[Urdu Couplet #36]
दस्ते-सितम (dast-e-sitam) = hand of tyranny (or tyrannical hand); अज्ज़ (ajj) = humility, modesty, civility; काफ़िर (kaafir) = unbeliever, non-believer (the word is derived from the reference in Quran for anyone who doesn't believe in Allah or God); आह (aah) = sigh, moan or painful cry
Notes:
In the couplet, the poet highlights that in spite of his lover's immodest tyrannical behaviour towards him, his love-struck heart believed in nothing else but love and bore the torture without letting out a sigh.
Here, the word 'kaafir' is used in a slightly different context where it can mean 'an ardent lover who believes in nothing but the feeling of being in love in spite of the pain'. The regular political or religious usage of the word 'kaafir' is to refer a non-Muslim who doesn't follow Quran or Allah.
तेरे दस्ते-सितम का अज्ज़ नहीं
दिल ही काफ़िर था जिसने आह न की
Tere dast-e-sitam ka ajj nahi
Dil hi kaafir tha jisne aah na ki
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Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) |
[English Meaning]
Your hand of tyranny (tyrannical hand) knows no humility
(yet my) heart, an ardent lover, didn't let out a sigh
Notes:
In the couplet, the poet highlights that in spite of his lover's immodest tyrannical behaviour towards him, his love-struck heart believed in nothing else but love and bore the torture without letting out a sigh.
Here, the word 'kaafir' is used in a slightly different context where it can mean 'an ardent lover who believes in nothing but the feeling of being in love in spite of the pain'. The regular political or religious usage of the word 'kaafir' is to refer a non-Muslim who doesn't follow Quran or Allah.
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