Persian · noun · Love & Longing
Bewafaai
बेवफ़ाई
said be-wa-FAA-ee
also written: Be-wafai, Bewafai, be-wafai, bewafaai
Meaning
Faithlessness and inconstancy; the beloved's betrayal of love's covenant.
Literally: faithlessness, infidelity
Usage & notes
Bewafai is the beloved's faithlessness — the broken promise, the turning away, the love not returned that is half the ghazal's heartbreak. The lover endures it as part of love's contract: to adore one who may not stay true. It sharpens devotion into something tragic and pure, the constancy that loves on despite betrayal — and in the mystical reading, the soul's fidelity to a Beloved who seems, for now, to have withdrawn.