taa kih tujh par khule i((jaaz-e havaa-e
.saiqal
dekh barsaat me;N sabz aa))ine kaa ho jaanaa
1a) so that the wonder/miracle of the desire for polishing
would {'open' / be revealed} to you
1b) so that the wonder/miracle of the cleansing/polishing air would {'open'
/ be revealed} to you
2) look at, during the rainy season, the becoming green/grey of the mirror
i((jaaz : 'Disappointment; wonder, astonishment, amazement, surprise, a miracle'. (Platts p.60)
;havaa : 'Air, atmosphere, ether, the space between heaven and earth;... --affection, favour, love, mind, desire, passionate fondness; lust, carnal desire, concupiscence;--an empty or worthless thing'. (Platts p.1239)
.saiqal : 'A polisher, furbisher; (in Hind. and Persian) polishing, polish, cleaning (arms or tools); furbishing; --a polishing instrument'. (Platts p.747-48)
sabz : 'Green, verdant; fresh; flourishing; raw, unripe; grey-coloured or iron-grey (a horse); of a bluish hue; black, dark'. (Platts p.632)
Nazm:
In the rainy season, verdigris [zangaar] develops on a metal mirror-- as if it's greenery which the cleansing air has created.... The conclusion is that ardor is something that has an effect even on metal. (44)
Hasrat:
The poet's point is that nowadays the miracle of desire has increased to such a degree that in desire [havaa] too the same effect and miraculous power has come to exist, as is in the real air [havaa]. (47)
Bekhud Dihlavi:
From the air of the rainy season, verdigris [zang] appears on a metal mirror. Mirza Sahib says, by way of an example, that the effect of the spring season is apparent not only in the garden and the wilderness, but rather, even a metal mirror is influenced by it. The meaning is that one ought to find rest and enjoyment in the air of spring. (86-87)
Bekhud Mohani:
Solution 1: If you want to see the miracle-working power of the air of spring, then look how in the rainy season even a metal mirror becomes green. That is, the spring air is something that has the power not only to bring about growth in plants, and vitality in animals, and enthusiasm and increased beauty in humans. Rather, even a hard thing like metal is not deprived of its benefit and effect-- the color of spring has overspread it too.
Number 2: The longing to create color and form afresh, and the desire for a renewal of ardor, show us miracles. If you want to understand this problem, then take a look at a metal mirror. In the rainy season, verdigris [zang] runs over it so that it will again shine brightly after polishing. (110)
Faruqi:
Because the polisher is in the capacity of the beloved or the desired one, and the polisher gives attention to the mirror only when it is covered with verdigris [zang], the mirror, because of its intensity of emotion, makes itself verdigris-covered. It's impossible to do sufficient justice to this 'delicacy of thought'....
The polishing done by spring is that greenness that silently appears and fills in brownness, colorlessness, the ugly earth, with greenness. The polishing breeze has such an intensity of effect that even the metal polish-marks of the mirror can't help but be affected by it, and the mirror too becomes green. The simile of greenery for polish-marks on metal Ghalib has used elsewhere: {217,2}....
Anyway, let's now consider the wordplay [in both verses of the verse-set, this one and {48,9}, taken together]: glory/appearance and spectacle; rose and color; eye and color;...color and the greenness of the mirror; eye and mirror; rose (red flower) and a green color; an open eye and seeing; and the delight on top of delight is that one is being invited to look at a green mirror-- that is, a mirror in which nothing can be seen. And instead of looking into a mirror, one is asked to look at the mirror. The glory/appearance of the rose and the spring;... spectacle and look. In short, it's a mirror-chamber in which the mind loses itself. (61)
FWP:
GAZE: {10,12}
MIRROR: {8,3}
This verse marks the end of a two-verse verse-set that includes {48,9-10}; for discussion, see {48,9}. The two verses are united by their emphasis on the importance of seeing nature-- with, of course, the right kind of revelatory vision.
This is another of Ghalib's many 'mirror' verses. For further discussion of verdigris on mirrors, see {47,1}. For more on the 'rainy season', see {48,7}.
Faruqi explicates first (1a), then (1b), showing how havaa-e .saiqal can be read with remarkable sophistication and effectiveness in both senses. (The passages here are excerpted from a longer discussion; as always, he is well worth reading in the original.) If we read 'desire for polishing', we have the mirror as an ardent lover, doing anything necessary to solicit the beloved's attention, no matter how harsh or painful the form that attention will take. And if we read 'cleansing air', we have the radiant greenness of the rainy season showing its creative, revitalizing power-- even on a metal mirror. (For more on havaa , see {8,3}.)
Truly, it's a marvelous verse. The two readings of the first line are so striking, and so strikingly different, and yet they both work most remarkably with the second line. Here is Ghalib being Ghalib.
The meaning of i((jaaz as 'disappointment', which presumably comes from the root meaning of ((ajz , 'to lack strength', is one that I've never encountered; and the only other time in the divan that the word appears, in {208,2}, the sense is certainly 'miracle, wonder'. But if we do take 'disappointment' as a secondary meaning in the present verse, that too-- such is the 'miracle' of Ghalib's word-sense-- works elegantly with the second line. For the greening or greying of the mirror can just as readily signify a failure, a weakness, a disappointment of desire, as it can signal a passionate desire for polishing, or the verdant 'greening' of springtime.
Though it doesn't insist on it, the verse also offers a double instance of 'elegance in assigning a cause'. Did you think you knew why mirrors go green in the rainy season? Well, think again-- here are two new causes, both of them witty and revelatory.