Ghazal 34, Verse 4

{34,4}

bad-gumaanii ne nah chaahaa use sar-garm-e ;xiraam
ru;x pah har qa:trah ((araq diidah-e ;hairaa;N samjhaa

1) Suspiciousness did not want her [to be] ardent/'hot-headed' for/from a stroll/walk
2) it considered every drop of sweat on the face [to be] an amazed eye

Notes:

bad-gumaanii : 'Suspicion, mistrust, distrust; disaffection'. (Platts p.139)

 

sar-garm : 'Inflamed with love; enthusiastic, ardent, zealous, eager, earnest, intent (on); assiduous, diligent, attentive'. (Platts p.649)

 

;xiraam : 'Pace, gait, walk, march; stately gait, graceful walk; strut'. (Platts p.488)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Nazm:

That is, my suspicions didn't approve of her being eager for a stroll, because if she sweats, then I consider every drop to be the Rival's astonished eye that has fallen on her face. (33)

== Nazm page 33

Vajid:

Urdu text: Vajid 1902 {34}

Bekhud Mohani:

The beloved is so refined and delicate, or the lover is so suspicious, that not to speak of anyone else seeing her, he doesn't even want drops of sweat to appear from the heat of her coquettish gait, and likens them to the astonished eyes of a spectator. (81)

Baqir:

[The commentators Suha, Asi, and Sa'id say:] My beloved is so suspicious of me that she doesn't even like to be eager for a stroll, because she considers every drop of sweat to be my astonished eye. (112)

FWP:

SETS == PETRIFIED PHRASES; SUBJECT?
EYES {3,1}

The subject is a (semi-)personified 'Suspiciousness'. But whose is the suspiciousness, and whose are the eyes? If the suspiciousness is the speaker's, then he doesn't want the beloved to stroll around coquettishly and show herself in public. Even the drops of sweat on her brow-- perhaps it's the hot season in North India-- seem to him to be the amazed eyes of the Rivals. (On the special nature of ;hairat , see {51,9x}.)

If the suspiciousness is the beloved's, then she is so resentful of the longing gazes always fixed on her that she doesn't want to give her lover(s) any more of a show than she can help; even the drops of sweat on her brow seem to her to be their inappropriately staring eyes. (Or perhaps both lover and beloved are equally crazed and solipsistic?)

But how appropriate the petrified phrase sar-garm is here! Its normal meaning of 'eager, enthusiastic' is what strikes us first (see the definition above). Under mushairah performance conditions, of course, we'd then have to wait a bit before we were allowed to hear the second line. Only when we heard the second line and learned of the drops of sweat on her face would we look back and remind ourselves also of the literal meaning, 'hot-headed'.

Then we would realize that thanks to the multivalent powers of the i.zaafat , in the first line sar-garm-e ;xiraam can equally well mean 'hot-headed from a stroll'. Two meanings for the price of one is always a good deal.

The verb samajhnaa can mean not only 'to understand' (accurately), but also 'to consider' (subjectively, perhaps inaccurately); on this see {90,3}.

 

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