-

===
0039,
2
===
 

{39,2}

ham ;xastah-dil hai;N tujh se bhii naazuk-mizaaj-tar
tevrii cha;Rhaa))ii tuu ne kih yaa;N jii nikal gayaa

1) we of the afflicted heart are more {delicate/touchy}-tempered than even you
2) you knitted your brow-- {so that / because / while} here, life departed

 

Notes:

;xastah : 'Wounded, hurt; broken; infirm; sick, sorrowful; —fragile, brittle'. (Platts p.490)

 

naazuk-mizaaj : 'Of a delicate complexion or habit of body; —of a sensitive disposition or temper; —a person of delicate constitution or complexion, &c.; —a person of a touchy or testy disposition'. (Platts p.1114)

 

tevrii : 'A contracted brow, a frown, scowl: — tevrii cha;Rhaanaa v.n. To raise or to knit the brow, to frown'. (Platts p.353)

 

kih : 'interrog. and rel. pronoun, Who? what? which? wherefore? why? (called kaaf-e istifhaam ; it is sometimes used, like kyaa , as the untranslated sign of interrogation); —who, which, that, as, whoever (called kaaf-e bayaan or bayaaniiyah , or kaaf-e .silah ); —conj. That, in order that, to the end that, so that, for that, in that, because, for; if; and; or; whether; namely, to wit, saying, thus, as follows... ; lest; when; but even; —God grant that (called kaaf-e du((aa))iyah ); —than (expressing comparison,= az ). (In some cases kih is untranslatable but idiomatically indispensable; and in some cases it might be omitted without violence to the idiom.)'. (Platts p.866)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

On the lover's delicate-temperedness, this verse of Qa'im Chandpuri's is very fine:

be-dimaa;Gii se nah vaa;N tak dil-e ranjuur gayaa
martabah ((ishq kaa yaa;N ;husn se bhii duur gayaa

[the sorrowful heart, out of disaffectedness, didn't go as far as there
the rank of passion, here, went far from even/also beauty]

But Qa'im's second line isn't entirely successful; the idea becomes almost entirely complete in the first line. In the present verse of Mir's, the point is that because of his worn-out heart and bad condition and weakness, the moment he sees the beloved's knitted brow, life leaves him; the speaker has interpreted this as delicate-temperedness. That is, he has demonstrated his delicate-temperedness, and also kept in mind the beloved's grandeur. Otherwise, after reading the first line, the suspicion arises that the beloved is being denigrated, and that the claim is being made that 'you may be delicate-tempered, but so what-- we are more so than you'.

Atish has treated this theme in a more directly metaphorical way than has Mir, but his tone is neither dignified nor sarcastic, nor does he have Mir's kind of subtlety. He's said the thing very clearly:

;Guruur-e ((ishq ziyaadah ;Guruur-e ;husn se hai
udhar to aa;Nkh phirii dam idhar ravaanah hu))aa

[the pride of passion is greater than the pride of beauty
on that side, the eye was averted; on this side, the breath set out]

What a ludicrous thing 'the breath set out' is, doesn't require any explanation.

FWP:

SETS == KIH
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

This verse is a showcase of the versatility of kih -- see the extremely complex definition above, in which Platts struggles to come to grips with all its nuances. Here are some of the possibilities it opens up:

='so that': The beloved frowned so that the lover would die; and instantly he did.

='because': Because the beloved frowned, the lover died.

='while' or 'in that': While the beloved frowned, at that same time the lover died (for reasons unspecified in both cases-- perhaps in reaction to some outside event).

The various possibilities are helpfully kept open by the ambiguity of naazuk-mizaaj -- it can mean either 'touchy, testy, hot-tempered', or else 'delicate, sensitive' (see the definition above). Probably the former sense applies to the beloved, and the latter to the lover; but in a verse like this, can we ever be sure?