Ghazal 196, Verse 3

{196,3}*

har-chand har ek shai meñ tū hai
par tujh-sī koʾī shai nahīñ hai

1) {although / however much} in every single thing, You are
2) but no thing is like You

Notes:

har-chand : 'Although, even if, notwithstanding; --how-much-soever; howsoever; as often as'. (Platts p.1222)

 

shai : 'A thing, object; a matter, an affair; an article, &c.'. (Platts p.738)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Nazm:

The meaning of sī is for a simile. That is, You are beyond all physical similes. (221)

== Nazm page 221

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, despite Your manifestation of Your power in every thing, no thing has been engendered in the world that is like You. That is, You are beyond all physical similes. The verse is immersed in the flavor of Sufism, and is very fine. (279)

Bekhud Mohani:

Although there's no doubt that in every thing is the manifestation of Your power, nothing in the world is such that we would be able to call it a simile and illustration of You. That is, betweey You and the world of things there's the distinction between Maker and made, between Creator and created. (386-87)

FWP:

SETS == REPETITION

Note for meter fans: If the meter of the second line bothers you, see {196,1} for a discussion.

There's a textual discrepancy in this verse that's perhaps partly caused by its unusual metrical pattern: many editions, including Hamid, insert to before koʾī in the second line, thus restoring the more usual form of the meter (and also seeming to give the second line a more colloquial balance). But as always, I follow Arshi; and there's really no problem, since several lines in this ghazal have the same unusual scansion, and the paradoxical force of the verse is, if anything, enhanced by the absence of to .

For more on har-chand , see {59,7}.

The paradoxical quality of the verse is enhanced by its repetition: there are two occurrences of har , two of shai , two of hai , and two forms of tū . There's also a particularly enjoyable wordplay in the sequence har chand har ek : apart from the normal reading as two two-word pairs, and the repetition of har , the real delight is that har means 'every', and chand means 'some' or 'a number of', while ek is of course 'one'. This wordplay is most elegantly appropriate to the content of the verse. For another example of such number-wordplay in a very similar context, see {20,10}.

Here the beloved does seem to be God, or at least an extremely God-like being; for more such verses, see: {20,10}.

 

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