Verse 1after 1821aabto de
G9
In this meter the next-to-last long syllable may be replaced by two shorts.
1
she, having come in a dream, might/would, at least, give peace to restlessness
2 a
but the heat of the heart should at least give me the ability to sleep/dream!
2 b
but-- as if the heat of the heart would give me the ability to sleep/dream!
tiraab>> : 'Agitation, perturbation, restlessness, distraction, anxiety, anguish, trouble, chagrin; precipitation; flurry'.
'Sleep; dream, vision'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 187 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 363 |
| Gyan Chand | 491 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
[1862, to Ala'i:] Fifty years ago the late Ilahi Bakhsh Khan devised a new ground . As commanded, I wrote [] a ghazal. The ' high point of the ghazal ' was 193,4 . Its closing-verse was 193,5 . Now I see that somebody has written an opening-verse and four [other] verses, and joined them to that closing-verse and the 'high point of the ghazal' and made a ghazal, and people go around singing it. The closing verse and one other verse are mine, the other five verses are by some fool []. When singers would alter a poet's verses in his lifetime, what would prevent the musicians from jumbling up two dead poets' verses? [He goes on to discuss such a case.] (Arshi 290-91)
==Urdu text: Khaliq Anjum vol. 1, p. 395
==another trans.: Daud Rahbar , p. 32.
In the first line has the meaning of possibility; that is, her coming in a dream is possible. And in the second line the word is to express a major concern-- that even for a sleep/dream to come is a big thing. (216)
== Nazm page 216
He says, 'It's possible that she would come in a dream and give comfort to restlessness in passing, but it's not possible that the heat of my heart would permit me to sleep. This cruel one-- that is, the heat of my heart-- is crueler than that tyrant.' (276)
I have hope that she will come in a dream and give me comfort. But if only the convulsions of the heart would let me sleep! When my eyes won't even close, then how would I see her in a dream? And when I wouldn't see her in a dream, then how would my restlessness diminish? (380)
This whole ghazal is a display of the versatility of yet another small idiomatic particle, , which literally means 'then'. It's used in many colloquial constructions (for an important one, see 22,7 ), and the present verse gets its chief punch from juxtaposing two of them. Since is the refrain , this opening-verse is well equipped for such a feat: each line ends with the same phrase, yet each occurrence of the phrase in its semantic context has quite a different meaning, as Nazm rightly points out.
I've tried to convey something of the effect with 'at least', which doesn't work entirely but is not hopeless either. 'X would at least do this, but Y might at least do that!' gives something of the flavor, if we assume that the second clause is spoken sarcastically, and Y probably won't do whatever it is. The sarcastic use in the second line (as in 2b) is somewhat similar to the sense in the next verse, 193,2 .
For a more sadistic vision of the beloved's dream-appearance in relation to the lover's sleep, compare 97,3 .
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