possible: (a) There is one more favorable person; that is, you are of course there, but there is also someone else; and (b) There is one person who is even more favorable than you. In either case, both meanings of mihrbāñ remain established.

(2) 'You may be a thousand-fold against me, but I have another, favorable person' (who outweighs you, and all your enmity).

(3) 'Oh favorable one! On my side there's another person.' Here both meanings of t̤araf are possible.

(4) If we take 'favorable one' to be sarcastic, then one more meaning emerges: 'You may have a thousand-fold malevolence toward me, but nevertheless I have another enemy as well.

In the first line, ṣad rang is interesting. With regard to the meaning of rang as 'style, way', ṣad rang means 'in a hundred styles'. That is, 'If you wish, then show many kinds of enmity toward me'. If ṣad rang would be taken to mean 'possessing a hundred styles' (see

{897,7}),

then the meaning becomes 'an enmity that would have a hundred colors/styles'. If we consider ṣad rang to be vocative, then the meaning becomes 'oh hundred-colored (beloved)'; that is, one who has many new glories and new forms.

Then, kīñ means 'hatred, rancor, malevolence' [kīnah], and also 'war, enmity'. In short, in this verse every word yields more than its common meaning.

Then, with regard to meaning, the tone of the verse changes as well. If mihrbāñ is sarcastic, then in the tone there's a hopelessness, some bitterness, and a bit of complaing at the lack of justice in the running of the universe. That is, 'The addressee (the beloved, or someone else) was hardly deficient in enmity, and hardly fell short in abusing me, that one more enemy would be needed to harass me!' There is a Chinese saying, 'If you have nine hundred ninety-nine friends and one enemy, you will still see that enemy everywhere'. There's some such situation in this verse. If mihrbāñ is in its real meaning, then in the tone of the verse there's a darvesh-like confidence, trust in God, and dignity.

One question that arises is, who is the other person who is the speaker's enemy? That is, there's certainly one enemy, whom the speaker is addressing. And another one, who is mentioned in the second line. So who is that second enemy? Several replies are possible. The other enemy can be fate and destiny; the heavens; some enemy in the guise of a friend; or any opponent. Or if the addressee in the first line is not the beloved, but rather someone or something like those just mentioned, then the enemy in the second line can be the beloved. In short, there are extraordinarily colorful possibilities.

Above all, there's the possibility that in the universe mankind is a stranger, an outsider, and appears as the target of strange/alien powers. Mir has, as usual, expressed a deep idea within the everyday. The essence of human melancholy has entered into this verse.

FWP:

SETS == EK
MOTIFS == SCRIPT EFFECTS
NAMES
TERMS == AMBIGUITY

The nice script effect of or and aur is also worth noticing.

And then there's the tiny little ik , with its extensive baggage that adds to the ambiguities surrounding the mihrbāñ .