===
0770,
3
===

 

{770,3}

phuul us chaman ke dekhte kyaa kyaa jha;Re hai;N haa))e
sail-e bahaar aa;Nkho;N se merii ravaa;N hai ab

1) the flowers of that garden-- how abundantly they've rained down, while I watch, alas!
2) the flood of spring is flowing from my eyes, now

 

Notes:

S. R. Faruqi:

For bloodstained tears, the metaphor of 'the flood of spring' is very eloquent. The meaning-related pleasure is that the flood that is flowing from the eyes-- that too can be given the simile of 'garden flowers raining down'. That is, one interpretation is that because of the destruction of autumn, my heart turned to blood; and by weeping tears of blood, I expressed my grief (or made my own personal spring).

And the second interpretation is that the flood of blood that is flowing from my eyes is, so to speak, the flowers of the garden of my heart, which are raining down and being destroyed.

For tears and flowers both, jha;Rnaa is used. Then, among other wordplay, consider dekhte and aa;Nkho;N . He has seen flowers raining down, therefore from his eyes (which do the work of seeing) a 'flood of spring' is flowing.

FWP:

SETS == EXCLAMATION; IZAFAT
MOTIFS== EYES; SPRINGTIME
NAMES
TERMS == WORDPLAY

It's a souped-up wordplay verse; it's the kind about which SRF has reminded us that wordplay is also meaning-play. At the heart of it is an izafat construction, 'flood of spring' [sail-e bahaar]. This phrase could refer to:

=the garden in its springtime glory (since spring in its overwhelming power can be said to come like a 'flood')

=the autumnal garden as it loses its springtime glory (through the raining down of its flowers)

=the speaker's tears of blood (since they are red and rain down in an abundant flood)

In each case, the crucial interpretive hinge is 'now'. Once it was spring; now the speaker laments that it is not. Once flowers rained down as they withered; now only his tears rain down. Now his tears are all that's left of the spring garden.

But to give the kaleidoscope another turn, if now the lover's tears of blood themselves are the 'flood of spring', can't that also be read as a sign of vitality and hope for the future?