Ghazal 209, Verse 10

Nazm:

The meaning of this verse too is exactly that of the previous verse. And by 'leisure' is meant 'leisure for settledness and faithfulness'. (238)

== Nazm page 238

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, 'If springtime doesn't have leisure for settledness, then let it not. But nevertheless, it's the spring season. One ought to abandon this complaint, and praise the verdure of the garden and the joy and pleasingness of the cool breeze.' (296)

Bekhud Mohani:

One group of wise men have the practice that one remains pleased with the good aspect of everything, and overlooks the bad aspects. (426)

FWP:

SETS
SPRINGTIME: {13,2}

This verse and the previous one, {209,9}, seem to work as an informal verse-set.

The previous verse was saved from mere truistic prosiness by the clever use of nigar . This verse is also saved by the elegant choice and deployment of vocabulary. The first line indeed sounds as sententious as the commentators could desire. But then in the second line, the relatively uncommon word :taraavat has a strong literal sense of 'juiciness, succulence', and only secondarily that of 'greenness, verdantness'. We notice this in passing, and are a bit alerted by it.

Then the final havaa clinches the effect (on the multivalence of havaa see {8,3}): it could at least as easily refer to 'desire, lust' as to a 'spring breeze'. So that in retrospect, we're reminded that bahaar too can easily mean 'prime' or a 'flourishing state', and even chaman , which generally means 'flower-bed', can have such the secondary sense of a 'flourishing place' (see the definitions above).

Thus we're left with a verse that either: (1) praises the verdure and luxuriance of springtime (or youthful desire) despite its brevity; or (2) enjoins us to forgive springtime (or youth) for its brevity by appreciating it as the season of luxuriant, 'juicy' desire. As so often, it's up to us to choose the praises, and the evocations, for ourselves.