Ghazal 215, Verse 3

Nazm:

An 'arrow from a tight-drawn bow' flies very swiftly; he has given it as a simile for the beloved's carelessness/indifference of gait. And the first line of this verse, the whole thing, is an idiom; and in the second line is a negative rhetorical question-- that is, in the heart of such a one can there be any place? (244)

== Nazm page 244

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, a place cannot be created in the heart of such a beloved, whose carelessness/indifference of gait has the similitude of an arrow from a tight-drawn bow. The whole of the first line is a complete idiom. To the extent to which the bow is tightly drawn, to that very extent the arrow will be swift-flying. (303)

Bekhud Mohani:

Appropriateness [bar-jastagii] prostrates itself before the first line.... From out of the gathering of the lovers the beloved passes with such swiftness and carelessness/indifference, the way an arrow would emerge from a tight-drawn bow. (440)

FWP:

SETS
ARCHERY: {6,2}
SOUND EFFECTS: {26,7}

The beloved's gait is like the swiftest and deadliest arrow, so it will instantly 'make a place' for itself in the hapless lover's heart. And for that very reason, the process is intransitive: the lover is now doomed and in the bag, a prey of the swift hunter. So can he even imagine anyone, not to speak of himself, who could reverse the process and make a place in the hunter's own heart?

For the colloquial possibilities of the inshaa))iyah second line, compare {215,1}. It could be an expression of wistful hope ('may someone succeed!'); or of scornful denial ('as if anyone could succeed'); or even a genuine question ('would anyone be able to do it?').

The sound effects of the first line are especially enjoyable-- first the elegant long vowels of chaal jaise , then the abrupt thudding of the kaaf and retroflex and short syllable frequency in ka;Rii kamaan kaa , then the final lingering tiir .