Word Meaning
वा-हसरता
wā-hasratā
Meaning
Alas! What grief! An exclamation expressing deep sorrow, regret, or lamentation.
Detailed Meaning
An Arabic-derived exclamatory phrase used to express profound grief, yearning, or despair over an unfulfilled longing. In this couplet, it serves as a cry of bitter irony, where the speaker mourns because the beloved stopped inflicting pain upon realizing the lover relished the torment. It crystallizes the lover's despair at losing even the cruelest form of the beloved's attention.
Etymology
Arabic: compound of the lamentative particle 'wā' (وا), the noun 'hasrah' (حسرة, sorrow/regret), and the vocalic suffix '-ā' (الف ندبہ) used in mourning.
Usage
Commonly invoked in classical ghazals as an exclamation of profound desolation and helpless mourning over missed opportunities or ironic twists of fate.
Examples
Alas! What sorrow that our spring departed so soon.
Woe is me, for all my lifelong hopes turned to dust.