bar-ham hai bazm-e ;Gunchah bah yak junbish-e nashaa:t
kaashaanah baskih tang hai ;Gaafil havaa nah maa;Ng
1) the gathering of the bud is overturned/disordered with a single movement/quiver of growing/exultation
2) {although / since / while / to such an extent} the house is narrow/vexed, {heedlessly / heedless one}, don't ask for a breeze/desire
bar-ham : 'Confused, jumbled together, turned upside down or topsy-turvy, entangled, spoiled; offended, angry, vexed, enraged, sullen'. (Platts p.150)
junbish : 'Moving, movement, motion; shake, vibration, trembling; agitation; gesture'. (Platts p.391)
nashaa:t : 'Growing; being produced; springing up, appearing; —anything growing, or produced; —a product; a creation; —a creature'. (Platts p.1139)
nashaa:t : 'Liveliness, sprightliness, cheerfulness, gladness, glee, joy, pleasure, exultation, triumph'. (Platts p.1139)
kaashanah : 'A small house; a house, dwelling, edifice'. (Platts p.801)
tang : 'Contracted, straitened, confined, strait, narrow, tight; wanting, scarce, scanty, stinted, barren; distressed, poor, badly off; distracted, troubled, vexed; dejected, sad, sick (at heart)'. (Platts p.340)
havaa : 'Air, wind, gentle gale;... —a gas; —affection, favour, love, mind, desire, passionate fondness; lust, carnal desire, concupiscence; —an empty or worthless thing'. (Platts p.1239)
SETS == A,B; BASKIH
GATHERINGS: {6,3}
HOME: {14,9}
Raza p. 147. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of nine verses, from which he chose two for publication in his divan. In the original nine-verse ghazal, this verse was the fifth one.
And now, after the previous less than thrilling verse, here's a real winner-- one that truly should have been included in the published divan. I can't think why Gyan Chand omits it from his commentary, unless by accident.
The verse revolves like a wheel on spokes provided by several excellently multivalent words: nashaa:t ('growing; liveliness'); tang ('narrow; vexed'); and havaa ('breeze, desire, trifle'); see the definitions above.
The basic image of the bud as 'narrow' and tight is an obvious one, and invites the metaphorical extension of 'vexed, dejected'. By contrast, as the bud shows 'growth' and/or 'liveliness', it expands into a bloom that is 'smiling' or 'laughing', as though it had attained its 'desire'. But its time of flowering is so brief as to be really an antechamber to its death: the 'breeze' then scatters the withered petals around the garden. Then, the idea of the bud's giving a party or 'gathering' invites the metaphorical extension of the bud to a person; the idea of the 'narrow' or oppressive 'house' evokes all the metaphors of the body as the inadequate house or home of the spirit.
But the axle at the center of the whole wheel of possibilities is the wonderfully exploited multivalence of baskih ; for more on this, see {13,5}. Just look at the possibilities of the second line:
| =although =whereas =to such an extent |
the house/bud/body is |
=narrow =vexed =dejected |
=heedlessly =heedless one |
don't ask for a | =breeze =desire |
There are really so many readings that it hardly feels worthwhile to start ringing the changes on them. But the chief point, the great Ghalibian miracle, is that every single permutation will attach itself in its own elegant way to the first line. to make its own unique and particular kind of connection.
For of course it's also an 'A,B' verse, in which we're left to figure out for ourselves how the two lines fit together. Do they both describe the same situation? Does one of them follow from the other? Do they describe similar situations? Do they describe contrasting situations? Ghalib has laid out the buffet, but we have to decide for ourselves how to arrange the delicacies on our plates.
Gyan Chand:
[From his treatment of this ghazal, pp. 240-42, he omits this verse.]