S. R. Faruqi:

There are two meanings of paayaa jaan : 'you will definitely find him', and 'consider that he has been found'. The style of address has created an extraordinary pleasure. The speaker of the verse is not Mir, but rather some other person. The addressee is Mir, and the trace-less one who is the object of the search could be the beloved, or could also be the Lord. But who is the speaker? Apparently he too is without trace or sign, otherwise he wouldn't have said 'if some sign of us would come to hand'. That is, an entity with no trace or sign is giving the address of another entity with no trace or sign. Thus they are both perhaps one and the same.

Mir is energetic in his search for the beloved or for God. Suddenly there's a revelation, as though someone is speaking. The speaker doesn't manifest himself, he only says that if you've found me, then it's as if you've found that trace-less one. Mir realized that no matter what he was like, no matter what the circumstances, he was in the heart itself. In the first line everyday speech has been used with such excellence that it can't be sufficiently praised.

Another reading can also be that Mir is addressing himself. He's in a state of self-transcendence, he's thinking that 'If I would find out about myself-- who I am, what I am-- then finding that trace-less one will not be difficult'. On this reading, the verse alludes to the famous [Arabic] saying that the one who has recognized himself, has recognized his Lord.

For the trace-lessness of the beloved, Mir has found in the fifth divan a peerless image that in its beauty and ambiguity recalls Chinese poetry [{1685,1}]:

taaro;N kii jaise dekhe;N hai;N aa;Nkhe;N la;Ra))iyaa;N
us be-nishaa;N kii aisii hai;N chande;N nishaaniyaa;N

[when we look at the stars, our eyes meet--
that trace-less one has various such signs]

In the first divan, Mir has expressed a theme similar to that of the present verse, in this way [{570,10}]:

jo soche ;Tuk to vuh ma:tluub ham hii nikle miir
;xaraab phirte the jis kii :talab me;N muddat se

[if you think a little, then that search-object would emerge as we ourself, Mir,
in search of whom we used to wander around madly for a long time]

And in the fifth divan, giving it one more aspect, he has written in a novel style [{1682,3}]:

;haalaa;Nkih :zaahir us ke nishaa;N shash-jihat the miir
;xvud gum rahe jo phirte bahut paa sake nah ham

[although signs of him were manifest in all six directions, Mir,
we ourself remained lost, since we wandered a great deal and were not able to find him]

Compare

{43,2}.

[See also {1746,8}.]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS

As SRF says, it's that hamaaraa that's so mysterious and problematical; it attaches a red flag to the question of who the speaker might be, and forces us to grapple with it. To take Mir himself to be talking or thinking to himself, is surely the more fruitful reading. It falls at once into a whole Sufistic tradition of seeking or finding (knowledge of) God within the self; SRF has given the excellent example of {570,10}. Otherwise, it's indeed difficult to envision who or what might say such words to Mir.