===
0021,
9
===
 

{21,9}

maaraa gayaa tab gu;zraa bose se tire lab ke
kyaa miir bhii la;Rkaa thaa baato;N me;N bahal jaataa

1) I was killed-- then I {passed beyond / dispensed with} the kiss of your lips
2) was Mir a boy-- would he have been diverted/amused by words/conversation?!

 

Notes:

gu;zar jaanaa : 'To pass by, to pass away, to elapse; to die; to move away (from, -se ); to pass beyond, to surpass, to outdo'. (Platts p.901)

 

bahalnaa : 'To be diverted, amused, entertained, cheered, &c.; to pass away pleasantly or agreeably (time)'. (Platts p.191)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

The verse's mischievousness is interesting. He has insisted, as children do, on a kiss, to the point that he died of it. But he's saying, 'Are we some child, that we'd be put off by words?' The second line's negative rhetorical question is fine. The suggestion of bhii is that other lovers were as limited in their understanding as children, and were taken in by the beloved's words. In the second line, the omission after thaa of kih [kaaf-e bayaaniyah] has created an informality. Another aspect is that the interpretation of maaraa gayaa seems to be 'was beaten', and the first part of the next line corrects this error.

There remains the question of what those 'words' [baate;N] were, with which an attempt was being made to divert Mir. Several answers are possible. 1) Just now we're not feeling well, now is not the time and place for a kiss on the lips. 2) Put off those ideas till some other day. or till tomorrow, today is not the occasion. 3) Right now just wait a bit, prove yourself a true lover, then we'll see; etc. It should be noted that between 'lip' and 'words' is the connection of a zila.

FWP:

SETS == BHI
MOTIFS == 'DEAD LOVER SPEAKS'; EROTIC SUGGESTION
NAMES
TERMS == ZILA

The speaker could of course have been 'killed' by the lips themselves, in the midst of some magnificent kiss, or series of kisses; he might thus have 'died of love'. The grammar of the first line also leaves open the possibility that after 'passing beyond' the kiss 'of your lips', the speaker might have found in some other kind of (mystical?) kiss a final, transcendent stage of passion. After all, this is a verse in which the lover speaks from beyond the grave.

Here bhii seems to be used chiefly in its idiomatic sense, as an indignant-sounding intensifier. We could imagine some other 'boys' or immature lovers who might be put off or satisfied with mere words, but this wouldn't add much to the verse.

To my mind, the most piquant reading is, 'I never gave up kissing you until I was killed-- was I some mere boy, to be beguiled with words? I always knew that there were better uses for your mouth than mere verbiage!'.