===
1548,
9
===

 

{1548,9}

chitvan be-;Dhab aa;Nkhe;N phirii hai;N palko;N se bhii na:zar chhuu;Tii
((ishq abhii kyaa jaaniye ham ko kyaa kyaa miir dikhaavegaa

1) the appearance/look is ungainly/wild; the eyes, averted/wandering; the gaze has departed even/also from the eyelashes
2) no telling what-all, Mir, passion will still/now show us

 

Notes:

chitvan : 'Sight, look, glance; appearance, aspect'. (Platts p.424)

S. R. Faruqi:

The theme of palko;N se bhii na:zar chhu;Tii , Ghalib has directly taken up:

G{111,10}.

For many people it's difficult to understand the interpretation of this verse of Ghalib's. If Mir's verse had been before them, then this difficulty wouldn't have been there. Ghalib has, as is his custom, given the theme a new coloration, and created in it his special dramaticness and complex extent. But the honor of primacy is Mir's.

In Mir's verse the ambiguity of dikhaavegaa , and its affinity with 'eyes', 'eyelashes,' and 'gaze' in the first line, is very fine.

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == EYES; GAZE
NAMES
TERMS

And of course, if the lover's eyes are now so thoroughly dysfunctional, how will passion be able to 'show' him anything at all?

Note for translation fans: The clumsy 'what-all' is my attempt to show the pluralness of kyaa kyaa , which is otherwise almost impossible to convey in English.