Verse 31816uumujhe
G1
1
I am entirely/'head to foot' the maker/harmony/instrument of the design/melody of complaint-- don't ask anything [about it]!
2
only/emphatically this is best: that among people, you would not touch/tease/play me
'Making, effecting, preparing; feigning;-- maker;... concord, harmony; a musical instrument'.
'Design, purpose, intention; method, manner; sound, concord, melody'.
'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.... -- to tune (an instrument preparatory to playing on it), to strike the chords, to begin playing'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 148 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 236 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 212-213 |
| Gyan Chand | 346-348 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
That is, I'm an organ that is filled with the raga of complaint; if you touch me, then I will give vent to that raga. (193)
== Nazm page 193
He says, 'I'm an instrument that is filled with the raga of complaint about you. The best thing is that you would not tease me in front of others.' If you touch me, then the raga of complaint about you will begin to emerge from my heart. (248)
I am an instrument filled with melodies of complaint. That is, I am entirely complaint. It's also proper that you not touch me in front of others. Otherwise, whatever is in my heart I will go ahead and say, and you'll be angry with me. And this will be a cause of happiness for the Rival s. (337)
[See his comment about this verse when discussing 147,2 .]
The first line is of course full of wordplay. And it's both very clear in its general sense ('I'm full of complaint') and very unrevealing about what is being set up for the second line. After all, can mean 'maker, making, instrument, tune'-- and how can we possibly know which way the second line is going to require us to jump? Joined to it is , which itself is multivalent (see the definitions above). Then the line ends in the inexpressibility trope ('don't ask!'), and that doesn't get us any further at all. So we wait with real anticipation for the denouement.
Even in the second line, in classic mushairah performance style, the punch-word is withheld until the last possible moment. But then-- what a treat! How gorgeously this verse makes use of every part of the complex meaning of ! The two little lines burst open with a rush, like petals of a sudden huge sunflower. What we end up with is two distinct domains of meaning, joined at the center by :
=The emotional: Don't 'tease' me, don't torment me, don't ask me about anything in front of others-- save it for when we're alone, because I am full of complaints about your behavior. (And it's behavior that probably includes 'teasing' and tormenting me.)
=The musical: don't tune or 'play' me 'among people', in front of an audience, like a normal musical instrument-- I'm a special musical instrument, entirely full of the melodies of complaint (about you).
After we hear the second line, we realize that each of these senses of picks up on and emphasizes a different phrase that the other sense can't so enjoyably exploit. The emotional reading turns 'don't ask anything' [] into a preparation for a private conversation-- and perhaps also an example of the kind of pestering or 'teasing' that is one of the grounds for complaint-- instead of leaving it merely as the standard 'inexpressiblity trope'. And the musical reading turns 'among people' [] into a strong suggestion of an audience before whom one might 'play' an instrument, rather than just the commonplace 'in public'.
The closest cousin to this verse is 177,2 .
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