aatish-e muu-e dimaa;G-e shauq hai teraa tapaak
varnah ham kis ke hai;N ay daa;G-e tamannaa aashnaa
1) it's the fire of the 'nose-hair' of ardor, your
heat
2) otherwise, of whom {are we / would we be}, oh wound of longing, a friend?
SETS == GROTESQUERIE; IDIOMS; VARNAH
Raza p. 225. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of eleven verses, from which he chose six for publication in his divan. In the original eleven-verse ghazal, this verse was the second one.
If you're surprised at this meaning of dimaa;G , see {11,2} for discussion.
Here's a really classic case of grotesquerie! It makes me wish for more commentators, to see what they would have made of it. Both Gyan Chand and Steingass discreetly define muu-e dimaa;G only in general terms, as someone or something unpleasant or distasteful. But it seems to be an idiomatic use of an expression with the clear literal meaning of 'nose-hair'.
To paraphrase Gyan Chand, it seems that the burning heat of the wound of longing is a fire that destroys the 'nose-hair' of ardor-- that is, it burns up whatever is annoying and bothersome and distasteful to ardor. Thus the speaker says: oh wound of longing, if I'm not your friend, then whose friend am I (or, would I be)?
In the previous verse, {42,7x}, the lover's one friend was 'friendlessness'; here, with much less piquancy, it's a hot and burning wound. I can't see much real connection between the two lines, other than the vague idea of heat and fire. Disappointingly, it doesn't even do anything special with dimaa;G . By Ghalibian standards, it seems pretty ho-hum. Perhaps for the original audience, the enjoyable shock of encountering that particular idiom was enough to energize the whole verse.
Gyan Chand:
A muu-e dimaa;G is someone who would be rejected and excluded from company. And shauq is passion. The aatish-e muu-e dimaa;G-e shauq is that which terminates pursuits and activities that take one away from passion. Since the enemy of an enemy is a friend, the fire that burns displeasing hairs will be pleasing. The daa;G-e tamannaa is the wound of longing, that obviously befell after failure in love. Whether in love there's success or failure, union or separation, it definitely makes one indifferent to the affairs of the world. We were not friends with anyone; but, oh wound of longing, in the path of ardor you burned up all the obstacles that were hindering us. Thus we've been pleased with your heat/exuberance. (104)