Heer Waris Shah

Verse 60 - Heer confronts Ranjha

Using insulting language, Heer harangues Ranjha for lying on her couch, wondering if his brain is fevered or if he has been possessed by djinns and ghosts. In the last line the poet addresses Ranjha and says that he was alive when he went to sleep on the couch but he is dead now! This is a foreshadowing of the Ranjha’s impending transformation; he is about to expererience passionate love, which will change him profoundly and will end in tragedy.

Verse 61 - Love at first sight

An angry and aggressive Heer, ready to beat Ranjha with a switch locks eyes with him and everything changes in an instant. Ranjha, enamored, address her as his beloved and Heer, as she gazes upon his beauty is enraptured. The poet digs into Biblical and Quranic lore and describes the moment when Zulaikha, Potipher’s wife is so enamored of Joseph that she loses herself and attempts to seduce him. In a reversal of gender roles, Heer is the one who dwells on Ranjha’s beauty, taking in his flute and his locks that frame his face in disarray. Ranjha’s brothers exiling him is compared to Joseph’s being thrown into the well by his jealous brothers, and his beauty with Joseph’s, which prompts Luddan’s wives to protect him and rescue him, just as the trader Maalik bin Azar caused Joseph to be rescued. The poet concludes that now that the lovers’ eyes are locked, there is no time to waste; there is no distance any more between Heer and Ranjha. Their great love has been born and it is ready to blossom.

Verse 62 - Ranjha addresses Heer

With this verse, a dialog starts between Ranjha a Heer, with the lad firing the first salvo. He philosophically declares that the world is ephemeral and chides her gently suggesting that being unkind to wayfarers is not apparopriate. He calls Heer out for being arrogant, taking in her demeanor and declares that he is leaving her couch and placing his faith in naught but the Divine

Verse 63 - Heer protests

Heer addresses Ranjha with humility, protesting that she has not harmed him in any way. She grandly declares that she and her clan are all enamored of him. She responds to his rebuke in the previous verse by saying that she has not harmed him in any way and gently chides him for saying that he is placing his trust in God and leaving. Ah the end of the verse, the poet ironically says that after all, those that are blessed by God cannot be rivaled, implying harmed by anyone, thus foreshadowing the tragic arc of their love, for as we shall find out, her clan will be far from enamored of Ranjha.

Verse 64 - Ranjha's response

Ranjha, in response, chides Heer, but not without affection. He acknowledges her playfulness and her beauty and then, responds to her complaint about his readiness to leave. Is he a carefree lover, like the amorous bumble bee or is he a mendicant with powers of the occult at his command, dangerous like a black cobra? No matter who he is, to charm him and seduce him, he says, is no easy task.  Once again there is a foreshadowing of Ranjha’s future, with his carefree past as the backdrop. He then waxes philosophical as he talks about the ephemeral nature of youth and beauty, which she possesses now in abundance, and cautions her against being haughty, reacting to her earlier anger at seeing him on her couch. Waris Shah is no mere poet and this verse, which on the surface is part of the charming mating dance in progress, is really a reflection on the transience of life and the perils of nafs or ego, important Sufi preoccupations.

Verse 65 - Heer hatches a plan

Heer now changes her tune completely; her anger has fled and she starts to quiz Ranjha, intensely curious about his background and the circumstances that brought him to Jhang Sial. She declares that she is enmored of him and hatches a plan. She will smuggle Ranjha into her household by getting him employed as her father’s cowherd. In the last line, the poet cheekily suggests that the tenderness and beauty of Heer is going to make Ranjha lose himself completely to the point that even his music will be silenced.

Verse 66 - Ranjha is excited and apprehensive

Ranjha waxes poetic and declares that it would be a blessing to have a lover like Heer but then he also gives voice to his anxieties. He fears that if he enters her world as a servant, she would find it difficult to meet with him. He urges her to come up with a way to see him every day, for he fears that she would spend all her time with her friends at the women’s gatherings and he would be left all alone.

Verse 67 - Heer reassures Ranjha

Heer tries to put Ranjha’s anxieties to rest. She will not leave him alone to go to the women’s gatherings; rather, all of her friends will join her to frolic with Ranjha in the woods. She has fallen in love and she foresees days filled with joys and nights filled with passion, as that love blossoms. Waris Shah is being slyly subversive in this verse, for while it is about the joy of young love, in a reversal of traditional gender roles, it is not the hero of the tale, Ranjha who is stating an amorous intent, but it is his heroine, Heer.

Verse 68 - Ranjha is unconvinced

Ranjha, unconvinced by Heer’s reassurances, reiterates his concerns. He is a penniless wanderer, and Heer a powerful chief’s daughter. He worries that he will be dismissed like the servant he is, while Heer spends time with her female friends at the women’s gatherings. He declares that he wants Heer to pledge that he will not be neglected. Once again, the poet is subverting traditional gender roles by having his male protagonist express the kind of anxiety that a reader might expect a woman, nervous about entering into a socially inappropriate and equal relationship, to express.

Verse 69 - Heer Protests

Heer vigorously protests that her love is true and that she will always stay faithful to Ranjha.