Ghazal 233, Verse 17

{233,17}*

ġhālib hameñ nah chheṛ kih phir josh-e ashk se
baiṭhe haiñ ham tahīyah-e t̤ūfāñ kiye huʾe

1) Ghalib, don't tease/torment us, for again with/through a turmoil of tears
2) we are settled/brooding, having made provision/arrangement for a typhoon

Notes:

chheṛnā : 'To touch, lay the hand on, pass the hand over; to meddle with, molest, interrupt, disturb, trouble, annoy, tease, torment, worry, irritate, vex, excite, provoke; to touch up, stir up, incite, stimulate, jog, urge, spur; --to question closely, or searchingly, or strictly, to call to account, take to task, censure, rebuke; to address unseemly language to, to abuse, insult; to laugh at, quiz, deride'. (Platts p.468)

 

baiṭhnā : 'To seat oneself, sit down, be seated, be unemployed or idle; to sit, brood, incubate; to alight, settle'. (Platts p.206)

 

kar baiṭhnā : 'To do effectually or thoroughly; to do deliberately, or composedly, or unconcernedly'. (Platts p.828)

 

tahīyah : 'Preparation, provision; putting in order, arrangement'. (Platts p.350)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Nazm:

Here the author has used 'typhoon' with the meaning of 'in order to raise a typhoon'; it's hard to find a warrant [sanad] for this. (265)

== Nazm page 265

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, 'Oh Ghalib, don't tease us, for again through the turmoil of tears we are settled/brooding with the intention of raising a typhoon'. (323)

Bekhud Mohani:

[Disagreeing with Nazm:] The author hasn't used 'typhoon' with the meaning of 'in order to raise a typhoon'. Rather, the meaning 'to raise a typhoon' is included within 'provision for a typhoon'. Examples of this are common.... In any case, if a 'warrant' will be demanded for every single common word, then except for silence, what answer can there be? (501)

FWP:

SETS
WARNINGS: {15,15}

On the structure of this ghazal as a kind of loosely 'continuous' one, see {233,1}.

The enjoyable contrast is between the threat of chheṛnā , with its active overtones of stirring up, inciting, exciting; and the threat of baiṭhnā , with its ominously stubborn suggestions of settling down, brooding, incubating. Surely in kiye huʾe baiṭhnā there's also an echo of the idiomatic kar baiṭhnā (see the definition above), with its strong sense of stubbornness and wilfulness.

The typhoon consists of wind and rain, and the lover with his sighs and tears is more than ready to produce one. Maybe, after all these years, it's time once again?

 

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