Lailaa/Lailii/Laile

[Naseer]

Haaziriin-i-maHfil, aadaab.

The purpose behind starting this thread is to add a little more to
past threads in which the word "Lailii" has been discussed.

nah huii gar mire marne se tasallii, nah sahii
imtiHaaN awr bhii baaqii ho to yih bhii nah sahii

nafas-i-Qais kih hai chashm-o-charaaGh-i-saHraa
gar nahiiN sham'a siyah-KHaanah-i-Lailii, nah sahii

We know that the actual word is "Lailaa", the beloved of the legendry
lover Qais-i-majnuuN. In the past some friends have suggested that the
word is connected with "lail". In reality, "lail" means "night time"
just like "nahaar" means "day time". In Arabic, a "unit noun" is
formed byadding a zabar+ he to the word. Hence "lail-ah" means
" a night". One can see that "lailah" is NOT the same as "lailaa".

In our part of the worlld, "Lailaa" is written laam+zabar+ye+laam+ye.
The final ye carries an alif above it. Iranians seem to do away with
this alif and for all intent and purposes one might read the word as
"Lailii". In fact, this is a common pronunciation in Iran.

More important for this discussion is a prosody rule called "imaalah".
This allows words which end in the -aa sound to rhyme with words with
-
ii sound. In other words, -aa words are also to be pronounced as -ii
words. In the above ash'aar "bhii" sets the rhyme and Lailaa is
changed to Lailii. Similarly, as shown below, ma'naa, taqvaa and
'Iisaa are to be written and pronounced as ma'nii, taqvii and 'Iisii
to facilitate the rhyme with "tasallii".

dahr meN naqsh-i-vafaa vajh-i-tasallii nah huaa
hai yih vuh lafz kih sharmindah-i-ma'nii nah huaa

..............................................................
....................................... taqvii nah huaa

..............................................................
........................................ 'Iisii nah huaa

The additional bit of information that I have is a shi'r by Akbar
Allahabadi which employes the word, "Lailii".

hamaare musliH agar yahii haiN badal hii deN ge mizaaj-i-Lailii
yih mashvare de rahe haiN Hazrat kih bhej do Qais ko Barelii

The "imaalah" rule, it seesms, also allows the -aa to go to -e.

gar bi-guzaradam ba-pesh Khaile
har yak ba-safaa bih az Suhaile
juz tuu na-kunam ba-Ghair maile
MajnuuN nayam ar bahaa-i-Laile
mulk-i-'arab-o-'ajam sitaanam

Hafiz

agar mere saamne se ek jamaa'at guzre
jis meN har ek raunaq meN SuHail se bihtar ho
tere sivaa kisii duure meN dilchaspii nah luuN
maiN MajnuuN nahiiN huuN agar Lailaa kii qiimat meN
'Arab aur 'Ajam kaa mulk le luuN
.........................................................................................................

Naseer

[Naseer]

In addition to what has been said already, the following few lines are
for the sake of completion.

In the first post I quoted Ghalib and Akbar using Lailii. A very close
and dear friend recently posted me the folowing shi'r from Nawab Mirza
Shauq's acclaimed masnavii "zahr-i-'ishq".

buu-i-Yuusuf tamaam phailii hai
ab nah vuh Qais hai nah Lailii hai

Lest ALUPers form the view that in Farsi poetry, only Lailii has been
the norm, allow me to quote a couple of examples where Lailaa has been
used.

ayaa Khulaasah-i-KhuubaaN kiraast dar hamah dunyaa
chuniiN tane hamagii jaaN va suurate hamah ma'naa

{ ai Khulaasah-i-KhuubaaN, kis kaa hai saare jahaaN meN
aisaa tan kih saraapaa jaaN, aisii suurat kih saraapaa ma'naa

ba-dast-i-dil qadam-i-sidq Saif bar sar-i-kuuyat
nihaadah chuuN sar-i-MajnuuN bar aastaanah-i-Lailaa

{dil ke haathoN Saif ne terii galii meN Khuluus se qadam
rakhaa jaise MajnuuN kaa sar ho Lailaa kii chaukhaT par}

(Saif FarGhaanii)

I am not sure about the accuracy of my transcription or the
translation!

chuuN goyam az to bar dil-i-shaidaa chih meravad
binigar bar aab-giinah zi Khaaraa chih meravad

( tujh se kyaa kahuuN kih 'aashiq ke dil par kyaa guzartii hai
aabgiine ko dekh, patthar (kii choT) se us par kyaa guzartii hai

yak rah agar ba-vaadii-i-MajnuuN kunad guzaar
az saarbaan-i-naaqah-i-Lailaa chih meravad

( agar kuchh raastah MajnuuN kii vaadii meN chale
Lailaa kii uuNTnii to us par kyaa guzartii hai)

haft aasmaaN ba-gardish va maa darmiyaanah -em
Ghalib digar mapurs kih bar maa chih meravad

(saatoN aasmaaN gardish meN aur ham haiN biich meN
Ghalib ab mat puuchh kih ham par kyaa guzartii hai)

I asked a friend of mine who is from Afghanistan and is a Farsi
speaker about all this. He said that in speech Lailaa is the norm but
in poetry, it is often Lailii. In almost all the examples that I have
seen in Classical poetry, Lailaa has been forced to be written as
"Lailaa" because of the inclusion of "Maanii", a celebrated painter.

Naseer