;xvush uuftadagii kih bah .sa;hraa-e inti:zaar
juu;N jaadah gard-e rah se
nigah surmah-saa karuu;N
1) what a fine fallenness/wretchedness! {since / in that / while} in/with/through the desert/wilderness of waiting
2) like a path, from/with the dust of the road I would make the gaze collyrium-ish
uuftaadagii is an archaic (and metrically convenient) spelling of uftaadagii .
uftaadah : 'Fallen, lying flat or horizontally; lying waste or untilled (land); poor, wretched, helpless'. (Platts p.61)
inti:zaar : 'Expecting, waiting (anxiously); looking out; expectation; expectancy'. (Platts p.87)
SETS == BAH; KIH; MIDPOINTS
DESERT: {3,1}
GAZE: {10,12}
ROAD: {10,12}
Raza p. 151; Raza p. 152. S. R. Faruqi's choices. Ghalib originally composed a ghazal of nine verses, from which he chose one for publication in his divan. In the original nine-verse ghazal, this verse was the fourth one.
Now after a couple of somewhat uninspired verses, suddenly we are in real Ghalib-land. The structure of this verse resembles that of {84,2x}-- but what a difference in the degree of the connection!
Here we have the wordplay of the gaze-- it's long and straight like a path, in an image that evokes {10,12}. And in, or through, or with, the 'wilderness of waiting' (which of course has the root of na:zar ), just as the beloved's gaze emerges from collyrium-rimmed eyes, the speaker's gaze will emerge from eyes rimmed with the dust of the road. Perhaps road-dust too will have the attractive, soothing, anti-glare properties of collyrium (on collyrium in general see {44,1}); but even if it doesn't, it will be an appropriate cosmetic for the eyes of a true lover.
But then, the range of possible senses of kih is multiplied by the possibilities of bah , so that as so often, it's left up to us how to put it all together.
Then when we get to the second line, there's that juu;N jaadah . But exactly who or what is 'like a path'? Here are some possibilities:
=the way the road itself is dusty-- my eyes would be dusty in the same way
=the way the path is constantly gazing off into the distance, looking out for you, waiting for you-- I would look out in the same way
=the way the path makes its gaze collyrium-ish with dust-- I too would do the same
=the way the path makes a 'gaze' for itself out of a long, thin cloud of agitated dust-particles-- I too would make such a gaze for myself
=the way the path lies fallen and prostrate amidst the 'wilderness of waiting'-- I too would lie fallen that way
And of course these aren't mutually exclusive possibilities either. The verse's clever construction means that the adverbial phrase juu;N jaadah is what I call a 'midpoint', with possibilities of being inserted at different points in the grammar of the verse, to modify different actions. Not bad for a nineteen-year-old poet.
Gyan Chand:
How good is that weakness/helplessness, that in the forest of waiting I would keep my gaze continually fixed on the road! In my eyes the dust of the road would adhere like collyrium, and from this dust my gaze would become as collyrium-ishly dust-mixed as a road is. That is, in waiting for the beloved we sit beside the road, and are flinging dust [on our head]. We have no control over our state. The beloved's coming is not a matter within our power, but the dust of the beloved's path has become collyrium for our eyes. (258-59)