190_03

{190,3}

va;hshat-e aatish-e dil se shab-e tanhaa))ii me;N
.suurat-e duud rahaa saayah gurezaa;N mujh se

1) through/from/with the wildness/madness of the fire of the heart, in the night of solitude
2) {like / in the form of} smoke, the shadow remained in flight from/through me

Notes:

va;hshat : 'Loneliness, solitariness, dreariness; --sadness, grief, care; --wildness, fierceness, ferocity, savageness; barbarity, barbarism; --timidity, fear, fright, dread, terror, horror; --distraction, madness'. (Platts p.1183)

.suurat : 'Form, fashion, figure, shape, semblance, guise; appearance, aspect; face, countenance;... state, condition (of a thing), case, predicament, circumstance;... means; mode, manner, way'. (Platts p.747)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

Nazm:

In the night of solitude, my shadow, becoming wild/mad from the fire of the heart, kept fleeing the way smoke flees from fire. (212)

== Nazm page 212

Bekhud Dihlavi:

He says, in the nights of separation my shadow, becoming wild due to the fire of the heart, flees in the way that smoke flees from fire. The meaning is that in the night of solitude even my shadow didn't remain with me-- it too left me solitary. (272)

Bekhud Mohani:

In the night of separation my shadow became fearful because of the fire of the heart, and fled the way smoke flees from fire. The night of separation was dark. Not to speak of anybody else-- the lover can't see even his shadow. In the state of senselessness, the suspicion occurs that because of the heart's restlessness the shadow has become fearful and fled. (371-72)

Arshi:

Compare {153,10}. (269)

FWP:

SETS
MADNESS: {14,3}

Thanks to the wonderfully multivalent meanings of va;hshat (see the definition above) , we have several possible visions of what is going on:

=The shadow flees in fear because of some quality ('ferocity' or 'madness') displayed by the fire of the heart.
=The shadow flees because of something it feels ('fear' or 'dread' or 'horror') when it encounters the fire of the heart.
=The shadow is caused to fly upward, and thus metaphorically to flee, 'by means of' the violence ('wildness' or 'fierceness') of the fire of the heart-- this fire sends it shooting upward like smoke.

Thanks to the multivalent meanings of se , all these readings can easily be accommodated. And in the second line, the shadow can be imagined to flee either 'from the speaker' (as the commentators have it), or 'by means of' him-- since it's his 'fire of the heart' that drives the shadow away.

And thanks to the multivalent meanings of .suurat-e , the shadow can flee either simply 'like' smoke (as the commentators have it); or, more provocatively, 'in the form of' smoke-- a reading which works far more enjoyably with the 'fire of the heart'.

Arshi has indeed chosen in {153,10} the perfect verse for comparison.