S. R. Faruqi:

The opening-verse is by way of introduction; taken in general, the harmony of this ghazal is like that of ghazal

{1056}.

In both, there's also the similarity that the verses are limitlessly 'flowing'; thus those verses too claim attention that with regard to meaning or theme are nothing special.

A third similarity is that some verses are apparently simple and uniform, but in reality are full of meanings.

Verses {1176,2}, {1176,5}, and {1176,6} from this ghazal have been discussed in detail in the introduction to SSA, volume 1. Thus, considering repetition to be inappropriate, I have not discussed them here.

FWP:

SETS == KAHAN
MOTIFS == LIVER
NAMES
TERMS == FLOWING

How in the world can we express in English the delightfulness of kab kaa ? Literally of course it's a question, '[a matter] of when?'. But idiomatically, it can convey a certain boredom: 'Why, that's old news, it's been ages since that happened-- have you been living in a cave? Who can even remember how long ago it was when that happened?' In this case the event that's such old news is the speaker's flowing away (apparently, to nowhere), dissolved into a stream of his own sorrowful tears.

The refrain, kahaa;N , of course operates with most of the potential qualities of the 'kya effect'. It can be taken as a serious question ('where is the blood?', 'where am I?') or, more enjoyably, as a scornful, indignant exclamation: 'as if there's any blood there!' or 'as if I'm still around!'. In {1176,2}, the 'where?' is used with similarly complex effects.