sar u;Raane ke jo va((de ko mukarrar
chaahaa
ha;Ns ke bole kih tire sar kii qasam hai ham ko
1) when I wanted the repetition of the vow of striking off [my] head
2) {laughingly / having laughed} she said that, 'we {swear by / swear off} your head'
That is, we swear on your head, we'll cut your head off! Or else consider it like this: that we've sworn off cutting off your head-- we won't cut your head off. (132)
When she promised to cut off my head, I wanted the promise to be firm. So I asked, please just say it again. Then, laughingly, what does she say but 'yes, yes, we swear by your head, it will be exactly so'. [Or:] 'we've sworn off cutting off your head-- that is, we absolutely won't cut it off'. (249)
SETS == DIALOGUE;
HUMOR; IDIOMS
SMILE/LAUGHTER: {27,4}
VOWS: {20,2}
This is a one-big-trick verse, and the commentators all explain the trick. The effect is delightful, isn't it? It hinges on the fact that 'to take an oath of/about doing something' [kisii kaam karne kii qasam] means, idiomatically, to swear off doing that thing, as in Hali's example. And people often confirm especially binding oaths by swearing by the head of some loved one (as people swear by someone's life in English). So when the one idiom is plugged into the other, the result is the deliciously radical ambiguity created here. For more on the possibilities of qasam , see {89,3}.
It reminds me a bit of {116,6}, which also hinges on dialogue, and on the beloved's deliberately irritating way of pretending to accept the lover's importunities, while actually thwarting them. The poor lover is helpless, and we get to enjoy the pickle he's in.
Hali:
In this verse the phrase 'I swear by your head' has two meanings: one, I swear by your head that I will certainly cut off your head; and the other, I swear off your head--that is, I will never cut off your head. As when they say, 'You’ve sworn off coming to dinner at our place', that is, you never have dinner with us.
==Urdu text: p. 132 in Hali, Yadgar-e Ghalib