رنجش ہی سہی Ranjish Hi Sahi — Let It Be Resentment, Then

Let it be resentment, then. Come just to hurt me. Come — and leave me all over again.

Hi sahi is what you say when you settle: fine, that will do. He uses it twice in the first four words, first for the resentment and then for the hurt. The poem has barely started and he has already agreed to take the worst version of what he wants. Then the second line gives away the ending early. He is inviting somebody to leave him.

رنجش ranjish

resentment; the bad feeling left between two people

ہی سہی hi sahi

all right, let it be that then — settling for the lesser thing

At least keep up the illusion that my love had some pride in it. You come and win me round for once.

Bharam means the appearance of a thing rather than the thing itself. He is not asking for his pride back, because that is gone and he knows it. He is asking her to help him keep up the act of having had any. And tu bhi to, you too, for once, points back at all the earlier times when it was him doing the chasing.

پندار pindaar

pride, the good opinion you hold of yourself

بھرم bharam

an illusion; the appearance a thing keeps up

منانا manana

to coax someone round, to make peace with them

So we are not on the terms we used to be. All right. Still — come sometimes, if only to keep up appearances.

Marasim is a stiff, official word. It is what you would use about two countries, not two people who used to be in love. He has filed the whole affair under paperwork, and then he asks for less than that: come out of duty, the way you would turn up to a funeral.

مراسم marasim

relations; the formal terms two people are on

رسم و رہ rasm-o-rah

custom and usage; the done thing

نبھانا nibhana

to keep something up, to see it through to the end

How many people am I meant to explain this separation to? If you are angry with me, fine — then come for everybody else's sake.

Kis kis ko, how many people, one after another, sounds like a man who has been asked the same question at every wedding and every dinner for a year. And the deal he ends up offering is a strange one. Stay angry with me. Just stand next to me and be angry, where people can see.

جدائی judai

separation

سبب sabab

reason, cause

زمانہ zamana

the world; everybody else

For a lifetime now I have been denied even the pleasure of weeping. You, who are the ease of my soul — come and make me cry.

The strangest couplet here, and the one that shows you the bottom of the poem. Lazzat-e-girya means the pleasure of crying, and being able to feel your own grief is still something to have. He does not even have that. So he is no longer asking for love or company. He is asking to be made to feel anything. And he says it while calling her the ease of his soul.

لذت lazzat

pleasure, taste, relish

گریہ girya

weeping

محروم mahroom

deprived; shut out from something

راحتِ جاں rahat-e-jaan

the ease of the soul — about the fondest thing you can call a person

This foolishly hopeful heart still expects things of you. Come and put out these last few candles as well.

Dil-e-khush-fahm means a heart that takes things the nice way, one that reads every sign however it wants to. He is calling himself a fool for still hoping, and then asking her to cure it by taking the hope away. It is the last thing he gives up in a poem made entirely of giving up, and the only request here that would actually end things.

دلِ خوش فہم dil-e-khush-fahm

a heart that flatters itself; one that reads things the way it wants to

امید umid

hope, expectation

شمع sham'

a candle

بجھانا bujhana

to put out a flame