.zu((f-e junuu;N ko vaqt-e tapish dar bhii
duur thaa
ik ghar me;N mu;xta.sar-saa bayaabaa;N .zaruur thaa
1) to the weakness of madness, in the time of 'heat'/agitation/distress,
even/also the door was far away
2a) in a single/mere/unique house, there certainly/necessarily was a compressed-ish
desert
2b) in a single/mere/unique house, a compressed-ish desert was necessary/unavoidable
2c) in the house, there certainly/necessarily was a single/mere/unique compressed-ish
desert
2d) in the house, a single/mere/unique compressed-ish desert was necessary/unavoidable
tapish : 'Heat, warmth; distress (esp. that caused by heat); affliction; agitation; palpitation'. (Platts p.309)
ek : 'One, single, sole, alone, only, a, an; the same, identical; only one; a certain one; single of its kind, unique, singular, preëminent, excellent'. (Platts p.113)
mu;xta.sar : 'Abridged, curtailed, abbreviated, contracted; concise; small'. (Platts p.1011)
.zaruur : 'Necessary, needful, requisite, expedient; urgent; unavoidable, indispensable, essential, imperative, &c.; --urgently; certainly, assuredly, of course; without fail; absolutely; peremptorily'. (Platts p.749)
SETS == EK; GENERATORS;
MIDPOINTS
DESERT: {3,1}
HOME: {14,9}
MADNESS: {14,3}
Raza p. 224; Raza p. 225. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of eight verses, from which he chose two for publication in his divan. In the original eight-verse ghazal, this verse was the first one.
What a brilliant, enjoyable, truly Ghalibian verse, and how remarkable that it's not in the published divan! The second line, so simple in appearance, turns out to be almost encyclopedic in its complexity. Part of the work is done by ik , with its range of meaning from the belittling to the eulogistic (see the definition above)-- and with its positioning at the start of the line, so that it can perfectly well modify either 'house' or 'desert'. Thus the verse is either belittling or praising either the house (is it 'only' a 'mere' house, or is it a 'unique' and 'singular' house?) or the desert (is a 'compressed-ish' desert merely a pallid, inferior imitation of a desert, or something more intense and powerful than a normal desert?).
But an even more elaborate part of the work is done by .zaruur , which (as the definition above reminds us) has not only the adverbial meaning ('certainly, necessarily') that we first think of, but also the adjectival meaning ('necessary, indispensable') for which nowadays we'd use .zaruurii . And even more piquantly, we have to ask, necessary for whom? or necessary for what? Necessary for the speaker's happiness? Necessary for his full expression of his misery? Necessary in the sense of 'unavoidable, inescapable'-- that is, not desirable, but inevitable? Necessary for the fulfillment of fate or destiny?
Gyan Chand:
The claim of the restlessness of madness was that one would run off into the wilderness and move around there. But the state of weakness was such that it seemed difficult to go even as far as the door. It was necessary [.zaruurii] that right inside the house there would be a smallish desert where in the time of agitation one would have moved around!
By this the poet does not mean that if because of weakness he couldn't go even up to the doorway, then in some manner he can contrive a desert in the midst of the house. Perhaps it might be that it's not for movement that he needs the desert; rather, only for desolation and solitariness, so that madness would be able to have a familiar atmosphere. (99)