Today's snippet is a hilarious example of a figure of speech called apahnuti (अपह्नुति), "denial" or "concealment", or sometimes chhekaapahnuti (छेकापह्नुति), "clever denial". It takes the form of a short conversation: The first speaker makes an ambiguously worded statement, and the second catches only the meaning that is suggested by a superficial reading and is usually erotic; the first speaker then anticlimactically reveals the meaning they intended, prompting the reader to revisit their original words. A similar genre of riddles called keh-mukarni (कह-मुकरनी), "say-and-deny", exists in the Hindi languages.
आदौ गृहीतपाणिः पश्चादारूढजघनकटिभागा|
नखमुखलालनसुखदा सा किं रामास्ति नैव भोः पामा||
Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:
Adau gRhItapANiH pazcAdArUDhajaghanakaTibhAgA|
nakhamukhalAlanasukhadA sA kiM rAmAsti naiva bhoH pAmA||
nakhamukhalAlanasukhadA sA kiM rAmAsti naiva bhoH pAmA||
– Anonymous
Loose translation:
Man 1: At first, she takes hold of my hand, and then mounts my hip and loins. It is highly pleasurable when I caress her with the tips of my nails.
Man 2: Are you talking about your (beautiful) wife?
Man 1: No sir! I am talking about my itch!
Source: This verse can be found in the third edition of the Subhashita Ratnakara (सुभाषितरत्नाकर), "an ocean of good sayings", published in 1903, as well as in the Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara (see this post). However, no information on its age or authorship is available.
Notes: The wordplay works because the author has chosen to use the word paamaa (पामा) which refers to a skin infection characterized by an itchy rash (it finds mention in many proto-medical treatises such as those by Sushruta and Charaka, and has been variously interpreted as scabies, herpes, or suchlike by modern commentators); this word is in the feminine gender, enabling the author to take recourse to a sequence of feminine adjectives (in strict accordance with Sanskrit grammar) to misguide their readers. It is also worth mentioning here that in Sanskrit erotic literature, making scratches on one's lover's body with fingernails (regardless of the gender of the deliverer and the receiver) was highly romanticized or, should I say, fetishized – several scholarly writings deal at length with the classification of such nail-marks.
Man 1: At first, she takes hold of my hand, and then mounts my hip and loins. It is highly pleasurable when I caress her with the tips of my nails.
Man 2: Are you talking about your (beautiful) wife?
Man 1: No sir! I am talking about my itch!
Source: This verse can be found in the third edition of the Subhashita Ratnakara (सुभाषितरत्नाकर), "an ocean of good sayings", published in 1903, as well as in the Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara (see this post). However, no information on its age or authorship is available.
Notes: The wordplay works because the author has chosen to use the word paamaa (पामा) which refers to a skin infection characterized by an itchy rash (it finds mention in many proto-medical treatises such as those by Sushruta and Charaka, and has been variously interpreted as scabies, herpes, or suchlike by modern commentators); this word is in the feminine gender, enabling the author to take recourse to a sequence of feminine adjectives (in strict accordance with Sanskrit grammar) to misguide their readers. It is also worth mentioning here that in Sanskrit erotic literature, making scratches on one's lover's body with fingernails (regardless of the gender of the deliverer and the receiver) was highly romanticized or, should I say, fetishized – several scholarly writings deal at length with the classification of such nail-marks.
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