Ghazal 232, Verse 8

Nazm:

He complains to Death that he shouldn't have come even now, because there are still a lot of difficulties left. (263)

== Nazm page 263

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, oh Fate, why do you lay a death-claim upon me in the beginning of passion? Let me lie around for now in the street of love. The liver has to turn to blood, it has to flow from the eyes; I have to become disgraced in street and bazaar, and have yet to undergo many more humiliations and difficulties like these. When I would see the result of all these tasks/desires, then I would wish to die. (320-21)

Bekhud Mohani:

Mirza didn't say that still/now the liver hasn't turned into blood and flowed out of the eyes. Rather, he said that it hasn't dripped. Between these two is a difference. That is, it's clear that to turn into drops and drip out means that he wants for himself such a difficulty that he would turn his whole liver to blood, but not all at once. Rather, slowly and gradually; that is, from moment to moment difficulties would befall him, disasters would come; and when the difficulties would be finished, then the end of the liver would come. (493)

FWP:

SETS
JIGAR: {2,1}

The lover isn't finished yet-- how can Death come calling so inopportunely? Like a professional, the lover knows what needs to be done, and he knows that it hasn't yet been accomplished. He doesn't like to leave a job half-finished. So he tells Death, 'let [it] remain' [rahne de], which is colloquially used to mean 'let it go' or 'drop the subject', a sense that works perfectly in itself. Only when we get a little further along in the line do we realize that it's rahne de mujhe yaa;N , so that the literal meaning, 'let me remain here', is also invoked; but as usual, both meanings work enjoyably together.

Above all, the verse centers on the punchiness and complexities of kaam ; for discussion and more examples see {22,6}. This crucial little word is put in the punch-word position, as the last possible word in the verse, the rhyme-word; and its two fundamental meanings, the Indic 'work' and the Persian 'desire', are both utterly appropriate.

'Let me stay a while longer, because I still have a lot of work to do before I can get my liver into its ideal dripped-away state'. 'Let me stay a while longer, because I still have a lot of desire-- desire that will, one way or another, end up duly liquefying my liver.' Or, as Iqbal later put it, kaar-e jahaa;N daraaz hai / ab miraa inti:zaar kar .