Ghazal 20, Verse 7

{20,7}

;Gam agarchih jaa;N-gusil hai pah kahaa;N bache;N kih dil hai
;Gam-e ((ishq gar nah hotaa ;Gam-e rozgaar hotaa

1) although grief is life-destroying, how would we escape, since/while there is a heart?

2a) if there were not the grief of passion, there would be the grief of {livelihood / the world}
2a) if it were not the grief of passion, it would be the grief of {livelihood / the world}

Notes:

rozgaar : 'Service, employ, situation, business; earning, livelihood; --the world; fortune; age, time, season'. (Platts p.605)

Nazm:

== Nazm page 21

Bekhud Dihlavi:

That is, the presence of grief is necessary and indispensable to the heart. (43)

Bekhud Mohani:

If there were not the grief of passion, there would be grief of the world (grief of the glory and luxury of the world). Be grateful that the grief of passion was bestowed on you. (50)

Baqir:

In any case, the grief of passion is a piece of luck. Because if it didn't exist, then we'd be absorbed in a whole world-full of griefs; now there's only the single grief of passion. (73)

Arshi:

Compare {16,5}. (187)

FWP:

SETS == KIH; REPETITION
SOUND EFFECTS: {26,7}

Some divan editions reverse two words: instead of kahaa;N bache;N they have bache;N kahaa;N (as in fact Hamid does). Also, some divans (including Hamid's) have agar instead of gar . As always, I follow Arshi.

The internal rhyme at the quasi-caesura in the first line, and the repetition of hotaa in the same position in the second line, makes the verse feel very fluent, with excellent flowingness.

Arshi rightly points out that {16,5} is a key verse for comparison. As in that verse, the question arises here too: is there a conversion (2a), or a replacement (2b), of griefs? Does one single grief haunt us to the grave and destroy our life, and merely change its shape under different conditions? Or do we have sufficient leeway to actually eliminate one grief and replace it with another? (Or maybe this replacement process happens involuntarily?) Would there ever be a time when we no longer have a heart, and are thus free of both kinds of grief? The clever use of kih , which can suggest 'while' as well as 'because', does seem to open that possibility.

And then, there's the excellently chosen rozgaar (see the definition above). Is the grief of passion being opposed to the grief of dailiness, of earning a livelihood, or to the grief of the whole world, the whole age? Needless to say, the answer can be any or all of the above. There are so many kinds of grief, and so many interconnections among them-- various transmutations are possible, but none will ease the deadliness of grief, or its inescapability for anyone who has a heart. More examples of the evocative use of rozgaar : {16,5}; {41,6}; {187,5x}. Ghalib also uses ;Gamhaa-e rozgaar in a letter: {189,8}.