I'm sorry for the unintended suspense about the baffling couplet but it has to do with the typing window not giving me the opportunity to share anything with you....the couplet was read out to me by a friend and both of us were initially unable even to follow the literal import of it....but the couplet stuck in my mind and i think i could give a convincing interpretation... I would appreciate if someone would challenge this interpretation with a better one. This is how the couplet goes..
Zamaane ne mujh jurrah kash ko nadaan
kiya khaak aaw khisht e sar khum kiya
the urdu script has a wow-alif in the second line which could have been a misprint, it could also be only a wow.
jurrah kash is a word used for someone who drinks in small sips...one who dwells over what he takes in...it would mean figuratively understanding the concepts of the world in parts...small measure. nadaan is a version of naa daan, which means someone who does not have understanding enough so it gels well with the claim to jurrah kashi. kash is the same as the 'kash' of a cigarette.
The second line introduces a beautiful muhavara or an idiom ' khisht e sar ko khum karna" and it has the key to deciphering the couplet. The poet says that when i came into the world i took it in in small measures and why because i did not have enough 'interior' space for the world outside. This is the state of a person when one is born one observes and every observation makes new space...reminds me of 'karat karat abhyas ke jarh mati hot sujaan/Rasri aawat jaat te SIR PAR PARAT NISAAN! The relationship that the couplet describes is that of every sense perception and experience making a small dent that has been beautifully rendered by "JURRAH KASH". But the world eventually reduces the self that has an agonistic relationship with it to dust, 'kiya khaak' and by reducing the self to 'khaak' the head that was born as 'khisht' that is, the head that was but a stone that had an antagonistic relationship with the world outside was transformed, in time, to "khum" that is the pyala or the cup. It is this movement from the primary, outward oriented movement of the mind to the birth of interiority that the couplet traces. It is beautiful how Meer charts the growth of man from khisht to khum in a couplet, a philosophical movement that would have taken the philosophers pages to explain.
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poochte hain woh ke ghalib kauh hai...
- aahu e khutan
- Senior assistant professor at Zakir Husain Delhi College (Eve.) of the Delhi University
Monday, July 26, 2010
Baffling Couplet by Meer Taqi Meer- from khisht to khum!
I'm sorry for the unintended suspense about the baffling couplet but it has to do with the typing window not giving me the opportunity to share anything with you....the couplet was read out to me by a friend and both of us were initially unable even to follow the literal import of it....but the couplet stuck in my mind and i think i could give a convincing interpretation... I would appreciate if someone would challenge this interpretation with a better one. This is how the couplet goes..
Zamaane ne mujh jurrah kash ko nadaan
kiya khaak aaw khisht e sar khum kiya
the urdu script has a wow-alif in the second line which could have been a misprint, it could also be only a wow.
jurrah kash is a word used for someone who drinks in small sips...one who dwells over what he takes in...it would mean figuratively understanding the concepts of the world in parts...small measure. nadaan is a version of naa daan, which means someone who does not have understanding enough so it gels well with the claim to jurrah kashi. kash is the same as the 'kash' of a cigarette.
The second line introduces a beautiful muhavara or an idiom ' khisht e sar ko khum karna" and it has the key to deciphering the couplet. The poet says that when i came into the world i took it in in small measures and why because i did not have enough 'interior' space for the world outside. This is the state of a person when one is born one observes and every observation makes new space...reminds me of 'karat karat abhyas ke jarh mati hot sujaan/Rasri aawat jaat te SIR PAR PARAT NISAAN! The relationship that the couplet describes is that of every sense perception and experience making a small dent that has been beautifully rendered by "JURRAH KASH". But the world eventually reduces the self that has an agonistic relationship with it to dust, 'kiya khaak' and by reducing the self to 'khaak' the head that was born as 'khisht' that is, the head that was but a stone that had an antagonistic relationship with the world outside was transformed, in time, to "khum" that is the pyala or the cup. It is this movement from the primary, outward oriented movement of the mind to the birth of interiority that the couplet traces. It is beautiful how Meer charts the growth of man from khisht to khum in a couplet, a philosophical movement that would have taken the philosophers pages to explain.
Zamaane ne mujh jurrah kash ko nadaan
kiya khaak aaw khisht e sar khum kiya
the urdu script has a wow-alif in the second line which could have been a misprint, it could also be only a wow.
jurrah kash is a word used for someone who drinks in small sips...one who dwells over what he takes in...it would mean figuratively understanding the concepts of the world in parts...small measure. nadaan is a version of naa daan, which means someone who does not have understanding enough so it gels well with the claim to jurrah kashi. kash is the same as the 'kash' of a cigarette.
The second line introduces a beautiful muhavara or an idiom ' khisht e sar ko khum karna" and it has the key to deciphering the couplet. The poet says that when i came into the world i took it in in small measures and why because i did not have enough 'interior' space for the world outside. This is the state of a person when one is born one observes and every observation makes new space...reminds me of 'karat karat abhyas ke jarh mati hot sujaan/Rasri aawat jaat te SIR PAR PARAT NISAAN! The relationship that the couplet describes is that of every sense perception and experience making a small dent that has been beautifully rendered by "JURRAH KASH". But the world eventually reduces the self that has an agonistic relationship with it to dust, 'kiya khaak' and by reducing the self to 'khaak' the head that was born as 'khisht' that is, the head that was but a stone that had an antagonistic relationship with the world outside was transformed, in time, to "khum" that is the pyala or the cup. It is this movement from the primary, outward oriented movement of the mind to the birth of interiority that the couplet traces. It is beautiful how Meer charts the growth of man from khisht to khum in a couplet, a philosophical movement that would have taken the philosophers pages to explain.
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