Once they could not bear a touch of kajal (mascara) but now the birds procreate in them
Explanation
Thefirst reading of the bait is quite simple and straight. The poet has seen those pretty eyes that had mesmerized the word. Those eyes were so delicate that they could not bear a touch of mascara. Then the same eyes were seen turned into barren where the birds laid their eyes and proccreated.
The bait opens with light of enchanting eyes and closes with the graveyard like darkness. The entire life is within these two extremes; the life that springs like new beautiful buds (buds are also called akh or eye in Punjabi) and then it degenerates into jungle of nothingness. Then the new life emerges from same nothingness, being hinted at by procreation of birds. The bait describes the journey from seemingly mesmerizing eyes or highly developed socialized life to dirt and basic nature (birds’ procreations).
The historical process Farid was witnessing was replete with destruction of old empires and the ruling classes being replaced with new structures. Farid had seen the big princely states and their rulers turning into dust. Handsome princes and prettiest princesses were being sold in the slave markets. The ruler of the Punjab Jaypal and his entire household was being sold in the Ghazni slave market. Therefore, in a way, Farid was giving an historical account rather than just working with poetic metaphors and similes.
As we start reading the bait, a very pretty privileged class girl appears on our horizon. We see an army of royal maids trying to further the allure of prettiest eyes of the princess’s with mascara having no success because the eyes are too delicate for any alien element. We see the entire world in the spell of those eyes. However, the same eyes are turned in bird nests in abandon.
On a second look the eyes of a pretty woman are transformed into eyes of the world or an era. The eyes are world outlook or thought categories that keep captivated generations of people. Then like empires the era making ideologies and thought categories diminish and vanish as the pretty eyes turn into birds’ nest. The new generation not even hears the name of the most revered intellectuals of yesteryears: their fate resembles the pretty eyes turning into bird nests. Farid had seen the gods of Sanskrit language eating dust and thrown into oblivion.
Farid’s perceived eyes become the eyes of the historical categories that enslaves the entire society of a period. The people living in a period cannot imagine any thing beyond the horizons created by that specific historical era: It is like magical spell. The societal setting in a given historical period cannot bear the slightest alien intervention. In other words the structure is mesmerizing, with or without choice but eventually the entire setting becomes like an abandoned city. However, in the ruins the birds lay eggs and new life emerges, a new world outlook starts enchanting the coming generation not able to bear any alien intrusion…
