Ghazal 10, Verse 10

{10,10}

ba;Gal me;N ;Gair kii aaj aap sote hai;N kahii;N varnah
sabab kyaa ;xvaab me;N aa kar tabassumhaa-e pinhaa;N kaa

1) by the side of the Other you now sleep somewhere-- otherwise
2) what [would be / is] the cause-- [your/their] having come into [my] sleep/dream-- of the hidden smiles?

Notes:

aaj : 'To-day, this day; this time, now'. (Platts p.22)

 

;xvaab : 'Sleep; dream, vision'. (Platts p.494)

Nazm:

The author's meaning seems to be that since you are secretly laughing by the Rival's side, I see that laughter in a dream. And seeing the style of that laughter, I've understood that such laughter takes place only at the time of union. Otherwise, when has it ever been my fortune to have you come into my dream, with a hidden smile? (12)

== Nazm page 12

Vajid:

Urdu text: Vajid 1902 {10}

Bekhud Mohani:

Passion and jealousy have a blouse-skirt [=inseparable] relationship. He has seen the beloved smiling in a dream. Suspicion says that she must be sleeping today by the Rival's side; otherwise, why the smile? When I have been in her company, I've only ever seen her brow wrinkled in an angry frown. (23)

Josh:

The intensity of the theme is worthy of praise, but the nakedness [((uryaanii] of the theme makes this intensity useless. (63)

FWP:

SETS == VARNAH
DREAMS: {3,3}
SMILE/LAUGHTER: {27,4}

This verse makes elegant use of the two possible meanings of the varnah , which marks the clause transition but really belongs with the second line. It can be used contrafactually. 'If you were not sleeping with him, would you come into my dream at all? And if you did come, would you smile? And if you did smile, would it be this hidden, secret smile? I know what you're doing, and I also know how you're taking pains to make me aware of it!'. On this reading, the lover uses deduction to reach and proclaim a new, even perhaps triumphant (though also wretched) knowledge; he speaks in a tone of (sarcastic? playful?) reproach. (For more examples of the beloved's mischievously cruel use of her relationship with the Other, see {116,3} and {116,4}.)

But varnah can also be used with an indicative effect. On this reading, the lover says, 'You might be sleeping with the Other-- but if it's not that, then what in fact is the meaning of your hidden smiles? Are you up to some new, and even worse, devilry that I haven't figured out yet?'. For more on varnah , see {3,14x}.

For more on the 'hidden smile', see {130,4}.