fareb-e .sa((nat-e iijaad kaa tamaashaa
dekh
nigaah ((aks-farosh-o-;xayaal aa))inah-saaz
1) {see / having seen} the spectacle of the deceit/beguilement
of the device/mystery/miracle of invention/creation
2) the gaze, a reflection-{seller/displayer}; and the thought, a mirror-maker
fareb : 'Deception, deceit, fraud, trick, duplicity, treachery, imposture, delusion, fallacy; allurement, beguilement, &c.''. (Platts p.780)
.san((at : 'Work, handiwork; art, craft, handicraft, trade, profession... ; a work of art; workmanship, skill (of a worker); make, work, manufacture, fabrication; a machine, engine; --a figure of speech; a mystery; miracle'. (Platts p.746)
iijaad : 'Creation, production; invention, contrivance'. (Platts p.112)
SETS == A,B; GENERATORS;
IZAFAT
GAZE: {10,12}
MIRROR: {8,3}
TAMASHA: {8,1}
Raza p. 231. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of ten verses, from which he chose five for publication in his divan. In the original ten-verse ghazal, this verse was the sixth one.
On the meaning of farosh as 'displayer', see Faruqi's commentary on {67,2}.
Here's an almost morbidly open-ended verse, with such wide meshes on all sides of its net that meanings are constantly slipping in and out. The first line offers us two readings for the verb: either an intimate imperative ('see!'), or a case of kar deletion ('having seen').
Then we have something that's either an out-and-out 'deceit, trick', or else a seductive, perhaps even participatory, 'allurement, beguilement'. (On the complexities of fareb , see {71,3}.) Next we have a 'device, mystery, miracle, figure of speech'-- a huge spectrum of possibilities. And finally we have 'creation, invention, contrivance', with its own rich range of meaning.
These three multivalent terms are joined by i.zaafat constructions, giving us the protean 'A of B of C'. The 'A of B' can mean either the A that is B, or the A that causes B, or the A that is caused by B, or the A that pertains to B in some other, unspecified manner. When we add on the similar permutations of the 'B of C', it becomes possible to create a very large chart of readings of this single phrase.
Then the second line takes a classic 'list' tack: 'A B and C D'. For detailed discussion of such lists, with examples, see {4,4}. We might read the list as 'A is B and C is D', or 'A becomes B and C becomes D', or 'A would be B and C would be D', or simply 'A and B and C and D'. (There could theoretically be an i.zaafat construction joining each pair, but no source gives these, and I think they'd weaken the 'list' effect without strengthening the verse in any other way.)
Depending on the multifarious choices we make about the first line, different ones of these possibilities would leap to the mind. For example, 'having seen' a certain kind of spectacle, perhaps as a result 'A becomes B and C becomes D'. Or else we're urged to 'see' a certain kind of spectacle-- 'A is B and C is D'! Or perhaps the whole 'spectacle' is a mere 'deceit'-- in reality, we can't take any of it seriously, and 'A and B and C and D' are all illusory shells that are shuffled in a shell-game. And so on and so on, as long as you care to play the game.
Gyan Chand:
In this verse is a philosophical illusion [maayaa]-- [as in the second line of] {141,7}. This is not a world of [real] beings, it is a deceit/beguilement of our inventive temperament. Thought has made a mirror, and the gaze is creating reflections. Otherwise, in reality nothing exists in the world. (213)