Word Meaning
ख़स्तगी
khastagi
Meaning
Weariness, woundedness, exhaustion, or distress caused by suffering.
Detailed Meaning
In Urdu poetics, 'khastagi' denotes a state of profound exhaustion, brokenness, or physical and spiritual wounding. In this couplet, it signifies the poet's own afflicted and injured condition under the weight of oppression, for which he had hoped to receive solace or recognition. It conveys not just simple tiredness, but the inner fracturing wrought by ceaseless affliction.
Etymology
Persian: from 'khasta' (خستہ - wounded, broken, tired) + abstract noun suffix '-gī' (گی).
Usage
Commonly invoked in classical ghazal to express the emotional paralysis, despair, and wound-like fatigue caused by the beloved's cruelty or life's hardships.
Examples
There was no cure left for the heart's khastagi.
The journey ended, but the khastagi of the soul remained.