nah hu))ii ham se raqam ;hairat-e ;xa:t:t-e
ru;x-e yaar
.saf;hah-e aa))inah jaulaa;N-gah-e :tuu:tii nah hu))aa
1) the reckoning/writing of the amazement of the down/writing
on the cheek of the beloved did not become [done] through us
2) the page of the mirror did not become the movement-place of a parrot
raqm [or raqam]: 'Mark, sign, price-mark; writing, hand-writing, character; notation of numerals (chiefly taken from the initials of the terms for the Arabic numbers); one character in the notation above described; --arithmetic; figure, number; entry, item; amount, sum, total; --a fractional share of an undivided estate; --rate of assessment; --manner, kind, method, sort; article (of goods)'. (Platts p.596)
;xa:t:t : 'A line, a streak, or stripe, a mark; lineament; --writing, character, handwriting chirography; a letter, epistle; --down on the face, incipient beard, &c.; beard; moustaches'. (Platts p.490)
SETS == INEXPRESSIBILITY;
WORD
MIRROR: {8,3}
WRITING: {7,3}
Raza p. 223. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of nine verses, and chose to include in his published divan the first verse, and the final six. This verse is the second of the original nine verses.
This is a verse in which the beloved is imagined as an adolescent boy; for others, see {9,2}.
The combination of parrots and mirrors seems to bring out the maximally abstract side of Ghalib's temperament. The present verse is what I call a verse of 'word-exploration', for at the center of it is ;xa:t:t , which means 'writing', 'down on the cheek', or any 'line, mark'. In the sense of 'writing', it has an affinity with 'reckoning/writing' and with 'page'. Its sense of 'down on the cheek' is the primary meaning used in the verse. And in the sense of 'line, mark', it can't help evoking-- since the verse contains a 'mirror'-- the countless small 'polish-marks' [jauhar] that necessarily appear over time on any metal mirror. (On this jauhar see {5,4}.)
The prose paraphrase of this verse would seem to be, 'we didn't/couldn't record our amazement at the line of down on the beloved's cheek; the inert page didn't become activated by containing our writing-- it remained an inert mirror, stupefied by amazement, that didn't display the movements of a parrot who was speaking in front of it.' Mirrors frequently display their own 'amazement' at the beauty displayed in them by exactly this inertness and stupefaction; see for example {63,1}.
Gyan Chand gives a helpful explanation of the mirror-based training process that is used for parrots, and that seems to underlie the imagery of the second line. For other parrot-and-mirror verses, see {29,2}.
This verse is aggravating: it gives you the feeling that if you can just put the imagery together a bit more subtly, and manipulate all those words and ideas more cleverly, something fascinating and deep will emerge. But as far as I can tell, nothing that's worth the effort ever does emerge. We're left with the thought 'we were unable to describe/record the amazing beauty of the down on the beloved's cheek', plus a lot of cleverly interrelated wordplay. This is something worth having, of course; it's just not Ghalib at his smashing, irresistible best.
Note for meter fans: This meter can alternatively begin with a short syllable instead of a long one. That's the case here, so there's no need to take the initial nah as the variant ne (as for example in {169,2}).
Gyan Chand:
In this verse are a number of affinities. They versify the mirror as 'amazed', and upon seeing the down on the beloved's face we became stricken with amazement. They call the down 'green'; thus its reflection in the mirror seems like a parrot. In addition to this, when they teach a parrot to speak, then they sit it down before a mirror. From behind the mirror a man speaks, and the parrot, seeing its own reflection, considers that the parrot in the mirror is speaking. For this reason it too begins to speak. It's obvious that at the time of speaking, it must also be moving a bit. In this way the mirror becomes the 'movement-place of the parrot'. By the 'movement-place of the parrot' is meant the place where the parrot speaks.
He says, having seen the beautiful down on the beloved's cheeks, the state of amazement that overcame us-- on a page of paper we would not be able to explain it. Our page was the kind of mirror in which no parrot moved or spoke. (72-73)