Ghazal 12, Verse 7x

{12,7x}

mujhe raah-e su;xan me;N ;xauf-e gum-raahii nahii;N ;Gaalib
((a.saa-e ;xi.zr-e .sa;hraa-e su;xan hai ;xaamah bedil kaa

1) in the road/path of poetry/speech, I have no fear of losing the road, Ghalib

2a) the staff of a Khizr of the desert of poetry/speech is the pen of Bedil
2b) the pen of Bedil is the staff of a Khizr of the desert of poetry/speech

Notes:

((a.saa : 'Staff, stick, rod, club, mace, sceptre'. (Platts p.761)

Asi:

Oh Ghalib, in the road of poetry I have no fear of losing the road, because I am a follower of Bedil, and for me the pen of Bedil does the work of a staff in the desert of poetry.

== Asi, p. 64

Zamin:

That is, in poetry I am a follower of Bedil; I cannot become lost.

== Zamin, p. 60

Gyan Chand:

Travelers go along behind the staff of the guide. In the journey of poetry, I have no fear of losing the road, because Mirza Bedil's pen is guiding me. That is, I am imitating [taqliid karnaa] his style.

== Gyan Chand, p. 97

FWP:

SETS == POETRY; REPETITION; SYMMETRY
DESERT: {3,1}
LOSING/FINDING: {4,6}
ROAD: {10,12}

For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. This verse is NOT one of his choices; I thought it was interesting and have added it myself. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.

This closing-verse is one more of the young Ghalib's many tributes to Bedil; on Ghalib's deep admiration for Bedil, see {8,5x}.

Bedil's pen is equated with Khizr's staff-- they are both, it seems, guides on the road of poetry. But it's also possible that Ghalib is imagining himself as Bedil's heir; on this reading, Ghalib wouldn't fear getting lost, because he himself now had the 'pen of Bedil' that would act as Khizr's staff, so that he himself was now a kind of Khizr of the 'desert of poetry'.

Alternatively, if we take be-dil as a word, the pen of 'a heart-less one'-- a lover who had lost or given away his heart, not one who was 'heartless' in the usual English sense-- might be the key to right guidance in the 'road of poetry'.

And Ghalib didn't in any case show much respect to Khizr: consider the patronizing view of {159,6}, or the denunciation in {234,3}.