Faruqi sees this as an extremely subtle, complex verse involving the nuances of the beloved's pride in her beauty. I see it as a wryly funny one, and a classic mushairah verse in style and structure. The first line sets up an archetypal ghazal-world problem: the beloved is arrogantly absorbed in her own beauty, and completely indifferent both to the lover's own faithfulness, and to his wistful longing for her to be faithful in return. This is such a stock situation that it gives us absolutely no hint as to where the second line might take us. Finally, after (under mushairah performance conditions) a properly tantalizing delay, we get to hear the second line. But even then, the second line withholds the kicker until the last possible moment. Even after we've heard 'although in her possession', we have no clue to what's coming. Only at the very end do we learn that what's 'in her possession' is a 'right-acquainted heart'. This seems to be part of a conventional frame for moral rebuke-- 'You treat me badly, although you know better'; 'You treat me cruelly, although you have a good heart', etc. But even then, we've been led into a clever grammatical trap. We expect, appropriately to the 'moral rebuke' reading, that the heart will be hers. But the unusual, uncolloquial usage, emphasized by Nazm, of 'in her possession' [] gives us pause. And then all at once we realize-- oh of course, it's not her own heart that's 'truth-acquainted' instead, it's the lover's truth-acquainted heart that's 'in her possession'! With the sudden burst of recognition, with the reframing of the whole line, the wry humor of the verse hits us all at once. Such light, sly, deftly self-mocking wit-- surely the audience must have relished it. There's some enjoyable wordplay too, about being a 'stranger' versus 'acquainted'. And additional overtones of 'truth' versus 'deceitfulness' (see the definition of ) as well. graphics/knowingheart.jpg