===
0007,
12
===

 

{7,12}

saa((id-e siimii;N dono;N us ke haath me;N laa kar chho;R diye
bhuule us ke qaul-o-qasam par haa))e ;xayaal-e ;xaam kiyaa

1) having brought both her silvery wrists/forearms into our hands, we released them
2) we were misled by her vows and promises-- alas, we formed a 'half-baked' opinion!

 

Notes:

;xaam : 'Raw, unripe, green, crude, immature; inexpert, inexperienced; vain, puerile, absurd; not solid or substantial'. (Platts p.485)

S. R. Faruqi:

In the first line such a beautiful picture has been created that it beggars description. The picture is both visual (delicate wrists/forearms as white as silver) and active (having brought them into his hands, he released them). Then, the rhyme-word too is unexpected and meaningful. The meaning of ;xayaal-e ;xaam is that the beloved's vows and promises were of two kinds: one, 'Let me go now, I'll meet you some other time'; and the other, she swore that in her heart was love for him. All these things are comprised in ;xayaal-e ;xaam .

By contrast, Sauda uses thae same rhyme-word in an overt manner, so that the pleasure is less:

mihr-o-vafaa-o-sharm-o-muruvvat sabhii kuchh us me;N samjhe the
kyaa kyaa dil dete vaqt us ko ham ne ;xayaal-e ;xaam kiyaa

[kindness and faithfulness, and shame and compassion-- we considered everything to be in her
how extensively, at the time of giving the heart, we formed a 'half-baked' opinion!]

Between 'silver' and 'half-baked' there's a wordplay, because raw [kachchii] silver is called siim-e ;xaam .

Nasikh has used one aspect of this theme. The insha'iyah style has made the verse effective:

chho;R dete dast-e jaanaa;N kyuu;N nah apne haath se
zindagii bhar haa))e malne the kaf-e ;hasrat hame;N

[why wouldn't we have released the beloved's hand from our hand?
for our whole life, alas, we had to 'wring the hand of longing']

FWP:

SETS == MUSHAIRAH; WORDPLAY
MOTIFS == VOWS
NAMES
TERMS

SRF finds the imagery in the first line-- the speaker takes her delicate silvery 'wrists' in his 'hands'-- to be extraordinarily beautiful. Then he also points out the wordplay between 'silvery' wrists and a 'half-baked' opinion, based on siim-e ;xaam , a term for 'raw [kachchii] silver'.

This mushairah-verse wordplay with ;xaam , located as it is in the emphatic, closural, verse-final position, is clearly meant to form the chief pleasure of the verse. For it's also meaning-play. The lover formed about releasing her (raw-)silver wrists, a 'half-baked' or 'raw' opinion (see the definition above).

Compare Ghalib's G{81,7x}, in which similar wordplay is used, with just the same positioning.

SRF seems to feel that the ;xayaal-e ;xaam refers to the beloved's unreliable promises; this is possible, but I think that because of bhuule , the case for its referring to the lover's foolish trust in her word is stronger.