===
0020,
2
===

 

{20,2}

gul-barg kaa yih rang hai marjaa;N kaa aisaa ;Dhang hai
dekho nah jhamke hai pa;Raa vuh ho;N;T la((l-e naab saa

1) does the rose-petal have {such a / 'this'} style/color?! does coral have such a manner/behavior?!
2) just look, won't you-- it glitters! bravo-- that pure-ruby-like lip!

 

Notes:

jhamke hai = jhamaktaa hai ; the doubling of the kaaf is for metrical purposes

 

jhamaknaa : 'To shine, to glitter, glisten, flash; to dance'. (Platts p.407)

 

pa;Raa : 'Laid aside; lying (unused, unowned, unemployed, or unoccupied); useless, idle; prostrate; uncultivated, fallow (land); —adv. In its place; as it is'. (Platts p.260)

 

naab : 'Unmixed, unadulterated, pure, genuine; mere; —clear, limpid'. (Platts p.1111)

S. R. Faruqi:

pa;Raa = what a fine thing! (an exclamation of praise)

In the verse the trickiness is that the brilliance is neither in the rose-bud, nor in the red coral. Thus by comparison to the beloved's lips, which are like pure ruby, rose-bud and coral would both definitely be flattened/crushed. The meaning of naab is also 'transparent, clear'. The ruby that could be seen through, must presumably be more brilliant than an ordinary ruby. The word pa;Raa too has come very spontaneously/naturally into the verse.

[See also {552,5}; {874,3}; {1278,6}.]

FWP:

SETS == EXCLAMATION; KYA; MUSHAIRAH
MOTIFS == PERSONIFICATIONS
NAMES
TERMS

SRF supplies a colloquially-omitted kyaa in front of each clause in the first line, so as to turn them into exclamatory-sounding rhetorical questions. This works very well. To take them as statements of fact really renders them awkward and ineffective.

SRF's definition of pa;Raa is new to me (and Platts doesn't give it), but it too works excellently in the verse. The regular sense too -- derived from the adjectival perfect participal pa;Raa hu))aa -- would also seem to work in a way, since 'laid aside' or 'in its place' (see the definition above) would work for the rose-petal and the coral. But neither alternative has the punchy suitability of an exclamation like 'bravo'. This idiomatic sense of pa;Raa should be kept in mind, because without recognizing it one could hardly translate verses like the present one. Another example of this special usage: {874,3}. For a similar, and equally idiomatic, sense of ((ishq hai , see {307,4}.