Verse 21816aanah maa;Ng
G3
1
the number of wounds/scars of the longing/grief of the heart comes to mind
2
from me, an accounting of my sin, oh Lord -- don't ask!
| References | |
|---|---|
| Arshi, Imtiyaz Ali | Ghazal# 79 |
| Raza, Kalidas Gupta | 194-95 |
| Nuskhah-e-Hamidiyah | 130-131 |
| Asi, Abdul Bari | 146-148 |
| Gyan Chand | 240-242 |
| Hamid Ali Khan | Open Image |
In this too there’s a new kind of mischievousness, which is absolutely untouched [by other poets]. Outwardly, he asks, 'Oh Lord, don’t ask me for an account of my sins'; and secretly he lays blame, as if he says, what kind of an account for sins? They are so numerous that when I count them, then the number of those wounds that you’ve given me in the world, and that are as numerous as my sins, comes to mind. Because the sins and the wounds are identical in number, he means that when he committed some sin, then because of his powerlessness, he could not satisfy his temperament; one or another longing certainly remained unfilfilled. For example, if he drank wine, then he didn’t attain union; and if he attained union, then he didn’t get any wine. Thus however many sins he committed, he suffered exactly that many wounds to his heart.
==Urdu text: Yadgar-e Ghalib , p. 123
The meaning is that since the cause of every sin is one or another longing and ardor, then the mention of sins evokes the memory of those longings and shocks, for the abundance of the sins is similar to the abundance of the wounds. (80)
== Nazm page 80
Compare 230,10 . (214, 283)
My unfulfilled yearnings left scars in my heart. I counted these scars as long as I lived. My life was measured in the reckoning of these scars of defeat. Now that you ask me for an account of my sins (my moments of pleasure), I am reminded of my life in your world.... See 230,10 .
== Naim 1970, pp. 10-11
Hali has made the best case for this verse: it offers an enjoyably businesslike accounting procedure. The speaker warns, 'Oh Lord, don't ask me to account for my sins, because whenever you nag me about that, I always think of all my unfulfilled longings!' Then at this point we have two possible readings of that thought: either 'When I think of them I feel sad, so don't make me miserable'; or 'When I think of them I compare them to the accounting of my sins, so don't make me angry at you'.
It's a trim, pithy, well-constructed verse. Still, it's somehow too complacently tidy for my taste. The commentators are right of course that the ideal verse for comparison is 230,10 .
Mir , for his part, has not two but a whole cluster of similar ones: for these see M 1714,6 . But compare Mir's more elliptically powerful vision of the same Doomsday situation: M 774,10 .
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