S. R. Faruqi:

This verse too is apparently simple and devoid of any special feature. But in truth there are several meanings in it:

(1) If we wish, then by means of our tumult we would be able to create a Doomsday. But since we are silent, the beloved doesn't know how Doomsday-arousing our tumult is.

(2) This Doomsday-tumult that has been created in the world-- in truth, it's the tumult of our wildness. But unless the beloved would be told, she won't even know how Doomsday-arousing we are.

(3) Because of our tumult, a Doomsday has been created (this is not a good thing). But what can we do? Until we make enough tumult and commotion, she won't at all know what we are. (The yih refers to the speaker.)

(4) Through our tumult a Doomsday has been created. But the beloved pays no attention to its means. She doesn't even know who this person is (or how this tumult has been created, or over what).

Look how small the words are, and what an abundance of meanings! And then, the meanings too are such that some are the opposite of others. And then, what rank the lover holds, that he is master of the tumult of Doomsday! And what rank the beloved holds, that she cares nothing for the tumult of Doomsday-- or again, what level of heedlessness she shows, that until the tumult of Doomsday would be created, she pays no attention to the lover!

Such a theme, and such construction, are especially Mir's. As I've already said, Mir's poetic world is uncommonly wide. Everything in this world is founded on passion; and since passion is everywhere in this world, in it the experience and expression of passion are variegated. Here the lover is spread out as far as both borders-- uncommon humanness, and uncommon insight/vision too, are both present here.

If this verse is removed from human relationships and considered to be based on the theme of human and divine relationships and connections, then the interpretation emerges that as long as man makes no tumult and commotion, the Lord pays no attention to him. The Lord himself too deals with humans as a human does. Thus there's a famous story about a venerable elder: when the people of the town came to him, and sought a prayer for rain, instead of rain he prayed for drought-- but plenty of rain came. When he was asked why this was, he replied, 'Nowadays our relationships are wrecked. Whatever we say, the reverse of it happens'.

In Mir's verse too there's this same state of affairs-- that now He is ignoring us (or He has not yet noticed our tumult and commotion). When we create a Doomsday, then He will know. The enjoyable thing is that to create Doomsday is the work of the Lord; but the servant considers himself to have control over it. It's a remarkably 'tumult-arousing' verse.

FWP:

SETS == KIH
MOTIFS == DOOMSDAY
NAMES
TERMS == TUMULT-AROUSING

My favorite part of the verse is that little yuu;N (see the definition above). We can take it to mean 'like this', so that it invites us to consider her ignorance or heedlessness as an account of her present behavior. Or we can take it to mean 'casually' or 'for no particular reason', so that her ignorance or heedlessness becomes languid, bored, indifferent. This second sense is especially delightful because it's a 'Doomsday' tumult to which she's so wantonly inattentive.

The kih can introduce either a general remark (the beloved doesn't know what all this is), or a specific, direct quotation. Thus since the beloved is ignorant of the nature of the Doomsday tumult that she hears, she might even be asking, kyaa hai yih ? And of course the 'this' could refer to the tumult itself, or to the wretched lover (about whom she speaks disdainfully), or to some larger idea of the whole situation ('What's going on here?'). This direct quotation is a secondary reading, but a nice addition to the verse's penumbra of possibilities.

Moreover, why can't the apne in the first line also refer to the beloved herself, since it grammatically should, and since one meaning of shor is 'renown'? On this reading, everywhere the beloved goes her fame surrounds her with a Doomsday-like clamor from her hapless devotees, but she doesn't even bother to take any notice.