85_09x

{85,9x}

bose me;N vuh mu.zaa))iqah nah kare
par mujhe :taaqat-e savaal kahaa;N

1) in kissing, she might/would not create difficulty/scarcity
2) but in me, strength/endurance/patience of asking-- where?!

Notes:

mu.zaa))iqah : 'Reducing to straits; oppressing; oppression; making a difficulty; --difficulty; --penury, scarcity, want, necessity, distress'. (Platts p.1043)

:taaqat : 'Ability to accomplish, capability; ability, power, energy, force, strength; ability to endure, power of endurance, endurance, patience'. (Platts p.750)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Asi:

If I would ask for a kiss, then I am confident that she will create no difficulty. But the difficulty is that in me there's no strength for asking. For having no strength for asking there can be several reasons-- whether because of fear and the grandeur of beauty, or because of the pride of passion, and so on.

== Asi, pp. 162-163

Zamin:

This verse and {85,7} are both fit to be removed from the ghazal.

== Zamin, p. 231

Gyan Chand:

By 'strength' is probably meant not that from illness/disability one is too weak to speak; rather, by 'strength' is meant capacity and enthusiasm. She will not hesitate in giving kisses, but I don't have the courage/enthusiasm to ask.

== Gyan Chand, p. 302

FWP:

SETS == KAHAN

For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.

Some general points about this whole gazal have been made in {85,1}.

Perhaps the lover is too physically weak to ask, as in {52,1} where the dying lover can no longer open his eyes when the beloved appears at his bedside. (And perhaps she has waited to be cooperative about kissing until exactly that point, as she has in {59,2} with regard to allowing the lover to speak.)

Or perhaps, as in {115,7}, the lover too might even have his pride-- or his impatience, or some more general feeling of weariness.

But then, if he doesn't ask, how does he know she'd be so cooperative? The first line is, after all, in the future subjunctive, and it surely has a speculative feel to it.