===
1341,
7
===
 

{1341,7}

dil ke ta))ii;N is raah me;N kho afsos-kunaa;N ab phirtaa huu;N
ya((nii rafiiq-e shafiiq phir aise miir kahaa;N mai;N paa))uu;Ngaa

1) having lost the heart itself on this road, I now wander around grieving--
2) that is, Mir, where will I again find such an affectionate companion?

 

Notes:

rafiiq : 'A companion (in travelling, and generally), associate, comrade, friend, ally; a coadjutor; an accomplice, accessory, confederate; an adherent, a follower'. (Platts p.595)

 

shafiiq : 'Affectionate, kind, tender, merciful, compassionate; —a kind and benevolent adviser, a kind friend'. (Platts p.729)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

This verse too is the bearer of an uncommon mood. Having assumed the heart to be a separate, affectionate, companionable person, to mourn for its going, and to search for the heart instead of for the beloved, is an entirely new theme. Because 'this road' has not been described, the eloquence [balaa;Gat] has increased. This can be the road of passion, it can also be the beloved's street, it can also be the road to the desert. Thus the sense of dil chho;R denaa ['to leave the heart'] as 'to lose one's courage' is also possible: on the road to the desert, he would have lost his courage and his spirit would have failed him. 'I wander' is also very fine, because in it there's an image of purposeless roaming, and also a sense of not knowing what the next step should be.

This theme he has used twice in the second divan, but this mood hasn't been achieved. At the age of seventy or seventy-two, the poet has done what he couldn't manage to do in his youth. The verses from the second divan [{896,4}]:

;xaak yaa;N chhaante hii kyuu;N nah phiro dil ke liye
aisaa pahu;Nche hai baham phir ko))ii ;Gam-;xvaar kahaa;N

[why won't you wander around sifting through the dust for the heart?
hardly/where does such a sympathizer again come to us?!]

Also from the second divan [{933,6}]:

rahaa thaa ;xuu;N ta))ii;N ham-raah so aaphii ;xuun hai ;haif
rafiiq tujh saa milegaa kahaa;N dilaa mujh ko

[I myself remained turned to blood; as a fellow-traveler, thus it itself is blood, alas
where will I find a companion like you, oh heart?]

Along with 'heart', the word aisaa is very much in the idiom. About departed or left-behind people they say, ab aise log / dost / mihrbaa;N kahaa;N milenge . That is, people of the kind that the person was who is being discussed, or us jaise people. If he had said rafiiq-e shafiiq phir aisaa , then the beauty of the idiom would not have been created.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == IDIOM; MOOD; THEME

The verse also points up the lover's lostness and loneliness: apparently the only real friend he's ever had has been his own heart. And not only in the past, but for the future as well, his own heart is the only friend he can even imagine. Having lost such a unique and ideally loving companion, how can he ever be happy again?

The nice swingy rhyme of rafiiq-e shafiiq is an extra treat.

Of course, he sometimes takes quite an opposite view of the heart, as in {1343,1}:

jigar ;xuu;N kiyaa chashm nam kar gayaa
gayaa dil so ham par sitam kar gayaa

[having turned the liver to blood, having made the eyes wet, it went
when the heart went, it treated us cruelly and went]