S. R. Faruqi:

The construction of ;hasrat-kushtah-e sar-dar-garebaa;N ko is fine. It's an extremely excellent style, that in the first line he has presented himself in the first person singular, and then the second line he has referred to himself in the third person singular. Through this means the power of the poetry increases.

Now let's consider how he has referred to himself in four ways: (1) a withered bud; (2) the last of the season; (3) one slain by grief; (4) one who has his head in his collar. All these have a 'connection'-- they haven't just been casually thrown together (as is usually the case in the poetry of Josh and Firaq). The bud is withered because it was not able to become a flower (that is, the bud of its heart was not able to open out). The reason it didn't become a flower is that the bud emerged at the end of the season. By the time its chance came to bloom, the spring season itself was already over.

The reason for its being 'slain by longing/grief/regret' is obvious. First, that the bud was unable to bloom; the longing to become a flower remained only in its heart. A second reason is that since it grew at the end of the spring, it remained deprived of the pleasure of the spring.

There are several reasons for calling it 'head in collar'. Because it is withered, the bud has its head bowed down. That is, it is ashamed of its witheredness, it cannot meet anyone's eyes. A second point is that the bud has its head lowered in thought/concern about its ending/fate. A third reason is that a withered bud has its head lowered in any case. A fourth reason is that buds are [conventionally] called 'downhearted' [dil-giir].

Now the question is, who is the addressee? The beloved is usually called a rose. Here the pleasure is that in the absence of the beloved, he's given for himself the simile of a bud. An additional affinity is that the petals of a withered bud are scattered in the air/breeze. In this regard he has asked the beloved, mujhe bar-baad nah kar de (don't 'cast me to the wind'). In every direction, it's a marvel of affinities and connection upon connection.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == AFFINITY; CONNECTION

Note for grammar fans: It's normally bar-baad karnaa , as is clear not only from Platts's definition but also from SRF's paraphrase. But by saying bar-baad denaa , Mir has emphasized the action of 'giving' the bud to the wind, of flinging or casting it away.

Note for translation fans: Since garebaa;N isn't really 'collar', but a vertically slit neck-opening like that of a kurta, the image is not that of a head withdrawing 'into' a collar (like a turtle's head), but of a head drooping downward and forward toward the neck-opening. It's really hard to capture this sense in English, unfortunately.