S. R. Faruqi:

First of all, let's place next to Mir's opening-verse, this verse by Fani:

dil kaa uja;Rnaa sahl sahii basnaa sahl nahii;N :zaalim
bastii basnaa khel nahii;N baste baste bastii hai

[the ruination of the heart is simple, no doubt; to settie it is not simple, oh cruel one
to settle a settlement is not a game-- a settlement gets settled only gradually]

In Fani's verse there's an abundance of emotionality and self-pity. It seems that the speaker is making every effort to extract from the pathos of his situation whatever benefit he can-- that is, whatever attention is possible from the beloved. In contrast, the speaker of Mir's verse adopts an extraordinary tone-- dignified, careless, and patronizing/condescending. His addressee is ambiguous-- it can be the beloved, it can be some other person, and it can be the speaker himself.

Then, consider the subtlety/enjoyableness: that in the first line the heart has been called a ma((muurah and in the second line it has been called a viiraanah . That is, the verse has expressed both its past and the present situations, and has also made it clear that the heart is no commonplace small town or nameless neighborhood-- rather, it's a ma((muurah . Compared to bastii , the word ma((muurah is much more powerful.

The meaning of ma((muurah is 'inhabited, filled up, bustling, verdant, possessing well-cultivated crops', and so on. For more examples of Mir's use of ma((muurah , see

{1820,8}

and

{366,4}.

By contrast, bastii creates an effect of narrowness, or at least smallness. Look at how excellently Mir has used the word bastii , in the sixth divan [{1841,2}]:

uj;Rii uj;Rii bastii me;N dunyaa kii jii lagtaa nahii;N
tang aa))e hai;N bahut in chaar diivaaro;N me;N ham

[in the wholly ruined neighborhood of the world, the inner-self is not content
we became very much vexed/straitened within these four walls]

Fani's speaker wants to make the ruin of the heart an occasion for pity and grief. But he stops with calling the heart a bastii . Mir's speaker calls it a ma((muurah , and then aisaa viiraanah . In aisaa viiraanah are comprised both the extent and the intensity of the ruination. Then he says, 'Well, don't fall to worrying about it, this task requires time, it requires fur.sat and muddat . Both those rhyme-words have been 'seated' with such perfect suitability that it would be hard to find an equal.

The word 'now' also requires attention, for in it is the implication that perhaps at some previous time it would have been comparatively easier for this ruin to be inhabited a second time, but now this task requires a long period. He's composed a 'tumult-arousing' verse, but it has 'implications' as well. To present a commonplace them in such a polished form was a task fit for Mir alone.

FWP:

SETS == REPETITION; SOUND EFFECTS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == 'TUMULT-AROUSING'

The first line has several possible readings. To forbid someone to fikr karnaa can mean to forbid him to worry about something ('There's no point in being anxious, you can't expect anything to happen fast'), or else to forbid him to consider doing something ('Don't even think of trying to resettle it right now, the process will take ages'). And to point out that the project requires fur.sat can mean simply that it will take a long time, or else that it will require 'leisure, recovery, rest, ease' of a kind that the heart might very probably not be able to have. (See the definitions above.)

Thus fur.sat in the first line, and muddat in the second line, are similarly placed and might have very similar ranges of meaning. Or, of course, they might not. SRF rightly points out the powerful suggestiveness of that little ab . As usual, Mir has left us with things to think about, and our own decisions to make.