taaliif-e nus;xah'haa-e vafaa kar
rahaa thaa mai;N
majmuu((ah-e ;xayaal abhii fard fard
thaa
1) the manuscripts/prescriptions/recipes of faithfulness,
I was compiling
2a) the collection of thoughts was still/now in bits and pieces
2b) the sum/aggregate of my thought was still/now fragmentary
taaliif : 'Uniting, connecting, bringing together; ...collecting, compiling'. (Platts p.306)
nus;xah : 'A copy or model (whence anything is taken), an exemplar, a prototype; a manuscript-copy, a copy, an edition; a copy-book, writing-book; --a recipe, prescription (of medicine, or of ingredients for any composition'. (Platts p.1137)
majmuu((ah : 'The collective mass (of), the whole (of), the aggregate (of); the sum (of); a crowd, an assembly; a collection; meeting; a compendium; a body (of laws); a magazine; a miscellany; --a form (in printing)'. (Platts p.1003)
fard : 'Single, sole, only, one (and no more); singular; odd; unique, unequalled, incomparable; --s.f. A single person, an individual; a single thing or article; a unit; an odd number; (in Gram.) the singular number; a half, one of a pair or couple; a hemistich, a verse; couplet (being the half of a four-line stanza); a single sheet or strip (of paper); a piece, fragment; the outer fold (of a quilt, &c.); a draft (of an account); a register, record, statement, account-sheet; a list, roll, catalogue'. (Platts p.778)
I was establishing the special features and nature of every single medicine from among the medicines for faithfulness, and that was a time when my thought was examining every single excellence of faithfulness separately. Then I began to be tyrannized over, and my prescriptions for faithfulness remained incomplete and partial. (18)
As yet the book of my thoughts hadn't even been compiled-- that is, the thoughts had not been brought together. I had not even become properly conscious that I was composing books of faithfulness. That is, the Eternal Destiny-assigner had bestowed on me faithfulness from all eternity. (13)
SETS == A,B
WRITING verses: {1,1}; {7,3}*; {9,8x};
{10,12} (with list of book verses); {14,9};
{18,2}; {24,8};
{27,2}; {29,7x};
{34,1}; {36,10};
{42,10x}; {43,5};
{46,4}; {51,2};
{51,5x}; {61,3};
{61,5}; {97,4};
{110,3}; {114,7};
{118,3}; {125,8};
{136,2}; {143,1};
{143,6}; {159,4};
{160,4}; {167,6};
{169,13}; {176,2};
{176,4}; {177,8};
{180,3}; {184,1};
{190,2}; {191,4};
{192,5}; {202,4};
{205,3}; {209,6};
{219,5}: {225,1};
{233,11}; {234,13}
Look at the powerful and fruitful opposition between the collecting and uniting activity in the first line, and the dispersedness of thoughts in the second line. Does the dispersedness of my thoughts make my collecting activity even more impressive (as Nazm and most other commentators would say), or does it serve to demonstrate the immaturity and folly of my project (as in the perfectly defensible 2b)? And if the task is foolish, exactly why is it so? Needless to say, a variety of possible reasons can be adduced, depending on one's interpretive choices about the first line.
And even beyond those first-line choices, this is an 'A,B' verse: how are we to put the two lines together? As so often, Ghalib forces (or allows) us to do the decision-making work ourselves, with no guidance from him. Here are some enjoyable possibilities:
=I was compiling manuscripts of faithfulness, because I was still young and foolish and didn't know any better
=since I was young and naive and needed advice, I was compiling manuscripts of faithfulness to help me understand the world
=I was compiling manuscripts of faithfulness-- and I was only at the chaotic beginning of that huge work
=I was compiling manuscripts of faithfulness, but I couldn't seem to make any headway-- no matter what I did, they remained chaotic
=the collections of thoughts on faithfulness were all jumbled up, so I was organizing and compiling them
Moreover, the grammatical ambiguities of the i.zaafat are in full flower in the first line: are the manuscripts (etc.) about faithfulness, or do they belong to faithfulness, or are they constituent parts of faithfulness? And even if we follow Bekhud Dihlavi, are they 'prescriptions' for enhancing one's faithfulness, or for curing one of faithfulness? (Faruqi proposes (July 2000) that nus;xah should mean 'manuscript', since faithfulness is not a disease with a prescription. I'm not sure I agree.) And even if not 'manuscripts' or 'prescriptions', what was being compiled could also be 'recipes' or 'outlines' of some other kind.
The wordplay about writing in this verse is also spectacular, including as it does every single significant word in the verse: 'compiling', 'manuscripts', 'collection', 'thought', 'fragmentary'; see the definitions above for details.
Faiz, who famously called his first divan naqsh-e faryaadii (thus inserting an i.zaafat into {1,1}), called his second divan nus;xah'haa-e vafaa ; this phrase is also used as the title of his collected verse [kulliyaat].
Nazm:
That is, I had already attained the rank of author in the art of passion, and as yet even my intelligence and enthusiasm had not been collected and were still in bits and pieces, unedited; that is, it was the time of inexperience. (7-8)