Ghazal 28, Verse 2

{28,2}

i((tibaar-e ((ishq kii ;xaanah-;xaraabii dekhnaa
;Gair ne kii aah lekin vuh ;xafaa mujh par hu))aa

1) look at the home-wreckage of the confidence of/in passion!
2) the Other heaved a sigh, but she became angry at me

Notes:

i((tibaar : 'Confidence, trust, reliance, faith, belief; respect, esteem, repute; credit, authority, credibility; weight, importance'. (Platts p.60)

 

;xaanah-;xaraabii : 'Ruin, destruction'. (Platts p.486)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Nazm:

That is, my passion, which has become established through a sigh-- that very thing is the cause of my home-wreckedness. (29)

== Nazm page 29

Vajid:

Urdu text: Vajid 1902 {28}

Bekhud Dihlavi:

The beloved has become convinced of my passion-- and her confidence has become so firm that if even the Other absent-mindedly ever happens to sigh and lament, then she, out of fear of ill-repute and disgrace, becomes angry at me. About the Other, she's not even suspicious. (58)

Bekhud Mohani:

Just look at my ill fortune. The beloved's becoming convinced of my passion, became the reason for my destruction. When the Rival sighed, she grew angry at me; that is, even after gaining her confidence, instead of the goal of my heart being fulfilled, I am faced with rebukes. (73)

FWP:

SETS == SUBJECT?

Does i((tibaar-e ((ishq refer to the confidence the beloved has in the speaker's passion, or the confidence the speaker himself has in passion? Does ;xaanah-;xaraabii refer to an active home-wreckingness performed by an agent, or a passive home-wreckedness endured by a recipient of action? These ambiguities open a range of possibilities for putting the verse together. For example:

=Look at how ruinous it is that the beloved has confidence in the speaker's passion! She feels free to pour out all her wrath on him, even when the Other has deserved it. The compliment she pays him is a home-wrecking one.

=Look at how ruinous it is that the speaker has confidence in the power of his passion! As a faithful lover, he submitted to her unconditionally. The result was that she poured out all her wrath on him, even though it was the Other who provoked it. His confidence proved to be home-wrecking.

=Look at how ruined is the speaker's former confidence in the power of passion! He used to trust her to reward his unconditional and submissive love by treating him justly. Now he sees that his passion has no power to evoke such a response from her.

But of course, in a form of the perverse compliment, the beloved's cruelty and tyranny are part of the whole 'passion play', and the lover would never give them up. So his complaints must be read as rueful. See for example {38,1}, in which the lover reproaches the beloved for offering cruelties to others (who don't want them, and can't endure them) and not to him (who does, and can).

Another example of the versatility of ;xaanah-;xaraabii : {6,14x}.

 

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