Verse 11821uudthaa
G3
1
apart from Qais , no one else came into the field/'face' of action
2 a
perhaps the desert had the narrowness of an envious/spiteful eye
2 b
but [nevertheless], the desert had the narrowness of an envious/spiteful eye
'A desert, waste, wilderness; a jungle, forest; a plain'.
'With, by, for, from, in, into, to, up to, on, upon'.
'If not, unless, except, save, save only, but; besides, however, moreover; --perhaps, perchance, peradventure, by chance, haply, probably, possibly; in case'.
'Envious, spiteful, malignant'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 4 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 318 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 29 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 51-52 |
| Gyan Chand | 65-67 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
That is, only Qais has made a name for desert-wandering; except for him, the desert is like an envious person's eye toward anyone else except him; it's not been said (?) as if the desert, despite its breadth, is as narrow as the eye of an envious person. Here means 'perhaps'. (3)
== Nazm page 3
Urdu text: Vajid 1902 {3}
The reason might be that the desert was narrow like the eye of an envious person, so that there wasn't even scope for any other lover. (11)
The first line expresses longing: alas, that no one turned out like that except Qais. In the second line he expresses hatred: this coquetry by the desert never gave me a chance. (5)
The two meanings of (see the definition above) can both work excellently here. The 'perhaps' meaning preferred by the commentators makes the second line a cause of the first line (as in 2a). Perhaps the narrowness of the desert-- the proverbial narrowness of an envious person's eye, or simply an 'envious eye'-- caused everybody except Qais to stay away. Perhaps the desert warned them off with a hostile glare. Or perhaps the desert even literally was so narrow? (Perhaps many are called to the lover's life, but few are chosen.) For another use of the 'envious eye', see 3,10x .
But why stop with one meaning when two are so manifestly there for the taking? For the 'but' meaning creates another, equally provocative relationship: the desert loved Qais so specially that although no one else was even on the scene at all, it remained possessively vigilant, so that the 'eye of a jealous person' is exactly what it showed. For another meditation on the desert's love for Qais, see 175,4 .
The word , literally 'face', has an affinity with , 'eye'.
Faruqi suggests (July 2000) that this verse should be compared with 117,1 . I would add 228,7 as well.
On the possibilities of , see 101,1 .
graphics/desert.jpg