Verse 11821aaaashnaa
G1
1
Jealousy/envy says: 'Her affection/loyalty toward the Other -- alas!'
2
Wisdom says: 'That unkind one-- whose friend is she?!'
'Purity; sincerity; candour; affection; pure friendship, sincere attachment; loyalty, fidelity; intimacy'.
'Iniquity, injustice, oppression; a pity; --intj. Ah! alas! what a pity!'.
'Love, affection, friendship, kindness, favour; mercy, pity, sympathy, feeling'.
'Acquaintance; friend; associate; intimate friend, familiar; lover, sweetheart; paramour; mistress, concubine; --adj. Acquainted (with, - ), knowing, known; attached (to), fond (of)'.
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 21 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 324 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 66-67 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 68 |
| Gyan Chand | 103-105 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
That is, Wisdom explains to me the beloved's bad qualities, so as to lessen Jealousy's agitation, considering that the way she showed unfaithfulness to me, she will also show it to the Other. (39)
== Nazm page 39
Urdu text: Vajid 1902 {42}
He says, passion has produced in my heart the illusion that alas, she treats the Other lovingly. And after a whole lifetime of experience, Wisdom says, that faithless one, in whose nature love has never been present at all-- what the hell, to whom can she be a friend? (78)
Jealousy says that there is true love between the beloved and the Rival. And Wisdom says that that unfaithful one has never been anyone's friend, nor ever will be. That is, nowadays our life is passing in a struggle between Wisdom and Jealousy. (96)
Compare 97,6 . (234)
The divan version of this ghazal has no opening-verse . The original opening-verse, not included in the divan, was 42,7x .
Arshi has chosen in 97,6 an excellent verse for comparison. That one is about the beloved's undeceivability, and this one is about her deceitfulness, but both qualities arise together from her essentially treacherous nature.
This dual-perspective situation recalls another case in which we see two sides of the same coin. In 38,1 , the beloved is 'no one's friend': she is cruel to others, and not cruel to the lover-- and thus causes redoubled suffering to the lover. In the present verse, she is apparently kind to others, and not kind to the lover-- and thus causes suffering to the lover. When you put them together, the effect is almost funny. No matter what the beloved does, the result is suffering for the lover. (For more on the complexities of , see 53,4 .)
But then, isn't that how it was always meant to be? The verse rests on an inner dialogue between Jealousy and Wisdom that seems to be unresolved: there's no indication that either one can defeat the other, so perhaps they go back and forth like this for hours. For of course, what else does the lover's inner life consist of, except endless brooding about the most minute aspects of the beloved's behavior? The question of whether she really is so cruel and tyrannical is unanswerable, since we see her only through the lover's eyes.
Compare Mir 's even more drastic presentation of a similar dilemma: M 381,8 .
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