0350_08

S. R. Faruqi:

To call the head a headache or a burden, and to keep trying to put it down, and having put it down to be happy, is a common subject for a verse. An extremely fine Persian verse has already been noted in the discussion of {1341,5}. In Shaikh Tasadduq Husain's 'Iraj namah' [from the 'Dastan of Amir Hamzah'], vol. 2, p. 418, this utterance appears [with another Persian verse]:

ab jo niimchah gardan par pa;Rtaa hai to .saaf gale ko kaa;T kar nikal gayaa . sar tan se judaa ho kar giraa aur aavaaz galuu-e buriidah se buland hu)) ii :

[Now when the scimitar fell on the neck, it cut it cleanly through. The head, having been separated from the body, fell; and a voice was lifted [in Persian] from the severed neck:]

'My head has been sacrificed for your pure head-- a fine thing.
This was a heavy burden, it was offered-- a fine thing.'

Atish has said, with great pomp and circumstance,

adab taa chand ai dast-e havas qaatil ke daaman kaa
sa;Nbhal saktaa nahii;N ab dosh se bojh apnii gardan kaa

[how long courtesy, oh hand of desire, toward the murderer's garment-hem?
it cannot maintain itself now on the shoulder, the burden of my neck]

Atish's verse is almost 'disconnected', and the second line lacks 'flowingness'. Muhammad Husain Azad has recorded [in aab-e ;hayaat , on Dabir] the words of Atish about an elegy of Dabir's: 'Was it an elegy, or was it a dastan of Landhaur bin Sa'dan?'. The Lord knows whether Atish said that or not, but the truth is that these words are more descriptive of Atish's own ghazal than of Dabir's elegy.

Now please look at Mir's verse. How elegantly he has composed it, and in the tone what rakishness [baa;Nk-pan], and carelessness, and even a kind of innocence! Between man:zuur and na:zar there's wordplay; between na:zar cha;Rh jaa))e and bojh utaare;N there's extremely superb wordplay.

If we look at the meaning, then he hasn't explained the cause of the shoriidah-sarii . It might be because in his heart are the longings and feelings of youth, but he has not yet found any beloved; he goes around with his head on the palm of his hand, so that if he finds one, he can give it to her. Or else it might be because he had at one time been a lover; he didn't obtain that beloved, but she gave him shoriidah-sarii as she left. Now if he might happen to find another such, then not to speak of the heart, he'll at once give her even his turbulent/distracted head. Or again, the cause of the shoriidah-sarii can be the turmoil and ebullition of poetic themes, on the basis of which a typhoon has arison-- see

{1341,5}.

An additional pleasure is that a shoriidah head is one that feels light-- that is, it seems that the head is blowing away in the breeze. He has called it a burden. By saying 'this burden', the speaker has suggested that in his opinion it's absolutely established and clear that a shoriidah head is a burden, but in addition there can also be the burden of worry: the head has to be given to someone. If this uncertainty and vacillation too is a burden, then it will be put down when the head is cut off. To cut off the head is also called sar utarnaa ; thus in utaare;N there's a twofold meaningfulness. See

{107,6}.

I have said above that in the verse there's a kind of innocence. It's in this sense: that if this is the longing for a first passion, then the speaker doesn't know that even after giving his head, he won't find respite from his headache. He has the mistaken idea that if the sar-e shoriidah goes, then the shoriidagii will go too. Little does he know what things happen in these affairs. As Momin says,

ek ham hai;N kih hu))e aise pashemaan kih bas
ek vuh hai;N kih jinhe;N chaah ke armaa;N ho;Nge

[well, here we are-- we became so regretful, it was the limit!
and here she is-- who will have longings for desire]

[See also {276,4}.]

{350,8}

Notes:

S. R. Faruqi:

FWP: