===
0745,
7
===
 

{745,7}

hogii jo chal sar-e muu pinhaa;N nahii;N rahegii
ik din zabaan hogaa ek ek baal teraa

1) the movement/behavior/scheme that {will be / must presumably be} within every hair will not remain hidden
2) one day it will be a tongue-- your every single hair

 

Notes:

chaal (of which chal is apparently being used as a variant): 'Motion, movement, gait, walk, carriage; pace (of a horse); a move (in chess, &c.); course, procedure, process, mode, method, manner, fashion; rule, practice, custom, usage; conduct, behaviour, habit; breeding, politeness; means, expedient, plan, scheme, device, artifice, manœuvre, trick, stratagem'. (Platts p.418)

*Platts Dictionary Online*

S. R. Faruqi:

chal = restlessness

The wordplay of sar-e muu , zabaan , baal is interesting. The meaning of chal can also be 'intense desire' and 'a pursuit of something'. The affinity is obvious.

In the verse, the ambiguity of the addressee is also fine. The speaker himself may be the addressee; or this utterance can emerge from the tongue of the Advisor; or it's possible that the poet might be speaking to some lover.

For every single hair to become a tongue is also fine. Idioms like 'every hair gives a blessing' [ruvaa;N ruvaa;N du((aa detaa hai and ruu;Ng;Taa ruu;Ng;Taa du((aa detaa hai] also make it permissible to call the hair a 'tongue'.

FWP:

SETS == FILL-IN; GROTESQUERIE
MOTIFS
NAMES
TERMS == AMBIGUITY

What a tremendous amount of mileage the verse gets out of that little chal ! SRF highlights some possibilities, but take a look at the definition above to see the whole range. Somebody or other will eventually have the experience of having his or her most deeply embedded ('in every hair') chal openly proclaimed (by the 'tongue' of each of those hairs). Will this be a humiliating public exposure of bad behavior, or a welcome (?) outburst of long-suppressed desires? What kind of chal will be revealed? This is a 'fill-in' verse; the possibilities are wide open, and only you can decide on the ones you find most meaningful.

Is the idea of someone's every single hair-- including body hair-- becoming a tongue, a grotesque one, or not? No doubt it depends on how vividly we choose to-- or are led to-- imagine it.

For further discussion, see Ghalib's tongue/hair verse:

G{140,3}.