Verse 3after 1847aakare ko))ii
G8
In this meter the first long syllable may be replaced by a short; and the next-to-last long syllable may be replaced by two shorts.
1
a gait/movement like an arrow from a tight-drawn bow
2
in the heart of such a one, let someone make a place!
'Hard, stiff, tight, firm, rigid; tough; strong, powerful; hardy, vigorous; firm, resolute, unbending, obdurate'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 220 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 405 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
An 'arrow from a tight-drawn bow' flies very swiftly; he has given it as a simile for the beloved's carelessness/indifference of gait. And the first line of this verse, the whole thing, is an idiom; and in the second line is a negative rhetorical question-- that is, in the heart of such a one can there be any place? (244)
== Nazm page 244
He says, a place cannot be created in the heart of such a beloved, whose carelessness/indifference of gait has the similitude of an arrow from a tight-drawn bow. The whole of the first line is a complete idiom. To the extent to which the bow is tightly drawn, to that very extent the arrow will be swift-flying. (303)
Appropriateness [] prostrates itself before the first line.... From out of the gathering of the lovers the beloved passes with such swiftness and carelessness/indifference, the way an arrow would emerge from a tight-drawn bow. (440)
The beloved's gait is like the swiftest and deadliest arrow, so it will instantly 'make a place' for itself in the hapless lover's heart. And for that very reason, the process is intransitive: the lover is now doomed and in the bag, a prey of the swift hunter. So can he even imagine anyone, not to speak of himself, who could reverse the process and make a place in the hunter's own heart?
For the colloquial possibilities of the second line, compare 215,1 . It could be an expression of wistful hope ('may someone succeed!'); or of scornful denial ('as if anyone could succeed'); or even a genuine question ('would anyone be able to do it?').
The sound effects of the first line are especially enjoyable-- first the elegant long vowels of , then the abrupt thudding of the and retroflex and short syllable frequency in , then the final lingering .
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