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saath ke pa;Rhne-vaale faari;G ta;h.siil-e ((ilmii se hu))e
jahl se maktab ke la;Rko;N me;N ham dil bahlaate hai;N hanuuz
1) the fellow-students became finished/unoccupied with the acquisition of knowledge
2a) from ignorance/folly, we amuse/beguile our heart among the boys of the school, still/now
2b) among the boys of the
ignorant/foolish kind of school, we amuse/beguile our heart, still/now
faari;G : 'Free from care, or anxiety; contented; free from labour or business; free, at leisure, unoccupied, unemployed, disengaged; —cleared, absolved, discharged; —ceasing (from labour, &c.), ending, finishing'. (Platts p.775)
jahl : 'Ignorance, foolishness, silliness; —foolish or senseless disputation, a war of words'. (Platts p.405)
FWP:
SETS == BELOVED IS A BOY; GENERATORS; HANUZ; MIDPOINTS
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMSIn the first line we learn that a group of fellow-students, saath ke pa;Rhne-vaale , became faari;G with regard to the acquisition of knowledge. Two questions at once arise, which could only be answered in the second line-- but of course (why are we not surprised?) are not destined to be answered there at all. The first question is about the group of 'fellow-students'. Do they include the speaker ('we fellow-students used to go to school together'), or is the speaker set apart from the rest ('I differed from my fellow-students')? And what exactly does it mean to become faari;G with regard to the acquisition of knowledge (see the definition above)-- does it mean to be free of it because one has completed it in a satisfactory way, or because one has abandoned it, lost interest in it, given it up? In short, here are the possible permutations:
=all of us fellow-students completed our acquisition of knowledge
=all of us fellow-students abandoned the acquisition of knowledge
=my fellow-students completed their acquisition of knowledge
=my fellow-students abandoned the acquisition of knowledgeNow when we look at the second line, we see a brilliantly contrived array of further ambiguities.
= jahl se : does the speaker act 'out of ignorance/folly', or is there a 'school characterized by ignorance/folly'?
= maktab ke la;Rko;N me;N : are these a whole new crop of 'schoolboys' (since the earlier ones in the first line have finished their education), or are these the same group of 'fellow-students' who no longer even try to make any progress in school?
= ham dil bahlaate hai;N : does the speaker amuse himself 'among them' as an equal, by sharing in their pursuits; or does he use them as sources of amusement, by observing their childish behavior with pleasure?
= hanuuz : does the speaker do this 'now' (as a change in his behavior), or does he do it 'still' (as a continuity in his behavior)?
And then, when we consider the 'tone' of the verse-- is the speaker ruefully lamenting his folly, or is he describing his realization that proper, sophisticated 'adult behavior' is a ridiculous or unworthy goal? (And if the latter, is his tone cynical, embittered, cheerful, erotic, or what?)
The most obvious reading treats the boys as (potential) beloveds; but of course their possible charms are subsumed in the description of the speaker's behavior. So this verse might be about ignorance/folly (and of course the question of what it 'really' is) rather than about anything erotic. But the verse is certainly what I call a 'generator'-- a verse with so many ambiguities that one can hardly manage to read it the same way twice. The ability of Mir and Ghalib to create such tiny-seeming worlds that nevertheless are bursting out with meaning and pleasure in all directions, is something that never ceases to bahlaanaa my dil .